Chapter 409
Lanie
I knew parenting would be hard, but I’d never imagined facing anything like this. I hugged Ste hard
again. “This isn’t exactly like helping you with your homework.”
To my relief, sheughed. The sound of it rang round the room like a chorus of bells. Something in it
lifted my spirits, not the way she’d been doing to manipte her father’s mood, but with clear and
simple joy we all shared. In that moment, I had my own sh of the future, one in which all of us were
all right.
No more danger. Only love and happiness.
“There’s something else we need to discuss,” I said to everyone. “Ste is now an adult, but we still
have two toddlers. How will we exin all of this to ina and Isaac?”
Ste bit her lower lip. “They already know. We’ve all been bonded since birth…they’re not Celestials,
but they are hybrids. They’re wiser than they seem.”
Xander grunted. “Don’t tell me they’re going to stroll in here looking like thirty-year-olds instead of
three-year-olds next.
Steughed. She went to him for a hug, leaning her head on his shoulder. “No, Daddy. They’ll likely
grow like wolf pups usually do. But they can talk and understand better than they’ve been acting like
they could. They’ve stayed babies longer than they might have otherwise, but they probably won’t keep
maturing faster than normal.”
“This is going to cause a stir around the enve,”
Mason said seriously. “How should we handle it?
Obviously, the teachers at the school know. Word will get out. We can’t pretend you’re still a child.”
“Everyone knows I’m a hybrid. We’ll have my great-grandfather exin this as a quirk of gics,”
Ste said as though she’d already been thinking of the answer to this before he had even asked the
question. “Nobody can know I’m a Celestial, but nobody will even guess. It’s just not something anyone
thinks about or would even believe.” N?velDrama.Org exclusive content.
“I can hardly believe it,” Zane said.
Xander kissed the top of her head. “So…do we make an announcement? Or just let peoplee to us
with questions?”
Ste’s eyes narrowed, but I could see a swirl of colors in them. My mother’s intuition told me that she
was running through multiple scenarios and oues in her mind, although I couldn’t read her
thoughts. Her lips moved with silent words. Her eyes opened, and she focused on all three of us.
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“We let peoplee to us. The residents of Brightsky, most of them, are going to view my rapid
maturity as something akin to going through puberty. A natural process that is different for everyone,
nothing to be ashamed of, but not necessarily anyone else’s business,” she said. “There will be some
who ask, and all we have to say is that my hybrid traitsbined to make this my natural state of
growth.”
“That makes the most sense to me,” I told her. “But when female wolves reach their maturity, their
mothers and sisters often have a little celebration. I’d like to acknowledge that for you.”
She beamed. “I’d love that, Mother.”
“Spa day,” I told her firmly with a look around the room at her fathers. “Girls only.”
There were things that Ste would now have to learn.
She might be a Celestial, but she was still a woman.
“I got all the messages…” Gabri came through the door into the living room and pulled up short with
a
gasp.
“Hello, Grammy,” Ste said.
Gabri came to hug her at once. She cupped Ste’s face in her hands, her eyes wide with wonder.
“By
the Goddess. You look exactly like my grandmother,” she marveled.
Xander’s mother turned to the rest of us. “I take it this is the important news you were all banging on
about?
Don’t tell me it was something else.”
“No, Grammy,” Ste said with augh. “It was about me. I grew up…”
“I see that,” Gabri said and stepped back to give her an up and down look. “You’re beautiful. This is
amazing.”
Ste put her fingertips to her temples as her eyes red again. She blinked away the colors and
smiled.
“I’m going to my room for a bit to let you all process this and to give my head a rest. So many feelings,
thoughts…..fears…..”
She gave Xander a pointed look, but her smile didn’t fade.
“I love you all,” she said and hugged each of us tightly before stepping back. “I know you have a lot to
discuss and work through. And just so you know, I won’t be listening in.”
Sheughed, shaking her head. “Even though you are all being so very, very loud.”
“Go rest,” I told her. “You’ve had a big day. We’ll order in for dinner tonight and have some nice family
time.”
“That sounds lovely,” she said and retreated to her room.
“So,” Gabri said after Ste had closed her door.
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“You’d
better tell m
me everything.”