Hey everyone, this has been an amazing journey thank you all so much. I wanted to let everyone know that Golden Bonds has been entered into the Watty's awards for 2017. Apparently this year it is not based on judges, it's all about numbers. So if you love this story as much as I do then please vote, comment and share.
I love you all so much and thank you for making this experience absolutely wonderful.
Lots and lots of love.
NJ Kuhr
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO infinity
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Six Years Later
Theodore was standing in the edge of the lake with the pant legs of his Sunday slacks rolled up to his thigh. The water breaking just below his knees soaked the cuffs but I didn't mind; Theo was not the one whose clothes I had to replace on a regular basis. He was bent over looking at tadpoles with one eye peeking through the lens of the water telescope he and Bash made for his science project.
My little nerd loved science, anything to do with animals, especially marine biology. We'd gotten him a huge fish tank for Christmas last year and didn't even need to remind him to clean it out or feed the fish. He loved taking care of his own little ecosystem. I hated the smell but luckily the boys had their own rooms downstairs. Though being twins they often slept in each other's rooms. We never could get them to sleep apart.
We tore down the wall between their bedrooms and built a spaceship to separate the rooms. Complete with secret tunnels, a bulbous porthole that opened up outside they could sit in, a skylight for stargazing, a control room and slides at either end that dumped them in one room or the other.
Theo's room was always organized and clean. With posters of microorganisms and whales in frames, he picked out the theme himself. He showed every sign of being an Omega. He was calm, reassuring, always offering to help out. He had a calming influence that his twin brother..... Well, Zeek inspired anything but calm.
"Zeek, I swear to the Moon if you crawl out any further on that limb I'm going to make you do Theodore's chores for a week." I hollered at him, closing the diary I was reading. He was already much higher in the tree than I was comfortable with but Bash was in the tree too so it wasn't like I could blame Zeek. Sending a low growl through our bond to my mate I warned him I wasn't happy, which was charmingly ignored much to my annoyance.
"Moooomm." Zeek growled back in that exasperated drawl that all kids somehow know without being taught. Grounding him never got him to stop and adding to his chores didn't either but making him do something his brother was supposed to do worked like a charm.
Balancing my bowl of fruit on my large swollen belly I contemplated getting up. Leaning back in the grass on a blanket though was mighty comfortable and rolling over in an effort to get to my knees so I could stand on my own felt like a lot of work. I'd also stopped wearing pants about two weeks into the second trimester and I wasn't about to flash my large pregnant ass at my children either.
"Don't Mom, me. You know better than to climb out that far. Do you want to spend another summer in a cast? You won't be able to play t-ball with the pack if you fall out of that tree and break something."
"UUUUUUUUUUhhhh." Was all I got from him but he stopped trying to get further out on the branch than it could support him. "Are we still going to build a treehouse?"
He sat down so fast my heart skipped as he dangled his legs over the side a good fifteen feet off the ground. Theo, who had stopped looking at tadpoles to watch his brother get in trouble, looked at me with excitement waiting for my answer.
"You know the deal. If you and your brother get all your chores done this week without getting into trouble we'll go to Denver this weekend."
Theo wasn't a problem but we tried not to single out Zeek when he hadn't gotten into trouble yet. Zeek's room on the other hand was always a question mark. He'd picked out a baseball theme but it was more like the aftermath of a tornado most days. "We're not leaving until both your rooms are clean."
Zeek fidgeted. "My room is clean."
Like I believed that. "My kind of clean or your kind of clean?" The dark look Theo gave his brother told me all I needed to know.
It was another reason we separated the boy's rooms with the play ship, stop them from fighting when Zeek got Theo's room dirty or messed up things. He might have the calming gentle nature of his mother but Theo also had Bash's OCD.
Zeek, however inherited my keen sense of mischief along with Bash's impeccable arguing abilities. If we weren't careful Zeek could convince us we were the ones who should be grounded and he had the right of it all along. He was either going to become an outstanding lawyer, unleash a curse upon us all, or take over the world. We weren't sure which. I'd spent plenty nights awake worrying about that very thing.
Sometimes I even dream of my boys in a hamster cage, Theo turning to his twin. 'What are we going to do tonight, Zeek?"
Zeek standing tall and proud. 'Same thing we do every night, Theo. Try to take over the world.' Then he kicks open the door to the hamster cage and wreaks havoc as people scream. After that I stopped watching cartoons with the boys, Pinky and the Brain was giving Zeek way too many ideas.
I rubbed my belly to comfort myself. Zeek was a good boy, sweet and kind even if he was reckless and spirited. I was going to go grey before I hit thirty.
"Can we go to Elitch?" Theo asked. Elitch Gardens was a theme park in Denver. One difficult thing about raising twins like my boys, it was hard to punish one without inadvertently punishing the other. Bash and I already knew the boys grades but it was too much fun to make Zeek sweat a little.
"When we get your report cards back from Ms. Shay." They already knew this but Shay hadn't given us their official end of school reports yet. "If you guys did well then we'll go to Elitch."
They were in kindergarten but we still expected them to get high grades and behave accordingly. They start first grade in the fall unless they're held back. Which they wouldn't be, they were both too smart for that but Bash and I agreed to teach them about the consequences of not getting good grades.
Zeek chewed on his lip a little and swung his feet nervously without looking at his brother who was giving him a scowl. If they didn't get to go to the theme park Theo knew it was going to be Zeek's fault. Theo was an overachiever.
Lucky for us we had a great private school teacher for the pack. Alek met his mate Shay a few years back when he went to Europe to assist the Alpha's transition into the public eye. Werewolves' made their breakout announcement to the world a few months after. Telling the humans that werewolves were real was a difficult transition but we'd been working with the government for months before to make it smoother.
Bash had spent so much time in DC that the twins and I went with him when he had extended stays. They were still babies at the time but Europe had struggled so Alek flew over to help out. Shay was a teacher and daughter of a Scottish Alpha.
He came home six months later mated with a headstrong she-wolf who fit right into the pack. I liked her immediately and the boys loved her accent. Unfortunately for Bash and Alek I now had a co-conspirator and they couldn't outvote me anymore. Ha ha ha.
The pack had homeschooled up until the point when Shay suggested she start a school of her own. At any given time she had maybe eight students but as more and more of the pack started sending their kids to her Gabriella and Trent got their education degrees online and helped out. Between the three of them they taught kindergarten through high school.
Zeek and Theo loved going to school and Shay kept us informed of their progress. Zeek had to be handled sternly but Theo was eager and helped out with his brother. They balanced one another. Without Zeek, Theo became quiet and shy, he'd stay in the background playing alone with his telescopes and fish. Zeek made him more charismatic and friendly. Theo kept Zeek out of the worst trouble, reminding him of what would happen if he was caught or got hurt.
Zeek was outgoing and cheerful. I had a feeling he wouldn't choose becoming a werewolf until later in his life. He loved sports and he was a good baseball player, if he stuck with he may even go pro one day.
So far werewolves were not allowed to play in pro sports, they had an unfair advantage which no one was arguing with. There were separate leagues for werewolves but they were small. Zeek would stay human and Theo would too. I was glad for it. I wanted them to have their lives.
My human life was taken from me before I was able to live out my dreams. Werewolves may be out in the public but it had its limitations. My boys would get to accomplish everything they wanted before they chose the change.
They had both passed kindergarten with high scores. Bash and I already planned on spending Saturday at Elitch riding roller coasters; well Bash was going to ride. I was about seven months pregnant so mostly I took pictures with the super nifty camera Bash bought me for my first birthday with the pack. Our house was full of photographs.
Sunday we would go to Home Depot and get supplies for the treehouse Bash had promised to build them before returning home. If we couldn't keep Zeek out of trees the best we could do was build him a secure place to play. Laurel had already set two broken arms, a sprained wrist and broken leg all courtesy of Zeek and they had only just turned six in March.
Theo collected his tadpoles and stalked out of the lake. The summer sun dried him off as he walked back to where I was laying in the shade. He set his specimens on the picnic basket and kneeled down to clean his telescope. He'd helped Alek with some of the yard work for extra cash so he could buy a specific tank to raise them in, sort of. Mostly Theo sat in Alek's lap while he mowed but Alek counted it as helping because he let Theo 'drive.'
He'd even set up a camera to keep track of the tadpole's progress and a recorder so he could keep notes until he got better at writing. They'd learned their letters but it wasn't until first grade that Shay and Gabby were going to really focus on reading and writing.
Sometimes Bash and I sat in silence outside his door when he didn't know we were there and listened to him talk into his recorder. His cute little scientist voice was very precise and observant. I made copies of all his recordings so we could listen to them when he got older.
"Mom." Theo looked at my bowl of fruit. "Can I have some grapes?"
"Absolutely, little man." I grabbed a handful. "Here open your mouth, you have frog slim all over your fingers."
He didn't object, just kept his dirty hands down and took a few grapes into his mouth. Chewing on them thoughtfully, he waited until he swallowed before asking me another question. "Do you think they'll grow into frogs?"
"If Zeek was trying to raise them, probably not," Theo laughed, one that shook his belly and made his eyes crinkle. It was one of my favorite sounds in the world. "but you take care of your beautiful fish every day. As long as you take care of the tadpoles the same way you take care of Mr. Bubbles and Flounder they'll be just fine. Though once they're frogs you need to release them back into the lake."
"Can I keep one of them?" He was looking into the petri dish at the little pods with tails swimming around.
I made a face which had him smiling. Why do boys love smelly things? "Why don't you want a puppy or a monkey? I'd even go for a rhino."
He wrinkled his nose and his resemblance to me was uncanny, except for the bright gold eyes. Theo was all sunlight, bright blond hair, tanned skin and his father's eyes.
"Frogs aren't like fish, they want to jump around and hop. Even if they live in the lake you can still visit them, they don't need to be in the house."
Now that he had his telescope cleaned and put away in its case with the tadpoles safely in his little cooler he got the wipes and hand sanitizer out of the beach bag. Once cleaned he settled down next to me and rested his little head on my belly.
I woke up to the sound of Zeek shrieking. At first it startled me awake but Theo was still sleeping curled up along my side. My heart steadied once I saw Bash and him on the dock. Bash had Zeek thrown over his shoulder about to jump in. I pulled up my camera just in time to get a great shot of the two of them midair before the splash blocked my view of them. I waited patiently though not all together unworried until their heads came back to the surface. I breathed again with they started splashing and wrestling around.
Based on the position of the sun it was about lunchtime. Without waking Theo I adjusted his sleeping form and pulled the picnic basket over so I could start making sandwiches. I knew it wouldn't be long before they joined us once the food was out.
Theo stirred when I started snacking on a bag of chips which was not surprising. Equally, not a shocker was that as soon as he started eating Zeek started running towards our shaded blanket. One thing that had never changed, some twin mind link would always tell one brother when the other brother had food. Not wanted to risk the other getting all the snacks, if I started feeding one the other showed up like magic. Boys.
Bash followed behind him and caught him just before his soaking wet little body could get the blanket drenched and tossed him up into the air. Zeek shrieked again and laughed. I tossed Bash a towel so he could dry them both off. "No little lake monsters on the blanket. That means both of you."
Once reasonably dry, Zeek sat next to his brother washing his hands before I handed him his plate. Bash crawled up next to me until he was lying on his side level with my shoulders rubbing my belly.
"How's our little girl?" Just like her mother, she couldn't resist responded to his voice. Every time he talked the baby moved, stretching and kicking. He set his hand just under my bra where she liked to curl up like a little Buddha and felt her feet kick.
"Opel was resting quietly until you got her going." I set my hand over his and rubbed trying to soothe her, wincing when she got me right in the rib.
Zeek patted my belly with a mouth full of sandwich. "When we go to Elitch are you and Opel going to ride the dragons with us."
"Don't talk with your mouth full." I gave him a look until he sealed his lips closed while he chewed on a bite much bigger than I liked. "No, sorry Monster. Pregnant mommies aren't allowed on rollercoasters."
"Awww." He grumbled but swallowed before he continued. "But Mom, you haven't done anything all day. You've just been lying down taking a nap."
Bash burst out laughing which he quickly tried to muffle when I smacked him on the back of the head. Before I could form a smart retort Theo came to the rescue.
"She's not doing nothing, Zeek. She's growing Opel's lungs inside her belly." The cute way he said lungs made me want to squeeze him until his eyes popped out of his head but I refrained.
That wiped the smirk off Bash's face when he looked down at my stomach in awe. Zeek just wrinkled his nose at his brother. Every week they had looked up what was going on with their little sister, following along her development and growth as it got closer and closer to the due date. This week her lungs were developing as she started learning how to breathe but I still had two months to go. However, growing an organ inside me for their baby sister was enough to impress Zeek and shut Bash up.
"Did you hear your son, Bash." I grinned at my mate. "I get to lie around and be lazy because I'm growing organs. What did you do today?"
He laughed. "I fell in love with my wife."
"Mmmhmm. That's what I thought. I love you too." I kissed him as the twins groaned grossed out. I looked at my boys, all three of them and smiled. Bash caught the look on my face and my emotions through the bond and without me even having to ask he set up my tripod and got the camera ready.
Setting the timer he rushed back to my side and set Theo on his shoulder with Zeek standing behind me with his arms around my shoulders and his cheek against mine. His dark raven hair a contrast to my own but our greens eyes were exactly the same.
This is going to be a great picture. I thought just as the shutter clicked.
The End.
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I'm not ready to say goodbye but its that time. I'm crying and need a glass of wine or a bottle. Cheers and Thank you for making this journey with Parker and Bash so incredible. I could not have done this without you guys. I've made soooooo many great Wattpad friends. This has been such a fun ride. Hopefully, I'll see you guys again and we can share another adventure together.
A special thanks to all of you who have been with me every step of the way. You make it all worth while. Thank you, thank you thank you for blowing up my phone with comments and feedback. I love when I finally find it and charge it that when the screen turns on I see nothing but Wattpad notifications for days. Its amazing.
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It has been a blast and I will miss this. But there are so many worlds to explore, hope to see you there.
MUAH!!! ❤️😍😚💋💋💋