Rafe’s POV
"I taught you well, bud," I said with pride, remembering how we’d eaten pizza and other things with our hands the previous day, without any care.
Lucian shook his head with a smile and turned to return to the kitchen. "I’ll get you more."
"For me as well," I said.
"Only for the kids today." The bastard refused me. "Go suck some blood from the bags in refrigerator."
Never mind.
I took a big piece of pancake from Eira’s dish.
"Hey, that’s mine," she said angrily.
"But now it’s mine," I countered and started eating already. "Damn, truly tasty."
Raven stopped eating. He picked up one piece of his pancake and placed it in Eira’s dish.
Surprised, she looked at him. The little guy was so thoughtful.
"You don’t need to," she told him and was about to give it back, but he pulled his dish away, insisting she could eat it.
She felt a little guilty, and as expected, turned to me to vent her anger.
"See, the little boy is more thoughtful than you," she said.
I scoffed. "Exactly. Even a little boy is thoughtful and cares to share his pancake. He knows the meaning of sharing, but you..." I shook my head in disappointment. "You wanted to kill me the moment I got your pancake. Seems like I need to teach you the basics of sharing and caring."
I looked up dramatically. "God, how much more do I need to teach her? Is there an end to it? Will she ever grow up?"
I could see she wanted to knock me out, but what more could she do? She had an image to maintain—an image of a peaceful mother.
Just then, Roman and Jason came out as well. Roman was ready to go to the office, while Jason came to see what was going on here.
"Damn! What a sweet scent," Roman said, glancing toward the kitchen as he sat in a chair. "One for me as well, Lucian. My boring day at the office might feel better."
"One for me as well, Luke," I said again. "My boring day while taking care of kids might feel better."
He didn’t respond, but after a few minutes returned with a big stack of pancakes on a dish. He placed it on the table, first serving Raven and Eira, then looked at us. "For the rest of you."
"Aww, so generous," I commented and looked at Roman. "Just our lucky day."
Roman picked up a pancake. "We should thank the God Lucian."
I smiled and called for Kael, "Your Excellency, want to have some?"
Kael understood it was for him.
"I’m good," he responded without even looking at us, busy with his work.
"He’s not fond of sweets anyway," Roman said.
Raven quickly looked toward Kael.
I sighed. "Bud, I know you love your daddy Kael so much, but you don’t need to follow him in everything. Leave something for the rest of your daddies." I picked up the pancake. "You can follow me and eat. I love pancakes," I said, looking at Eira, "and love the people who love pancakes."
The busy woman spared me a glance, sensing my gaze on her. She frowned as if to say stop bullshitting and resumed eating.
Raven started eating.
"Good boy."
Lucian sat on one of the chairs like a proud chef, watching us enjoy what he’d cooked.
"Aren’t you two eating?" Roman asked the two smug brothers.
"We don’t like sweets either," Lucian said, and Jason nodded in agreement.
Roman and I both sighed.
"These kids who grew up in families won’t understand the ones who could only eat pancakes in their dreams," Roman said.
I hummed. "The most precious dream was to ever get to eat them daily. Those lucky bastards won’t understand."
"Stop playing pity cards already," Lucian frowned. "You’ll get them every day with these two kids."
Roman and I smirked at each other and looked at Lucian.
"Thank you so much, daddy Lucian," I said with a chuckle.
"Your daddy, not mine," Roman shot back and looked at Lucian. "We’ll wait for the pancakes every day now. You can’t go back on your words."
Lucian frowned. "Bastards."
Unaffected by our banter, the mother and son had already finished their pancakes. Raven was full, but Eira’s gaze lingered on the dish of pancakes.
I picked up one and placed it on her plate. "Is there suddenly a valley in your stomach, Caldwell?"
She pressed her lips together like a kid, but then Lucian said, "Even if there is, I’ll cook as much as you want. Ignore the bloodsucker."
Lucian offered me a glare and looked back at her, observing her silently. Well, we all were observing her.
There was some change in her for sure. All of a sudden, eating had become her new obsession—and she seemed to have forgotten she was sitting among the ones she claimed to hate.
After eating and playing for a while, Eira and Raven had drifted to sleep on the mattress by the window. Raven seemed to be tired from the water play we’d had earlier.
Roman had left for the office, while Lucian had some news for us.
Once he made sure Eira was in a deep sleep, he said, "That bastard Asher wants to meet you."
So, he finally got to know Raven is with us. We didn’t want to hide it either, so let it be.
"Fix the meeting," Kael said, "but... after two days."
Lucian raised a brow.
"Let him wait," Kael added.
I hummed. "We’re not free to make time for him just whenever he wants. Let him get a little more desperate."
Once we discussed it a little more, I said, "Kael, I think we should have Liam take a look at Eira."
Kael looked at me.
"All of a sudden she’s eating too much. The change is sudden, so it would be good if we have her checked," I said.
"I feel the same," Lucian added, and turned to Jason. "You’re almost a doctor. You can—"
"It would be better if Liam performs some tests," Jason interrupted him. "That would be more assuring."
Meanwhile, Kael looked in Eira’s direction for a while longer as if thinking about something, and finally hummed. "Just inform Liam."