Page 18 of Arthur

I shook my head. “I’ll eat later. Right now, I’m enjoying holding our son.” I glanced back down at the baby in my arms. He was so precious. His hair was lighter in color, so perhaps he would end up with Patrick’s blond hair. What I’d seen of his eyes, they were blue, but again, it was possible that would change at some point. Patrick had the most mesmerizing blue eyes I’d ever seen. Mine were hazel, and I had to wonder if our William would end up with mine or his other father’s eyes. Time would tell for certain. What I did know was that he was already loved and would never wonder how much he was wanted.

“How long do you think he’ll sleep?”

I met Patrick’s gaze again before I stood. “From what I understand, they will sleep for a couple hours before needing to be changed and finally being hungry. I remember holding George right after he was born. He was quiet for a long time.Several hours, actually.” I carefully placed William in the cradle that had once been mine, and then my brother’s. It had been brought to us when we were preparing our things for William. I wasn’t aware that it was still around, but the fact that Father had kept it this long made it special that I could now place my own son in it.

“Do you think George will be back before long?”

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head. “There is no way of knowing. I left not long before he did, from what I was told. He’s still not back and doesn’t know that I’ve found you, nor that we have a baby now. When he does finally return, I’m sure there will be many surprises all around.” I joined Patrick on the bed, and when I realized he was no longer eating, I tore off a piece of bread before dipping it into the honey. “Please eat? Or are you no longer hungry?”

Patrick opened his mouth and took the bite. “Just distracted.” He grinned while chewing. I then picked up the spoon and carefully lifted it toward his mouth. If I needed to feed my One, I would. It was important for him to eat. He’d been through a lot today, and taking care of him made me feel like I was doing something for him.

Chapter 8

Patrick

Something woke me from the first peaceful and deep sleep I’d had in a while. I lay awake in bed, wondering what had disturbed me, but nothing seemed amiss. I had just relaxed again next to Arthur when I heard a noise. The same noise that now registered that was what had woken me.

I was about to sit up and go investigate when Arthur’s arm shot out and held me to the bed. I would have been concerned if not for the fact that Arthur was always protective of me and had become more so since I’d given birth to William.

“Stay with William. I’ll go see who is in the outer room,”he told me through our bond.

“Please be careful.”

“I will, but I don’t see it being much of an issue.”

He was right, of course. We were both warlocks, as were the others here on the coven property. But if travelers had started to drop in asking for a room in the inn, it wasn’t unheard of for them to go snooping around the place when they were told there wasn’t any vacancy. It could be frustrating for us, but we all knew we had to do what we could in order to be as safe as possible.

Arthur left our bedchamber, and almost immediately, I heard a commotion in the outer room, then shouting. That had me out of bed, and I was scooping William up into my arms and was about to use magic to pop us over to the main inn when William started crying at the sudden disturbance. There was another shout of pain and then much more quiet talking. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite make out what was being said because of William’s loud wails. I did everything I could to quiet our son.

I heard footsteps and rushed from the bedchamber and into the bathing room. There was no exit, something that I both understood but also wanted to argue with Arthur about. I was effectively trapped in the bathing room with our baby. I was trying to calm myself enough to magick myself and William to the main inn when I heard Arthur’s voice.

“Patrick?”

My One’s form came into view, and he was holding a candle in his hand.

“Arthur,” I said, rushing over to him. Immediately, I wrapped my free arm around my One, holding on tightly. “Did you dispatch whoever it was?”

“I sure hope not,” another voice said.

My body stiffened, and I pulled away from Arthur to look over his shoulder at a man I’d not seen in close to a decade.

“George?”

My brother-in-law’s eyes widened. “Patrick? What are you doing here?”

“Give me the baby,” Arthur said as he carefully took our son from me and hugged him close to his chest. He started bouncing him gently up and down, and like usual, William quickly quieted. Arthur turned, and after wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he faced his younger brother. “Patrick is my One, George. And this is our son, William.”

George’s eyes traced from his brother to me, then back to Arthur, where William was now settled in his sire’s arm.

“Your One,” George said. “You’re saying that little Patrick is your One?”

I flinched, immediately feeling inadequate to be the fated one to a man such as Arthur.

“Yes, but he’s not so little any longer. But you will do well to remember that I am no longer single, and you cannot simply use magic to make your way into my place as it is no longer my own.” Arthur looked over at me, our height difference only being a small amount, which meant he didn’t have to look down at me. “I was visited by the goddess, and she sent me to Patrick. It was the absolutely best day of my life when I found him in that tavern. That is until he gifted me with our son.” Arthur looked up at his brother. “This is our son, William. He’s just over a month old now.”

George’s gaze continued to move from Arthur to me and back. “You’re mated?” he finally asked.

“Yes. For almost half of a year now.”