Nemesis - Book 3 of the Hunted series.

Epilogue

I spent all the afternoon in the nursery with the babies, Nick and Jeremy showed up some time later that afternoon after someone thought to tell him that I was awake. They were smiling now, all three of them, and there was something incredible about having three new lives look at you and greet you with the first real smile you'd ever seen on them. Not the 'I'm going to poo' smile or the 'I've got gas' smile. A real smile.

Not just that but Lily and Susie had the exact same shade of blue in their eyes. Sure, this might change tomorrow, but right now I loved it. Blue eyes and nearly black hair. I wondered if it'd go light like Matt's hair had or if it'd stay dark. Dominic's eyes were brown now, dark brown, his own hair much lighter brown than his sister's dark hair.

Jeremy did his best to be as excited about this as I was, I knew, but I also knew from experience with my own sister that usually the only ones who saw every achievement as a miracle were the parents themselves. As I cooed and boasted about how much they'd grown, how Dominic had easily outgrown his sisters so fast, Jeremy checked me over.

"Jeremy? Did Nick tell you about me then?"

Jeremy nodded as he checked my eyes, pulse, before sliding backwards. "He told everyone about you. Unlike Clayton, who seemed to know better to keep quiet..."

"Would you have let me come here?"

"Maybe after some time. Not after four days." Jeremy's lips twitched slightly. "Clayton thought Nick had gone a little mad when he called me wanting to tell you what he was. Nick got pretty angry at Clayton about falling for Elena, after all, and there he was suddenly boasting about his woman..." Smile deepened somewhat. "Antonio called it a mid life crisis."

"The family secret." Nick called from the chair beside the cradles, teasing one of the triplets with a toy, the arms waving at it, Lily telling him exactly what she thought of this in her own way. "What do you think? Would you have believed it?"

"I believe in aliens so probably." I stroke Dominic's soft hair, admiring the light strands, his brown eyes fixed on Jeremy as Jeremy held onto Susie. The problem with these three was that if one baby had something, the three of them got upset if they didn't have it. This was extending to physical contact. Maybe it was because they'd been so close to each other in the womb, I didn't know, I wasn't an expert on that. "After I asked you questions."

"About silver bullets and the full moon?" Nick asked.

"And what you looked like."

"I'll show you that later." Nick winked.

Jeremy leaned back on the ground when he was satisfied I seemed to have come through it safely. He stroked Susie's head, gently, gazing down at her without hiding his affection. "Are you up for a run tonight, Anne?"

"When Matt comes home, yeah."

"There's something else. Both of you can hear it now." Jeremy glanced at Nick behind him then back to me. "I had to check what I could use on you while you were asleep."

"Fair enough."

"So I had to find out if you were pregnant."

"Pregnant?"

"Did Nick tell you what that website was about?"

When I frowned, he sighed, shot Nick a look, who held up his hands. Jeremy shifted closer. "The Alpha videotaped what he did to you. Several of the things. Put them on a website, mutts were paying a few hundred dollars per video to access it, and he offered a few other women's ...videos. The last video he offered was of... artificially inseminating."

I felt sick suddenly. "Are you sure?" But even as I asked it, I remembered that disgusting stuff, that smell, and that 'oh, that was just to freak me out' denial.