The Cambion's Hoard
Epilogue - 6 Years Later - Rose

I watched the crowds as they moved from tent to tent at the art festival. Today had been a perfect day to escape the confines of the house. I was glad the rain had finally passed. We’d all been cooped up too long for our sanity.

Aster and Hazel giggled from the stroller. Their little laughs filled me with joy. I reached down and grabbed Aster’s feet, tickling their soles. She squealed with delight. I bumped into someone since I had been to focused on my daughter’s delight.

“Oh I’m so sorry.” My stomach sank a little upon realizing who I’d hit.

Gida turned around and glared at me. Her eyes widened when she recognized me.

“Rose, right?” She held a toddler on her hip. Her words still held an edge but were softer than the last encounter I remembered with her.

I nodded politely. “Yes. Again, I’m sorry I bumped you. These two can be distracting.”

Gida moved so she could look in the stroller. “Ah, two babies? What is that three now?”

I laughed. “No, we have five children.”

“Henson and Biggs have kept you busy.” She couldn’t hide her disgust.

I didn’t let her sourness dampen my mood. “They’ve all kept me busy. Biggs…”

“Mamma!” Ruby’s excited shrill interrupted us. She came running over, alone.

“Where are your fathers?” I turned from Gida giving my eldest my full attention.

Ruby’s dark hair floated around her in a little halo. Her eyes brimmed with unbridled glee. She pushed her hands on her hips and her words spilled out. “Papa was trying to change Jasper, and Onyx was pulling on Daddy’s horns. Papa asked Daddy to hand him a diaper, so Daddy had to put Jasper down. While Daddy was helping Papa, Jasper melted the lock.”

I held up my hand and she paused. “Where is Pa?”

“Oh, he went to find someone to help with the door. They don’t want to break it.” I closed my eyes and scrunched my nose.

“Why didn’t you go with Pa?” I gave her a stern look.

“I did, but I saw a bird then I saw you talking to a strange lady.” I held my hand up again because Ruby had a tendency to babble.

“Ruby.” I held her gaze and she fidgeted.

“Yes, Mamma?” She gave me her biggest, innocent eyes.

“We don’t leave our adults. You are far to precious to us and we would prefer that you remain with us. Do not run off again.”

She threw her hands up in the air and huffed. “But Mamma, you were right here!”

Gida snorted. “She sounds like Biggs when he was young. It is his just desserts that he has a child like him. But from her horns I’m assuming she’s not even his.”

Ruby opened her mouth, a little storm brewing in her eyes but I pointed at her and turned back to Gida.

“She is his. Not that this is any of your concern but her conception was complex. She may have Henson and mine’s blood, but damn does she have Biggs’s soul. She is a dragon in a cambion’s body. I am very happy that she is like him. She gives him a chance to be loved how he wanted as a child. She’s fucking perfect.”

Gida was taken aback, like I had struck her. “No need to be snippy. I was simply making an observation. Also how would I know, my sons don’t speak to me.”

She adjuster the squirming toddler on her hip. He seemed annoyed she wasn’t paying attention to him. Little tendrils of smoke seeped out his nose. “Harlan mommy’s talking, you’re fine.”

I jumped as an arm wrapped around my waist. “Congratulations Gida, I didn’t know you could still have children.”

Thatcher’s voice was cool. I looked up quickly and he had an easy expression that didn’t match his tone.

“Thatcher, dragons can have children for far longer than most. This is your little brother.” She lifted the boy up, trying to hand him to Thatcher to hold.

He didn’t move to accept his brother. Hazel squealed and he scooped her up instead, tucking her into a baby wrap he had on. When he had her adjuster Aster squealed too, and he tucker her into the other side of the wrap. The twins were content in his arms.

“You’d rather hold your nieces than meet your brother?” Gida fell back into the only tone I remember coming from her.

“I’d rather hold my daughters.” He turned and looked down at Ruby. “You want to sit on the back princess?”

Ruby shook her head and took my hand in hers. “No, I want to walk with Mamma.”

He smiled softly at our eldest. “Fair.”

Gida stood in shocked silence as we situated ourselves to head back to the others. “Did you say your daughters?”

He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. The breath was measured so he wouldn’t exhale smoke. “Yes, my daughters. I have three. Two sons. Best life in the world.”

“I should have known those weren’t yours. They both look like Rose so its impossible to tell who the father is.” Gida had to be looking for a fight at this point.

“Ruby, I’m about to use language that I would prefer you don’t repeat.” He turned and looked at his mother, seething. “They are MY daughters. Just as Ruby is MY daughter. However, if you talk about my children like they are fucking things, we will have a very public disagreement and I know you won’t want that.”

Gida squared her shoulders and stepped closer. “Your children,” she spit the word, “are born from an abomination, hence making them the same.”

Her words cut into the two of us, more than we would have liked to admit. We’d always known how she felt about Biggs and what she felt were flaws but for to finally say it out loud. It was sickening.

Ruby tugged on my hand. “Mamma, what does abomination mean?”

“An abomination is something that causes hatred and disgust based on physical or genetics.” Biggs’s anger washed over me in waves. I’d been so focused on the situation I hadn’t felt him approach.

“Is something wrong with us?” Ruby’s voice barely drifted above the noise of the crowd.

Biggs sat Onyx in the stroller and scooped up his daughter. “No you’re all perfect. Gida has her own views on how things are. We don’t get along. Our relationship does not effect you. Don’t listen to her, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Don’t I?” Smoke seeped from her nose.

Henson sat Jasper next to Onyx and held his hands out for Ruby. “Why don’t we all go get some shaved ice, let Papa handle this.”

Ruby reached for him. “Okay. Can I have cherry?”

“Sure can princess. Thatch, Rose?” He looked to us.

“I’ll stay with Biggs. Thatch go with Hen and the kids.” I squeezed his bicep.

Thatcher kissed the top of my head. “Be quick, they outnumber us more this way.”

They pushed the stroller away and we gave our full attention to Gida. It had been six years since we had last seen her, spoken to her, or even truly thought about her. We’d cut her out of our lives because of our children. They deserved the very best versions of us and our families. Gida was not that and she contributed to prove it even after such an absence.

Biggs cracked his neck. “I can only guess you were assuming that the twin girls were mine because you don’t think Thatcher would allow himself to father children with Rose. While the twin girls were a surprise, they are biologically his. The only child that is mine biologically is Jasper. Which is funny because he is Onyx’s womb brother, and he is Henson’s. Rose is also pregnant with our second biological child. Which I’m hoping is either a girl or just like I was. I want to give a child like me the love they deserve, the love I didn’t get.

“You don’t get to judge us. Judge how our family chooses to raise our children. We’re choosing to raise our children as a whole and surrounded by people that will NEVER judge them for being who they are. That being said, we’ve only sought out approval from Grandmother in regards to our family, as she is the eldest matriarch. She loves our children. Hell, Ruby has Grandfather wrapped around her little finger. They also respect us as a new nest of dragons because we no longer draw from the family hoard. We don’t have to.”

Biggs placed his hand on the small of my back. He had calmed down and simply sought my touch. I clenched my teeth because I wanted to go off on her but I didn’t need to. His comment about the hoard and grandparents seemed to catch her off guard.

Biggs and Thatcher’s business had exploded and Linus had transferred ownership of Twilight to me, so we were not hurting financially. Henson managed our finances well and got to be a stay at home dad. We were setting our family up for the future on our own terms. We didn’t have to rely on a wealth of an ever growing family. It was sustainable and the twins had realized that.

The silence was strange with such an abundance of happy conversations surrounding us. Gida’s thoughts raced in her eyes but she couldn’t seem to find the words to respond. It was nice her being lost for words.

Biggs tucked me closer. “We’re going to go now. Thatch was right, those five can get out of hand sometimes. Then again we wouldn’t have life any other way. Goodbye Gida.”

He led us away to find our family. Leaving Gida behind, hopefully for the last time. We weaved through the crowd happily moving towards the future.

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