Note: this takes place during the next book, Enforcing Boundaries.  It does not have any spoilers for Magnus' story and focuses purely on Everett / Felix / Griffin, so I thought it would fit better here.  

--

Everett

I was in the kitchen making a PB&J sandwich with Griffin, who insisted on overseeing the whole process. He had lost all faith in Felix's sandwich-making abilities (apparently, Felix used too much jelly and didn't get the peanut butter all the way to the edges of the bread), so now Griffin was carefully watching and critiquing as I made him a new one.

If my mother were here, she'd swat at me with whatever was handy. I knew better than this. Giving into these kinds of edicts was only going to teach Griffin that he could be demanding and picky in the future and he'd get his way. I knew that. I was also exhausted after a late night with Felix and an early wake-up from Griffin, and frankly, I wasn't up for a fight. I'd do better next time, I promised myself as I carefully slathered an even layer of peanut butter all the way to the edges of the bread.

"No! Not on the crust!" Griffin protested. With a sigh, I smudged off the bit of peanut butter that went out of bounds.

"Next time, you're making your own sandwich," I said. I had meant to make a statement, to show him that he couldn't just boss me around. Instead, Griffin absolutely lit up.

"I make this one," he said, and held his hand out for the butter knife.

And while this normally would have registered as the terrible idea it was, I really was tired and the idea of him trying to make his own sandwich was adorable. I passed him the butter knife and watched as Griffin clumsily stuck it into the peanut butter jar and came out with a clump of peanut butter on the top of the knife instead of on the side. He dragged it across the bread, shredding it and messing up the even layer of peanut butter I had already applied. Griffin didn't seem to care, though. He dipped the knife back into the peanut butter and smeared it on the bread two more times before reaching for the jelly.

"Let me get the peanut butter off the knife first," I said before he could stick it in. Already, the peanut butter jar was full of little scraps of shredded bread. I might at least preserve the integrity of the jelly.

Felix came in while Griffin lathered jelly onto the other piece of bread and froze. He lifted a brow at me, and I could see the amusement in his eyes. "You weren't good enough at sandwich construction either?" he asked.

I frowned at him and turned back to Griffin, who had an absolutely massive clump of jelly in the center of his sandwich. He didn't seem to care. He tossed the knife onto the counter – splattering the clean counters – and picked up the jellied bread to put it on the peanut buttered one. The clump slid off when he turned the jellied bread over, splashing onto the carrot sticks already on his plate, and when the two pieces of bread came together, they were so crooked I had a hard time not straightening them. The only thing that stopped me was Griffin's beaming smile and the undeniable pride in his eyes when he looked up at me.

"I did it!" he cheered.

"You did!" I agreed. And truthfully, it was an impressive effort for someone so young.

Felix snatched Griffin up off the chair he'd been kneeling on and swung him around. "How are you already so grown up?" he asked as Griffin giggled and squealed.

"Pop! I eat!"

"Oh, sorry. Of course," Felix said with mock seriousness. He set Griffin back down on his seat at the dining room table and pulled me to the kitchen.

"Everything okay?" I asked when all the cheer and amusement quickly faded from his eyes.

"Molly called me this morning," he said. "She gave me the phone number for Neruda's alpha, Carlos. He got in touch with her and requested that we call him. Both of us."

I looked at Griffin, whose cheeks were smeared with purple jelly and who still looked so proud of himself. Our son. What could his former alpha want from us, other than something to do with him?

"They can't have him back," I whispered.

Felix pulled me in for a tight hug. "No, they can't. His mother signed away her rights and his father is dead. Our adoption has been legal for years. There's nothing anyone can do to take him from us."

I could feel his unwavering certainty through our bond and when I looked up at him, I saw it in his steady eyes and firm-set jaw. I could breathe again. "Okay."

"Let's call him now, before you come up with another disaster scenario," Felix said. I glared at him without any real heat and let him tug me to the living room, where we should be out of Griffin's hearing but able to hear if anything happened to him. Since Griffin couldn't shift yet, his hearing wasn't nearly as good as ours – something we weren't afraid to take advantage of.

Felix placed the call and put the phone on speaker. My heart beat double-time as it rang, but thankfully, someone picked up before I had a chance to get too worked up.

"Carlos Mendez," a low voice said.

"Hi, Mr. Mendez. This is Felix and Everett Holt. Molly Brannigan from Lakota told us to call you," Felix said smoothly. I grabbed his hand and squeezed, and he tugged me against his side for comfort.

"Yes! Thank you for calling me. I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Griffin's biological mother, Tracy Stevens. Seems she's been doing some soul searching and wanted an update on how he's doing – you know, wants to know that he's happy and cared for. Wanted pictures, if you didn't mind passing them along. You're under no obligation to have any contact with her, but I promised I'd ask. Seems to me there's something hopeful about someone developing a conscience like that," Carlos explained.

"What do you think?" Felix asked through our mind link.

"What if she wants him back?" I asked, all my fears swelling up again.

We must have taken too long to respond, since Carlos cleared his throat. "I understand if you need to take some time to think about this. Why don't I give you her phone number and e-mail address, and you can take it from there?"

"Yes, that would probably be best," Felix agreed. I pulled up the notepad app on my phone and passed it to him so he could type Tracy's contact information. My fingers were shaking too much to do it myself. When that was done, Felix and Carlos exchanged the usual polite farewells and disconnected.

Felix passed me back my phone and I stared at the woman's contact information while my mind raced.

I am a man of logic, I told myself.

I will not make a decision out of fear.

Even if we answered all of Tracy's questions and gave her dozens of pictures of Griffin – even if all of that made her want him back – there was nothing she could do to take him from us. Felix was right about that. And...

"Griffin might want to meet her someday," I said quietly. "Whether or not she really does turn her life around, he's going to have questions when he's older that only she can answer."

I looked to Felix, who was watching me carefully, like he expected me to have an anxiety attack or a breakdown of some kind. I couldn't blame him for that. Slowly, he nodded. "That's true," he agreed.

So I followed my thought to its logical conclusion. "Cooperating with her now might mean giving him that opportunity later."

"It could," Felix said, still watching me as though waiting for me to break.

"And there's no harm in it. She can't hurt us," I said, mostly to remind myself.

"Also true. So, you want to reach out to her?" Felix asked.

Well, no. I didn't want to. But I recognized that we should. "Let's send her an e-mail with a couple of pictures. We can see how things play out from there," I decided. I knew Felix was letting me take control here, and I was grateful for that. I needed that feeling of control or my worries would take over again.

"Okay," Felix agreed. He kissed my temple and hugged me tighter against his side. "Want me to handle it?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "Please. If I send the e-mail, I won't be able to stop refreshing my inbox."

"Okay, I'll take care of it."

And just like that, it was settled. We were going to open communications with Griffin's biological mother.

--

When Felix reported that he had sent the e-mail, I couldn't shake the feeling that change was coming. It was a paranoia, to be sure, and I never imagined that the change would be good, but I was on edge for the rest of the afternoon. Felix and Griffin played tag outside while I got some work done, and I kept the windows open so I would have their laughter and Felix's taunting to keep me company. I was just starting to relax when they came in and Felix passed his phone over to me with a message pulled up.

Dear Felix and Everett,

Thank you for sending those photos and updates on Griffin's life. After all my mistakes, I don't deserve the peace of mind seeing him looking so happy and healthy gives me, but I'm grateful all the same.

I'm a screwup. Have been since I was young, and no matter how many times I try to do better, I screw up again. But I hear from Carlos that you're good folks, and I see in Griffin a child with a much better chance in life than I could have given him. I'm hoping you have a little room left in your hearts and that your generosity hasn't run out yet.

I had a daughter almost two weeks ago, and I'm taking her to the Neruda pack. I'm not meant to be a mother. I know that, and I'm sure you know it too. I know this will sound crazy, but I like the idea of her growing up with Griffin, where I know she'll be safe and happy too. When I sign her into Neruda's custody, I'm going to put in a request that you take her. I hope you'll think about it.

Stacy

I read through the e-mail twice, and I was no less stunned the second time around. It was hard to process how I was feeling. It started with anger, and when it was overcome by other emotions, I knew that the anger wasn't gone, just buried. It would resurface when the other, stronger feelings were under control.

See, more than feeling justifiably upset that the person who had neglected Griffin so severely had been irresponsible enough to have another baby, I yearned.

Even though it seemed wrong to agree with Stacy about anything, I was also hung up on the idea of Griffin growing up with his biological sister. Besides, Felix and I had been looking into bringing another child into our family, and it was hard. There weren't many unclaimed children in the werewolf community – the very concept went against our instinctive pulls toward pack and family. Orphans were usually taken in by family members or pack mates, and cases like Griffin were rare. After months of searching and being almost on the verge of adopting a human baby, this opportunity dropped into our laps. A werewolf baby – one who I wouldn't have to worry would feel left out living in a pack – and Griffin's biological sister, no less.

How could we possibly say no to that?

I looked up at Felix, who leaned against the side of my desk with his arms crossed. He had been staring off into the distance while I read, but now he looked at me with what I recognized as a carefully neutral expression. "What do you think?" he asked.

I knew what he was trying to do – he wanted to give me the chance to express my opinion without his own tainting it. Too bad his efforts were pointless; I could read my mate better than that. I saw the warmth he had tried to extinguish from his eyes and the way his brows drew in and lifted just a bit. He was feeling hopeful, and the crinkles that kept peeking out on the sides of his eyes told me he was excited. I didn't bother fighting back a broad smile, and Felix was quick to echo it. He pulled me out of my chair and we hugged each other hard.

"I can't believe this," I said, laughing gleefully.

"I know!" Felix said. He pulled me away so he could look down at me with a sappy, adoring expression that made it hard to remember that Griffin was down the hall, far too awake for us to do anything physical. "So we're doing this?" Felix asked. "We're going to have a baby?"

Hearing the words out loud made my heart flutter. "A baby," I echoed, and the yearning intensified. "We should call Carlos so he knows what to expect." The last thing we needed was for him to let some other couple adopt her before we had a chance to. But surely Carlos would see the benefit to having her with her brother, and Stacy had said she would let him know she wanted him with us.

"I wonder what her name is," Felix said softly.

That pulled me right out of my own train of thought and into imagining what our lives were about to become. The noise and late nights, the stress, and above all, the love. I had been avoiding even looking at the spare bedroom next to Griffin's room ever since we started trying to adopt. That space, the one we reserved for the child we'd had such a hard time bringing into our lives, had started to fill me with despair every time I dwelled on it, especially as months passed and my hope faded. I had thought about trying to use the space for something so I wouldn't look at it and see the gap in our lives, but that felt too much like giving up.

Now, we would need to scramble to fill the room with everything a baby needed. "There's so much to do!" I said. "Felix, we have to go shopping."

He kissed each of my cheeks and smiled fondly down at me. "Alright. Why don't you get Griffin ready while I reply to Stacy and call Carlos again?"

"Sounds good!" I agreed. I was in a hurry to get moving, but I still took a little time to hook my arms around Felix's neck so I could pull him down and kiss him. He hummed in surprise, but quickly got onboard, kissing me back enthusiastically. It would have been easy to sink into my mate, but I was too excited for that. I pulled away and pressed a final peck to his lips, then hurried to find Griffin.

We had a new baby to prepare for.