Finale

How the hell do people live this way?

Del didn't even want to set foot in the house. He didn't give a damn how big it was or that perches had been set up so that he could get away from any visitors abruptly, or really, any people in general. He hated the smells coming from inside... except for his mate's and their offspring.

"You coming in or not, Dylan?"

Cocky bastard hawk. I'll eat you.

Del bared his teeth and stepped closer to the doorway, but the hawk shifter, Knight, refused to back down. Instead, he simply took a step to the side, giving him just enough room to walk inside, if he chose to.

Where are you? The pups are waiting at the door. I think they can sense that you're close by.

Mina's words made Del step through the barrier without another thought. He was overwhelmed with trying to keep his beast under control, but he squared his shoulders and focused on following the scent of his mate and their three month old babies. It didn't take him long to find them, either. One flight of stairs and a long hallway later and he was opening the door. Inside smelled like home, and thankfully, Mina had kept his word and not let anyone else in the small space.

Del had had the entire house built at Mina's request... and because he'd hated how small his relative's house had been. Mina had liked the small space, but he'd been very nervous around the other lions, and his father, Palace. So, Del had paid for a house to be built quickly, and barely a month later, they had more than enough space to house the odd group of shifters.

"Hey," Mina greeted him quietly from where he sat perched by the open window. It was nearly dark outside, a gray dusk taking over and whisking the last fading remnants of the sun away. The faint rays outlined his lover perfectly... and his rounding belly. He hadn't planned on ever having kids, but as he knelt down and scooped up his two pups for some attention, he couldn't imagine his life without them... and without more of them. Thankfully, Mina hadn't been forced into his animal form yet, but Del would gladly take care of him whenever that happened.

The two bundles of fluff trying to crawl up his chest had Del smirking and nuzzling into their soft coats. They looked much more like him than their mother, with a thick dark coat of fur and mainly wolfish features, but their coat pattern had some faded spots near their back end and their tails, while already fluffy, had an extra tuft of fur at the tip. They each also had a stunted wing, Sanna's was on her left side while Tirim's was on her right. They would never be able to fly with them, but Del would make sure to give them plenty of rides on his back whenever they wished. They were already very much obsessed with playing piggyback with his wolf as he walked around the forest with Mina on their late-night treks, but he wouldn't take them flying for a while longer, until he was sure that they wouldn't slip off.

Feeling eyes on him, he looked up to see Mina smiling at him.

"What's that look for?" he mumbled as he sat down on their bed and rolled over both their pups for a good belly rub.

Mina joined them moments later, picking up Tirim and snuggling her to his chest, much to her delight. "It's for you, Dylan."

That new name had grown on him quite a bit. He planned to change his legal name to it on Mina's birthday. It was a symbol of how much his life had changed since he'd met the odd little shifter. In fact, both of their lives had changed quite a bit. He was no longer someone who sold staged murders. His building had been gutted, then sold. Even Buck had moved on, and with Magnus, shockingly. The two tended to keep to themselves, but Del had visited several times over the past few months. It had been slightly unsettling to consider them a couple, but the moment Buck had answered the door the first time he'd come by... that smile. He truly loved and respected the man, but the smile he'd seen on his face that day? That had come from Magnus sneaking in a slight kiss to his cheek before disappearing down a hallway.

The mushy thoughts had Del rolling his eyes before Mina leaned over and gave him his own peck on the cheek.

"They're cute, don't deny it," he chided playfully.

Del, feigning ignorance, grinned down at their pups and nodded. "Yep, they are definitely cute."

The sound of a faint knock on the doorjamb to their room brought both their attention up to see Jared and Palace standing in the entrance. Del was immediately on edge with the two predators there, even though one was his father. Well, especially because one was his father.

"We're going to start cooking outback if you guys want to bring the kids down in a bit," Jared said before disappearing back down the hall, leaving Palace alone, his form nearly taking up the entire door-frame.

Mina lowered his gaze from the man's almost immediately, but Del had no issue staring his father down. He was bigger than him by a good bit, but their wolves were well matched in a fight. They'd had more than a few matches since being around each other more. Palace didn't handle the pups well, and had even tried to nip them more than once, but thankfully Del had been around whenever his father had gotten a bit too aggressive. That was one of the main reasons why Mina tended to stay in their room. It was almost like a den of safety. Palace never dared step inside.

"We'll be down in a minute," Del said before walking over and slowly closing the door.

He waited until he heard Palace's footsteps walk away before returning to Mina's side.

"He is doing much better, but we should be careful," he murmured quietly.

Mina nodded as he stood. Both pups hopped off the bed and ran up to the door, then looked back at them. Waiting for them. Waiting for him.

Del gave a small chuckle as he leaned over and licked Mina's hair, making the guy swat at him as he ran over to the door.

"I swear, if the kids start acting like you," Mina warned with a smile he couldn't hide as he started following him out of the room.

Del turned around, walking backwards so that he could watch his family. It was an odd thought, too. He'd always hated the idea of bringing another being into the world, and to share his life with anyone besides Buck? Not possible.

And yet, he couldn't hide the smile on his face as Mina gave him a look, then growled abruptly and half-tackled him. Of course, Del didn't even get thrown off-balance, in the least, but he did gladly catch his mate and hug him as tightly as he could while being careful of Mina's little baby bump.

"Our two girls seem to act more like you... I'll just corrupt the next ones," Del mumbled as he reached between them to rub Mina's belly through his shirt as he stole a quick kiss.

"Open up," Jared growled as he leaned over Knight's hawk, who had decided to try and fly away from him. He'd snatched the feathered menace right out of the sky before it could get away with one of the chicken legs they'd bought for the barbecue.

Come on, Jared! I'll just not take as many when they're cooked! Knight whined. His words just earned him an eye roll as Jared yanked the meat from between his beak, then dropped him unceremoniously to the ground.

"Yeah, sure. Just like you did last time?"

If birds could look embarrassed, Knight's definitely wasn't.

We won't talk about that. I was hungry...

Sighing, Jared returned the meat to one of the plates where the rest of the meal was waiting to be cooked. when he turned back to his chicken-friend, Knight had forgone his feathers and returned to his human form. He wasn't paying Jared any mind, however, and instead, seemed to find a particular blade of grass very interesting.

Instead of chastise him more, even though he deserved it, Jared dropped down beside him and lifted a hand to settle atop Knight's ruffled hair.

"You'll be fine, my chicken. If you want some raw, then just wait until we start and you can take some."

He realized his mistake when Knight turned his head beneath his hand and gave him a devilish grin. Before Jared could even react, he was pinned beneath Knight.

"I'll take you raw, but we can start now, right? No one else is going to challenge me in line," Knight said, making Jared groan as the faintest hint of red tinted his cheeks.

He didn't actually mind having sex with the guy... mainly because he stopped talking when getting dirty, but he wasn't about to be on exhibition for the rest of their strange family. They were supposed to start having a barbecue in the next few minutes.

Del would castrate us if his kids saw, too.

"Let's save that for later," he replied before shoving Knight off of him hard enough to send the guy back to his feet.

"It's a promise!" Knight yelled.

"I hope I'm not late."

Blinking, Jared looked over to see Buck shutting it, then heading over toward them.

"I hope you don't mind, but I left the dog at home. I didn't think this gathering would be manageable for my beast," Buck said with a small smile that made Jared return the expression.

He was glad that Magnus hadn't come. The guy could be sweet, but more often than not, he was dangerous, especially around the kids.

Jared was about to reply when their attention was drawn to the back door of the house. Mina calmly stepped down into the grass, his rounding belly not quite as visible through the big shirt that Del, no doubt, put over his own smaller one.

We already know.

Del was extremely overprotective of his offspring, and mate, but Jared couldn't blame him. The guy did live with a small pride of lions and misfits. His father, no doubt, was what kept him most on edge. Thankfully, Palace had calmed down enough over the past few months to not feel the need to save his son from his horrible existence and murder him for his own safety. It was an improvement.

Speaking of Palace, Jared's attention lifted to the roof just in time to see the shifter's massive wolf settle down into a comfortable nook near one of the windows. At the same time, Jamie came out the back door with Mina and Del's two pups following on his heels. Of all the lions the two had met out and about and at home, his brother was definitely their favorite.

Before Del even made it over to the grill to get it started, Jamie was in his lion form, carefully but chaotically romping around the yard with the pups and, of course, their protective mother now in his own feline form.

Since things were about to get cooking, Jared walked over to the plates of meat and portioned them out, then took one of Knight's pieces and tossed it to him. Knight was back in his hawk form and easily caught the large chunk of meat with a slight hop. It was gone seconds after his talons touched back down to the ground.

"Chicken eating a chicken," Jared mumbled, shaking his head with a small grin as he turned around to start helping Del with the grill. He could feel his chicken nudging and nipping at his pants as it paced around him, clearly hoping for some scraps as they worked. He might have gotten a few morsels... but no one else needed to know that.

As the first round of meat was cooked up, plates were made with several sides, then handed out to the pups first, as well as Mina, since he often ate quite a lot being pregnant again. The next round of food went to Knight's noisy hawk, and while Del jokingly offered some to Buck, he rolled his eyes and declined before making himself a salad.

On the third round of meat Jared glanced up at Palace, but the massive wolf seemed perfectly content to remain where he was on the warm roof.

"Jamie, come get some food," he said instead, looking at his brother as he approached.

He figured that Palace would come down as soon as he saw the guy eating by himself, but to his surprise, the second the huge plate was full, Palace flew down and somehow managed to snag it with his jaws and claws, and bring it up to the roof.

Jared was about to yell at him for taking it so abruptly, but not a moment later he was back down, snatching up his brother before gently setting him down on the roof. Palace settled down contentedly and Jamie soon realized that they'd be dining on the roof instead of with everyone else.

That's Palace for you, brother.

He felt humor through their bond as his brother sat down and began happily feeding Palace's massive wolf little pieces of charred meat as it literally curled around his much smaller body. It was true that Palace was horrible with most people, animals, and really, even inanimate objects that annoyed him, but the man absolutely adored and spoiled his brother. He was far from whipped, though, because Jamie returned his love with an insurmountable amount of respect for the care and attention he was receiving in return.

Blinking down after feeling another tug on his pants, Jared raised his eyebrows at a sulking hawk. Knight refused to look at him, making Jared bite back a sigh as he knelt down and quickly scooped up the troubled poultry.

"You're not terrible either, my chicken."

Knight rustled his feathers and slowly looked up to meet his eyes.

"It's been one hell of a ride, huh?" Jared whispered just loud enough for Knight to hear him as he carried his bird over to a nice shady spot beneath a tree and sat down to relax for a bit. He felt Knight get more comfortable in his arms, then heard his quiet reply through their bond.

You will be tonight.

-End

(Thank you guys for reading another one of my strange stories. Sorry if it seemed to end a bit abruptly, I just have so little time to do things now that I've been piecing things together over weeks instead of days. Feel free to look at some of my other stories, most are already complete :) )