Katya'sPOV
My Graduation and Promise Ceremony audience was inundated with my siblings. Honestly, my parents were worse than rabbits, if that's even possible. It turned out, baby number seven, was actually babies seven and eight—much to my, and Zo's, disgust. Twins. Identical. Sisters. Like the rest of us, they were adorable but complete handfuls. At the start of this school year Mom and Dad had introduced the world to impossible Belikovs nine, ten, and eleven. ELEVEN! Two brothers and a sister. I don't even know why my mother bothers to try being a Guardian anymore—she's constantly barefoot, pregnant, and chasing crawlers or toddlers or both! I know we constantly joked about being an army, but that didn't mean they had to go and literally create an army of indestructible dhampir!! At the rate they were going, I'd be having my first kid when they were barely starting to stop having my siblings!
"Mom!" I groaned when she waddled her six month pregnant self up to me when we were released.
"Shut up Katy," she mumbled while pulling me into a sibling-hindered hug. "Congratulations baby." When we pulled apart, I noticed my mother was crying. My strong, loving, tough, takes-no-shit, notorious, in-our-textbooks Head Guardian Rosemarie Hathaway (now Belikov) was in tears.
"I love you, Momma," I whispered as I pulled her into another hug. "I really do." I didn't know what else to do or say. I had rarely seen or heard or heard of my mother crying like this, let alone so publicly.
"I love you too, Katya; I just can't believe the day's here already!"
I darted my eyes up to meet my dad's pleadingly—please help me out here Dad!
"Come now, Roza; let's give her some space—I'm sure the other babies want to congratulate their big sister..." Dad's eyes met mine with a promise to give me a 'congratulations' chat and hug later. Mine narrowed, promising trouble at training in the morning if he didn't make good on that promise.
After being flooded with celebratory comments from my crazy siblings and cousins (biological and honorary), my mentor (I suppose, now ex-mentor) Guardian Holden Andersen approached, his eyes teeming with unbridled emotions I had never noticed before. And it was in that moment I finally understood. My parents' relationship made complete and utter sense. I knew how my mother had fallen for my older father when she was only seventeen. I understood what had been building between Holden and myself slowly but surely since he'd first been appointed as my mentor three years ago. I comprehended why we worked so well together. Then I remembered that this may be the last few hours I had with him before we were both assigned; thanks to my mother and Aunt Lissa, it was almost guaranteed that I would be assigned to Court, but Holden could be sent anywhere in the world and I may never see him again... and the mere thought alone of being so far away from him for any length of time brought an ache to my chest I had never felt before and a nervousness in my soul that I couldn't handle. Before I could lose my nerve, I grabbed his hand and towed him out into the woods—almost to the wards—and as soon as I knew my parents wouldn't be taking a stroll down memory lane anywhere close, I said the three most daring and risqué words I may ever utter.
I met his gorgeous, soulful, and currently adorably confused green eyes, ensuring complete clarity in my request—well, demand almost. "Kiss me, already!"
And he did, completely, unhesitatingly. Our mouths danced and battled just as beautifully and powerfully as our bodies did when we sparred. Sparks flew between us and my soul lit up like a bonfire. My chest exploded with emotions I hadn't realised were locked away. Now I understood why my parents could not stop touching whenever they were off-duty, why they spent their nights ripping off each other's clothes. I never wanted to stop kissing Holden, never wanted to break contact with him, never wanted him out of my sight. I didn't realise how much I took his safety and presence here at the Academy for granted.
Reluctantly, we barely released each other's lips in order to catch our breath. Panting, I asked, "Why didn't you say anything earlier," truely curious as to how he could leave me so ignorant to my own naïveté.
"Because I didn't want to ruin or complicate what we had." Holden was as breathless as I was, but his voice clearly conveyed his intensity and honesty. His eyes bore into mine before he continued. "I rather have had you as my student than not have you directly involved in my life ever."
I swallowed, overcome with emotion. "I can't lose you," I murmured quietly, hardly speaking at all. "I can't ever lose you, Holden!" I shifted my gaze from his to where our bodies met chest to chest, fighting back tears.
"Hey, Kay," he crooned gently, one of his arms unwrapping from my waist so he could tip my chin up. "No tears, baby girl—please...."
His liquid honey voice drew my eyes back up to meet his smouldering gaze. "What about your reassignment? I'm sure Mom's going to give you to Molinda!" Molinda was my oldest cousin on Mom's side, her niece; Lissa and Christian's daughter who was only a year younger than me. Holden being assigned to her was a best-case scenario. If it wasn't for the fact that my siblings and I had our own magic and were targeted by Strigoi just as much as we were feared by them, Lissa and Mom woduld have conspired to assign all of us to all of us to Lissa's kids. Instead, they conspired to have us assigned us to Court!
The ass smirked. "No," he whispered theatrically. "I made a direct request with your mother to be transferred to Court. I'm not quite sure what she made of it, but she seemed open to the possibility...."
My heart skipped more than one beat before practically sprinting in my chest. I gulped, searching his eyes and face for any hint of sarcasm. And found none. Utter seriousness. My barely returned breath caught in my throat. Hope surged through my veins. "God," I moaned, "I hope she does... now kiss me again!" I begged.
Our lips met once again and nothing else mattered to me anymore. I didn't care he'd just been released from the chains of being my mentor. I didn't care that he was five years older than me. I didn't care that my mother had been right that I'd fall for my mentor just as she had. I didn't care that my parents would have quite a lot to say about the matter. I didn't care what society thought or said. I didn't care that my neck only bore my Promise Mark yet his also held battle scars. Only he mattered. Only this moment mattered. Only the fact that I love him more than anything else mattered. Only the fact that we could be together mattered.
Fifteen months later I had another sister—making the thirteenth child of Rose and Dimitri Belikov. Said sister indeed arrived after my own first child. My father nearly castrated Holden after we'd told them that, three months after we started dating, we were expecting our first child. Mom had been surprisingly accepting and embraced the major shift with open arms—literally. Dad had played the 'bad cop' for months afterwards. He hadn't yet adjusted to my relationship with Holden in the first place, then he had to deal with an expecting daughter. That didn't, however, stop him from fathering my twelfth sibling. When he held his granddaughter for the first time, he cried, absolutely overcome. In that moment I knew that as long as Holden Andersen was her father and Dimitri Belikov was her grandfather, my daughter was the luckiest and most protected little girl to ever be born in our society. No harm would ever come to her. Ever. There were too many guardians in her family.