Christmas With the Alphas: A Claimed Novella by Viola Rivard

CHAPTER ONE
     
    “Can we stop?” Mila pleaded. “Just for a minute?”
    Lotus did Mila the courtesy of sparing her a glance. “You went an hour ago. We’re almost there. Hold it.”
    “Easy for you to say,” Mila grumbled under her breath. Lotus didn’t have pups kickboxing with her bladder.
    Heaving a sigh, Mila leaned forward, reaching past her daughter. With one finger, she poked Caim between his shoulder blades. When the black wolf didn’t respond, she pinched him.
    Nada.
    Cursing under her breath, she looked around for Asch, the one person who she knew that she could guilt into letting her pee. She was, after all, pregnant with not one, but two of his unholy demon children.
    After carrying Asch’s twins for nearly nine months, Mila was now realizing just how easy her first pregnancy had been. While she’d been sick during her first few months with Dawn, her first trimester with the twins had been two months of nonstop vomiting that made The Exorcist look tame by comparison. When she hadn’t been vomiting, she’d been yelling at anyone within yelling-distance, and when she hadn’t been yelling, she’d been crying. Once, she’d even managed to yell, cry, and vomit all at the same time—a feat that left Rosie scarred to this day.
    Fortunately, her nausea and the bulk of her moodiness had subsided by the second trimester, only to give way to an entirely new set of pregnancy blues, most of which stemmed from her huge belly and extremely active pups.
    Dawn had done her fair share of kicking, but usually during the night, when Mila was already awake with her nocturnal pack mates. While she’d occasionally jabbed an organ, it had been, at most, a minor annoyance.
    The twins, on the other hand, slept on completely opposite schedules. Sleeping in shifts, they took turns kicking and punching her night and day without end. The absolute worst part of the day was right around dusk, when both twins were awake. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on inside her uterus, but she pictured MMA-style brawls and was sure that at least one of her babies would be born with a black eye.
    It took Mila a few moments to find Asch. He’d been walking alongside Caim all evening, but must have splintered off at some point. Far ahead of them, the tawny wolf stood at the top of a snow bank, gazing down at what Mila knew was Cairn Valley.
    It had been two years since Mila had seen the valley and despite her reluctance to return, she felt a flutter of anticipation in her belly.
    Her excitement was quickly dampened as she took in Asch’s posture. His legs were spread apart and the fur on the back of his neck was frilled up. As they drew closer, she could make out a low growl emanating from his chest.
    “What’s going on?” Mila asked.
    “Cats,” said Lotus. “I can smell them from here.”
    Her muscles tensing, Mila wrapped an arm around Dawn, pulling her closer. What the wolves called ‘cats’ were actually huge mountain lion shifters, one of which Mila had had the pleasure of meeting shortly after the first mating thrall. It wasn’t an experience she was eager to relive, but with two alphas and the entire Lazarus pack flanking her, she knew that there was little to be afraid of.
    When they reached the top of the snow bank, Caim crouched down, allowing Mila to awkwardly climb off his back. Snow crunched beneath her booted feet as she stretched her legs for the first time in an hour.
    She was surprised to find that Dawn was awake and alert, as she hadn’t heard a peep out of her daughter all day. Mila moved to pick her up, but Brae intercepted her, scooping the little girl up into her arms.
    “Don’t worry. I have her.”
    As soon as Dawn was off, Caim shifted. As he came into his human form, he took the dark pelt that had been draped over his back and secured it around his thick neck. He spared her a perfunctory glance, amber eyes quickly assessing her, before turning to trudge over to Asch.
    Within the last minute,