Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

#Chapter 219 – Missing

“Come on, mama,” Alvin says, tugging at my hand and leading me towards the broken-down old house.

“Alvin,” I hiss, pulling him back. “We can’t go in there – it’s a ruin –“

He frowns at me, confused. “Mama,” he says, “the forest brought us to this house. Don’t you think it wants us to go in?”

I screw up my face at him, looking around at the forest. All my anger from yesterday is gone – drained from me. The questions…well, they’re still there. I certainly want answers. But I’m starting to suspect, really, that what tipped me over into anger in the first place yesterday was the forest.

The magic of this place might be mostly invisible to me, but it’s certainly working its will in its own mysterious ways.

“I don’t know if I trust this forest anymore, Alvin,” I say, looking down at him with concern. “I mean, it just separated us from your dad and your brother. How do we know that it’s friendly?”

“Can’t you feel it, mama?” Alvin asks, giving my hand a squeeze. Then he closes his eyes and smiles, breathing deeply from his nose as if he’s refreshed. “I just know it’s good.” He opens his eyes and his smile broadens. “If you can’t feel it, then you just have to trust me.”

“But why,” I say, frowning down at him. “I mean, I trust you, but why would the magic want to separate us from your dad and Ian?”

Alvin just shrugs at me. “Maybe we needed to be separated.”

I sigh, then, and let him pull me towards the house.

The steps at the front look about ready to crack as I put my feet on the first one, but I’m surprised, in the end, when it bears my weight steadily without even a creak. Encouraged, Alvin hops up the stairs, happy and excited.

I fight my fears, then, and insist upon opening the door first, not willing to let my child be the one on the front lines.

“Hello?” I call, looking into the room. No one – and no thing – answers me.

Instead…

air, sniffing, my wolf’s senses taking over. My

savory, with a hint of spice

eating regularly this whole expedition,

house. “We can’t walk into someone’s house,”

little bit. These boys – they were getting a little two saucy for me as they approached 7. “Mama, there’s

exclaim. I mean, soul-level connections, sharing life forces, ghosts in the forest – all that I can accept. But a magical breakfast laid out for us in the woods? Somehow, for some reason, that pushed it too

the air. Then, he pokes

internally that we didn’t bring our backpacks with us in our dream state. It was eat whatever this

dashes forward, then, and I stop worrying that there’s anyone in the house. Primarily because I can see the whole thing as we enter – it’s just a one-room cabin, but also because I’m starting to believe my son when he

as we came up the steps and could have sworn I saw cobwebs, and broken furniture, and rotted wood. But now, inside? It’s cozy. The wood that lines the room is warm and rich. The

And the table…

what he sees there, and I admit that my mouth falls open when I see it. Everything I could want for breakfast, everything meal I’ve

grandmother made me when I was a little girl, and which I

off of this and

I say, an eyebrow raised, tossing the muffin between my hands. “That’s what you want

and a spoon from the edge of the table. “I had a craving. The magic said

lot of mythology as a kid that said that the one thing you’re not supposed to do when you enter another realm is to eat the food. That you’ll be stuck there forever if you

at me with eyes too wise for his six years, “maybe to get to the other side, you have to keep going deeper.” He picks up a cookie and holds it out

his hand, giving him a little bitter

stew into his bowl. “What does that

down at the table and beginning