A nine-year-old shouldn’t have that kind of ability, but maybe that was just the sign of the times.
Maybe kids had more power than they’d ever had before, and maybe they shouldn’t.
Maybe we shouldn’t be giving them as much sway as we always did.
“What do you mean?” Sabina rasped, and I grimaced at the realization she’d plucked thoughts from my brain again.
Her wince told me she was sorry, but fuck, she didn’t have to be, I just wished it wasn’t so difficult to keep things separate.
A little plot of space in my own head would be real nice sometimes.
I reached up, feeling crabby when it wasn’t her fault, and, rubbing the back of my neck, muttered, “Kids are revered in the pack.”
“You’d never know with how you were treated,” she groused, which turned my frown upside down and made me laugh because I loved how protective she was of us.
No one had ever been like that before, but here she was, coming in like a wrecking ball and destroying any and all walls we could put up between her and us.
What a fucking woman.
“Maybe not, but on the whole, they are.”
“I guess it makes sense. Only one kid all the time, I guess they’re spoiled.”
“That’s one way to phrase it,” Ethan said dryly.
“Children should always be protected and guarded, but equally, they have lessons to learn.” I shrugged. “In my opinion, that’s hard when the only discipline comes from the pack itself and not the family.”
Her eyes narrowed at that. “What do you mean?”
“Parents don’t discipline their kids. Surely you’ve seen that?”
She shook her head. “No. When?”
“Why do you think we always have kids traipsing in and out of the packhouse?”
Her mouth dropped open. “They’re here for Eli to punish?” she sputtered. “How the hell didn’t I know that?”
Her sharp tone had Knight grumbling and slapping her boob with a tiny fist in annoyance.
Regardless of the conversation, I had to laugh at that because you couldn’t exactly reprimand a newborn for being a spoiled brat, could you? The timing was just too perfect though.
Still, when her lips twitched as well, the three of us—even misery guts, Ethan, joined in with the smiling. It was a wonder his fucking face didn’t crack. Miserable shit.
“I thought you’d figured it out by now.”
She shook her head. “You know I spend as little time in his office as possible.”
I did, but I wasn’t sure why. Tipping my head to the side, I asked, “Because you don’t like the vibes in there?”
She hitched a shoulder. “It’s not my place.”
My brows rose. “Why isn’t it? Of course it’s your place. It’s where he’s based. Where we rule the pack.”
“I’m not supposed to rule it in that way. My job is to nurture and to guide. My place is the totem.”
Her words were soft, gentle. Whispered on a soft breeze to reach my ears.
As strange as the thought was, it was true nonetheless.
Ethan narrowed his eyes at her too and asked, “Is that why you always want to sleep out there?”
She nodded. “It’s different now though.”
“You mean, now Knight’s not in your belly?”
Sabina hummed. “It was more imperative then, like an urge? If I didn’t spend at least some point of the day in the circle, I felt odd. Not a good odd, either.”
A tender smile curved her lips as she traced her fingers over Knight’s head. The touch had him cooing, and I had to admit, when he did stuff like that and didn’t manage to piss all over me, he was adorable. And together? The pair of them just melted my fucking heart. I hadn’t known it was possible to feel this way until her, but with Knight, it was just amplified a hundred times more.
Her gaze caught mine, amusement lighting her eyes up from the inside out, and when she whispered, “Thank you, mate,” I blushed.
Crap. She’d heard.
“I love you.”
I swallowed. “I love you too.”
I knew she was telling me that she loved me even though I didn’t think the sun rose and fell on our little shit machine, and I’d admit to feeling a tad more at ease.
I loved Knight, of course I did. I just was ready for him to be potty trained.
Her lips twitched once more, before she said, “I thought they just brought their kids along to see him because, I don’t know, they couldn’t get a babysitter or something.” Her nose crinkled. “That sounds so dumb now I say it out loud. But after, they always hang out with the staff, so I just assumed…”
Ethan snorted. “Chores are a part of their punishment.”
She blinked. “Huh.”
The early days of her reign as omega, had brought great change for the pack. No longer was the totem the only place where gatherings occurred. We’d tried using the local diner, but with our people coming to learn how accessible we were willing to be for them, it just hadn’t worked out. So now, the packhouse was open to all members of the community, dealing with any issues that cropped up—be they small or large—at any time of the day or goddamn night.
That was why we were getting strangers trudging around the front vestibule at crazy o’clock.
Before, Eli’s father, Paul, had managed the children in the totem, where parents only brought them along to a pack meeting if they were in trouble. Now, it was like a kindergarten.
I’d never realized how little I liked kids until the change in pack governance—what a time to learn, huh?
“From what we’ve heard about Seth’s father, Leon, he didn’t find it hard to punish his mate, did he? So why wouldn’t he discipline Seth?”
“It’s different.”
She arched a brow. “Is it? Really? Both mates and children are gifts from the Mother, aren’t they?”
“Depends on your temperament,” I teased, loving when she laughed.
“Go on, explain,” she encouraged though.
I simply shrugged. “Parents are scared to discipline their children now, but it’s not working out so well.”
“You keep on replying to me with answers that require more questions.”
Her complaint had me smirking at her. “Isn’t that how a conversation works?”
“That’s a dialogue,” Ethan said dryly, prompting me to flip the bird his way.
When he just snorted, then reached for Knight, who’d finished sucking his mother’s tit off, and started to burp him, I shook my head.
I figured my paternal gene would kick in when the little dude was maybe four?
Thanking the Mother for my brothers, who could pick up the slack when I fell short, while still feeling pretty fucking guilty, I muttered, “Kids are getting more and more powerful each generation.”
Nodding his agreement, Ethan continued, “We don’t know why, but it’s true. There weren’t always so many beta-types in the pack. With more betas, that’s great, because it means the upper management of the pack is dealt with. Eventually, they’ll take on council roles, and if not that, then they’ll be able to help the pack out with the businesses we own and things like that.