Page 8 of Visiting the Variks

“Is it my birthday?”

River laughed and kissed his cheek. “Yes, we confirmed it with Rafe and Marcus. Today is your birthday.”

“We’re sorry we missed it last year,” Wyatt apologized, brushing a kiss across the opposite jaw.

“No, that’s fine. All of this was so new last year. Besides, my brothers and I stopped celebrating our birthdays after we hit one hundred.” He could feel his smile become a little crooked as he struggled to hold on to it. “After having so many and nothing really changing, they didn’t feel special anymore.”

River grabbed his chin and turned his head so that Bel was staring directly into his eyes. “Well, that stops now. We are making every birthday special from now on.”

“Which is why I was trying to wake you up. We want to celebrate your birthday in private before we’re expected for dinner at Ronan’s.”

River tipped his head to look around Bel. “Which you failed at miserably since we’re both in bed with him.”

Bel bit his lip when he felt Wyatt shrug behind him. “True, but he’s awake.”

River made a grumpy noise and leaned close to Bel, pressing their foreheads together. “You have to get out of bed. We have surprises.”

Words escaped him. His mates had secretly planned something for his birthday? How? When? Well, obviously when he’d been sleeping during the day. But still, he couldn’t believe they’d gone to the trouble. His heart ached and a lump suddenly grew in his throat.

“Really? But you shouldn’t…didn’t need to.”

“We did it because you are special to us, Bel, and we want to celebrate the day you were given to the world,” Wyatt whispered in his ear.

Tears burned his eyes, and he was grateful that River rolled out of the bed, then pulled him out as well. He was about to start crying over their thoughtfulness and it would ruin the happy event they were trying to plan.

As it was, River allowed him to put on only sleep pants, while his wolves grabbed jeans. He wasn’t quite sure why they’d bothered. He had a feeling this surprise was going to leave him wanting to properly thank his mates. At least clothes would slow that impulse a little.

With River and Wyatt holding his hands, he didn’t get more than a few steps down the stairs when he spotted the first surprise. Balloons. A couple of hundred balloons of every color of the rainbow bobbed in the living room on long ribbons. No one had ever gotten him balloons before.

He walked slowly into the colorful forest, tapping a balloon here or there. They were so happy and fun as they bobbed and swayed.

In the center of the room, he found a large display of cupcakes, each differently decorated. Some had bats or little wolves drawn on them. Others had holes where fangs might have punctured them and a strawberry gel poured out. Beside them were two wrapped boxes.

“Here! Sit! Open your gifts!” River ordered, ushering him to the center of the sofa.

River immediately sat on one side of Bel while Wyatt settled on the other. His arm rested along the back so that he was holding both of them. Not an easy task since River was struggling to sit still. River placed the smaller of the two boxes in his lap and grinned. “Open it.”

With slightly trembling fingers, Bel tore away the pretty balloon-covered paper and opened the box to find a collection of twenty new bow ties. They ranged from elegant to silly. His instant favorite might have been the ones with the tiny wolves on them. His lovers knew him so very well.

“They’re beautiful!” He quickly kissed both of his mates, perfectly content to sit and inspect his new ties. There was no doubt in his mind that Wyatt and River had selected each one of these ties for him. But River was too impatient for bow tie inspection.

“Okay, now open the other one,” River prodded. “It’s not exactly sexy, but we think you’ll like it.”

The box looked too big and awkward to hold in his lap, so he got up and kneeled beside the table before ripping off the wrapping. A gasp of surprise was caught in his throat.They couldn’t have. But they did!

As Rafe would put it, they got him science shit. It was perfect. It was something he would have happily bought himself for his work.

“You got me a new centrifuge!” Bel cried out, tossing the paper in the air so that he could get at the giant box. “How-how did you know?”

“When we were working in the lab last week, you complained that your current centrifuge didn’t have the kind of RPMs you needed, and that it was slowing with age,” Wyatt easily replied.

River kneeled on the floor beside him. “Do you like it? Wyatt explained that it spins shit.” River twirled one finger in the air as he spoke, but his eyes were unsure. “That it’s used for separating things. He said this is a good one. It even heats and cools stuff, which your old one doesn’t do.”

Bel grabbed River and pulled him into his lap. “It’s perfect. Amazing. I love it! But not half as much as I love you.”

“We love you too, Bel. Happy birthday,” River murmured against his lips.

They kissed several times before Bel got up and crossed to where Wyatt still lounged on the sofa. He crawled into the larger man’s lap and kissed him, no longer caring about the tears slipping silently down his cheeks. He couldn’t hold them back any longer.