Axel was in the shed when he hears growling and grunting at the shed door and he chuckles before he walks over opening it. His youngest cub, Ryker, came barreling through the shed, his small paws and claws tapping the cement flooring before he stops in the middle of the room looking around.
"Sorry buddy, Talia isn't here," he says to his son who growls in return and he laughs.
The little boy shifts back, his 5 year old son grabbing shorts to pull on while he huffs loudly.
"Dad, where can she be?! I looked everywhere! I know she's cheating, I just know it!," his son rants as he paces back and forth, reminding him of himself as he still does that when he is frustrated.
Axel looks down at his son, a spitting image of him except he has his mother's eyes, shaggy brown hair he refuses to cut, his mothers green eyes with his chubby cheeks everyone loves to pinch until he snaps at them in warning. The little guy knows how to get out of anything and everything. Something he learned from his sister. Even though he is 5, he acts much older than his age, unlike his sister.
Axel had thought for sure they were having a son when he told Ayliah she was pregnant. Instead he got a big surprise, a girl. He wasn't ready to have a daughter, hell he still wasn't. Talia was now 7, his daughter is the most precious thing in the world, she looks just like her mother with her long brown hair and a mixture of Axels and Ayliahs eyes and rosy cheeks, she took everyone's heart the second they met her. What most don't know is that yes she is sweet looking, but everyone likes to think that means she is all innocent when she is not. She is so much like Axel when he was a child, it's sometimes scary for him, she is always getting into something then suckering him with her eyes and getting off easy.
That's where Ryker learned his trick, suckering his mom for everything. He was a big mommy's boy, where Talia was a daddy's girl. Now his little girl was having her first "boyfriend" something Axel is not at all okay with.
Talia and Damon were inseparable, and that little boy was trouble, big trouble. Every time he went to scare the kid off, Ayliah was there chiding him saying it was nothing. Axel didn't believe that for a moment, he seen how Damon looks at his daughter, and like hell he was going to let anything happen, but each time he went to scare the cub away, Ayliah was there giving him trouble instead.
Now he was glad he had a son, because moments like these he could tell his son to go bug his sister and Damon.
"I don't know buddy, but she might be in the treehouse?," he tells Ryker, treehouse a code word for the stream.
"Seriously?," his son growls loudly.
"Wait! Change f—," his words falling on deaf ears as his son shifts without changing first, ruining yet another pair of shorts. His mom was going to freak, no matter how many times they told Ryker to change before shifting, he never does.
Ayliah always kept saying they are going to go broke with how much they buy clothing for Ryker, and Axel would always laugh and say he did the same thing as a cub and not much you can do.
Within a moment, the ball of brown fur is flying out of the shed to the forest to go to the stream to find and annoy his sister. She had it coming, she did promise to play with him and of course, Damon the little troublemaker got her to go to the stream and play with him and their friends instead.
He had taken his mate and cubs when they were old enough to the stream, to the same spot he took Ayliah on their first date. They had even made a full step up there, buying a few large picnic tables, a big bbq and added more logs to the fire set. It was only supposed to be his family that knew about the spot, but his daughter Talia loves to tell secrets and now all his family knows about it. Many of times he went there to find Jarred or even Derek there, each time he would growl, wishing his daughter didn't like to tell everything to everyone.
Wiping his dusty hands off on his jeans, Axel closes the shed and walks back to the once small house. Once they had found out they were expecting, Axel had built an addition on and added another 3 bedrooms, and a bathroom on, one extra bedroom for family when they came by.
Ayliahs family came by pretty often, either for holidays or for the children's birthday and they didn't want them staying at a motel so they made sure to have an extra bedroom for family or friend visits.
What Ayliah got a kick out of is when Axel added doggy doors to their bedroom. Being a shifter, there was no certain age they wait to shift, they shift when they want and they can't control it. Ayliah found that out soon enough when she woke up in the middle of the night, their one year old daughter clawing and banging against the door to be let in, Ayliah started freaking out thinking a wild animal had broken in, and Axel laughed at her when he opened the door to show Ayliah it was their daughter. That's when Axel installed a doggy door so their daughter and son could come into the room whenever they liked.
He misses those days, waking up in the morning with his daughter and son in the bear form, cuddled up between him and Ayliah. Now it was just Ryker who came in their room as a cub, and he would jump on the bed and wiggle between him and Ayliah so he could cuddle up against his mom and push Axel to the edge, many of times Axel even fell off the bed as his son is a big bed hog. He wasn't sure how Ayliah always remained asleep either, both Talia and Ryker toss and turn, crawling around and all over them to find the perfect spot to cuddle against them, and they soon found out Talia likes to snore and whine in her sleep, right in Axels ear. So many nights he barely got to sleep because of his little cub whining loudly into his ear, or when she had a vivid dreams and Axel would wake up with little claw marks on his arm, he even remembers Ryker some how reaching over his sister and kicking him in his jewels, almost making tears spring out. Ayliah always laughed, until one night Ryker kicked her butt and sent her to the floor, then it was Axels turn to laugh at his mate who glared back at him in return.
He also misses going to their bedroom and seeing them rolling around in their crib as a cub, chewing at the wooden crib to get out. He wasn't sure how many cribs he made, but each time they chewed apart one he would have to make sure he had a back up one for them. He missed cradling them in his arms, or walking in the house after work to see Ayliah sleeping on the couch, Talia or Ryker swaddled in her arms in cub forms. It didn't take long that Ayliah couldn't carry them when they were shifted, their weight doubling Ayliah could barely lift them.
Walking to the front of their house he sees his mate, still beautiful as they day they met, which was exactly 8 years ago. Today being their anniversary. What he didn't expect was to see his son and daughter at the front with their mom as he thought they were playing.
"Happy anniversary mommy and daddy," Talia and Ryker yell out as Axel walks up the few steps to the porch, his daughter pulling him and Ryker pulling their mom into a big family hug. Ayliah lifts Ryker up as Axel lifts Talia and Axel wraps his one arm around his mate, pulling them in a tight embrace, kissing each one on the top of their heads before he kisses Ayliahs cheek.
Having his mate and his children's in his arms, hugging each other tightly, was everything that Axel wanted, and he couldn't be anymore happier. He had everything he needed and wanted, and that's all he cares about.
This was his life, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I love you," he whispers in his mates ear before kissing his mark on her neck, smiling at the small gasp that left her.
"And I love you," Ayliah whispers before kissing him, their children jumping out of their arms running, while yelling "ew cooties".
The End
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Romance|| Completed || || Editing Process Will Be Starting Soon || Unedited. Feature on Paranormal Profile! Sheriff Axel Pexton was growing restless. His bear wasn't helping either. Normally a bear shifter would of had their mate by now, but yet he was...
