Seven mates for seven brothers

61- Popcorn with attitude

Life in the Grey household settled into a comfortable pattern.  All the Grey brothers except for Brian were living together again; one BIG happy family.  Not that they did not have their squabbles; there were not enough babies to go around to satisfy everybody at the same time.  And just like they had ‘rationed’ Grace with her movie watching; Cassy had put everybody on a strict rotation list for caring for the brand new Grays’.

Besides; Sam had to bring little Ricky over; if he wasn’t close to Tyler; he would not sleep properly during the day; so, early in the morning Sam would bring Ricky over to the pack house and leave him with Amanda and Grace.  She would go back home and do some cleaning and then head back to the pack house about mid morning to feed Ricky.  She would stay the rest of the day until after the whole family had dinner together.  Then she and Brian would take Ricky back to their place.

Naturally the two grandfathers claimed priority when it came to holding and pampering.  William and Timothy had a whale of a time spoiling the ‘brat pack’ as they called the four babies.  When eventually it was time for Timothy to leave; he surprised Alex by asking if he could speak to him privately.

Alex walked on ahead as Timothy followed him to the study.  Alex waved for Timothy to start speaking his mind as soon as they were comfortably seated.

Timothy flashed Alex a half cocky; half nervous smile.  He seemed to have some trouble choosing the right words; but then he just opened his mouth and let the words fall out.

“I have asked Lee to come back with me for a visit.  A long visit.  She agreed.”

When he did not say another word; Alex frowned at him.  “So; are you asking me or telling me?”

Timothy shrugged.  “Both I guess.”

Chuckling Alex stood up and shook his father-in-law’s hand.  “Lee is a fine woman.  I consider myself informed; but I think it might be wiser to ask permission of Rudi; after all, he is the head of her household now.  Technically speaking any way.”

“Yeah, I know; she is amazing.  I just felt I had to speak to you first.  We are not sure if this is going to work out; but we are both willing to give it a chance.  It will not be the same as a mated relationship; very far from it.  But I think we are still young enough to be good for each other.  And Lee is young enough to have another child if things work out for us and she thinks she can handle it.”

“Cassy is going to be tickled pink that her kids are older than her brother or sister.”  Alex could just imagine the look on Cassy’s face when he tells her.

In the meantime Dinah had also given Rudi a set of twins; the most adorable girls with the reddest little cheeks out and they had taken some ‘holiday’ time to go and visit Lee at Cassy’s old pack.  Packwise; all except one of the males in his early twenties had found their mates.  There was nothing that could go wrong that could dampen the cloud of wellbeing the whole pack lived under.  Now, all the pack members were congratulating themselves for their foresight in making the correct decision to remain a part of the Yellow Stone pack.  Business was booming and so were the babies; in one word; the pack was flourishing.

And so was Grace.  Everyday that passed she became more mature and confident; poor Conrad had his hands full in keeping visiting shifters a polite distance away from his mate and on one occasion even had to make good on his threat to break bones on Grace’s behalf.

Grace had gotten irritated once and demanded to know why he had not claimed her yet as that would put an end to his threats of breaking bones.

“Grace,” he had sighed; and then he had secured her face between his hands.  “I made a promise to you that day you decided that you were going to come home with us.  That promise is what made up your mind to come here with us; and there is nothing on this earth that will make me break that promise to you.”