Chapter 408
Athena
“The plant,” I said, knowing I wasn’t making sense but unable to
form coherent thoughts. “The dying plant in the living room. She
touched it. Tristan, she touched it and it came back to life.”
Silence.
All three men just stared at me.
“What?” Orion finally asked.
“The plant,” I repeated, frustrated that the words weren’t coming
out right. “The one I’ve been trying to save for weeks. It was
completely dead. Brown leaves, dry soil, totally gone.
And Ari crawled over to it… she crawled all the way across the
room by herself, by the way, we need to talk about that… and she
touched it. Just touched one of the dead leaves. And it turned green.
The whole plant. In seconds. It’s blooming now. It has flowers. Purple
flowers that definitely weren’t there before.”
More silence.
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Then Derek spoke, his voice careful. “Are you sure that’s what you
saw? Not that I’m doubting you, but babies don’t usually…”
“I know what I saw,” I said firmly, looking at Tristan. “I know how
crazy it sounds. But I saw it. She touched the plant and it came back
to life.”
Tristan’s expression had gone from concerned to something else.
Something between wonder and fear.
“Your gift,” he said slowly. “Could she have inherited your gift?”
“I thought about that,” I admitted. “But my gift doesn’t work that
way, or doesn’t it?” I asked no one in particular.
“I thought my powers was to save lives. Human lives. Like, heal
minor damage. But I can’t bring something back from complete death,
like that. Not in seconds.”
“Maybe her’s is different from yours,” Orion suggested, stepping
closer. “Gifts can evolve through generations. Get stronger or
manifest differently.”
“Or maybe we’re all losing our minds and misinterpreting what
Athena saw,” Derek said, ever the practical one. “No offense.”
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“None taken,” I said. “I hope you’re right. I hope I imagined it. But
I don’t think I did.”
“Let’s go look at the plant,” Tristan decided. “All of us. We’ll see if
there’s another explanation.”
We trooped inside, Arianna still in my arms, Adrian now
and alert in his carrier on Tristan’s chest.
1
The babies looked at each other and Adrian reached out, making
grabbing motions at his sister. They’d been doing that a lot lately- always wanting to be near each other, fussing when they weré
separated.
The plant was exactly where I’d left it, sitting on the bookshelf in
the corner. Green and healthy and blooming with purple flowers.
Orion let out a low whistle. “That plant was definitely dead last
time I saw it. Like, three days ago.”
“Completely dead,” I confirmed. “I was going to throw it out.”
Derek moved closer, studying the plant with a critical eye. He
reached out to touch one of the leaves, rubbing it between his
fingers.
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“It’s real,” he said. “Not fake. And these flowers… what kind of
plant is this supposed to be?”
“It was a fern,” I said. “Just a regular fern. It definitely didn’t have
flowers.”
“Ferns don’t flower,” Derek said. “Ever. They reproduce through
spores.”
We all looked at the plant again. At the impossible purple
blooms.
“So either this was never a fern to begin with,” Derek continued
slowly, “or something changed it at a fundamental level.”
“Something like a six–month–old baby with magical plant
powers,” Orion said, and despite the seriousness of the situation,
there was a hint of amusement in his voice.
“This isn’t funny,” I said, but I could feel the hysteria bubbling up
in my chest. “What are we supposed to do with this information? Our daughter can apparently bring dead plants back to life and make
them sprout flowers that shouldn’t exist.”
“First, we stay calm,” Tristan said, his controlled voice coming through–the one that made people listen, that projected confidence
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even in chaos.
“Second, we figure out if this was a one–time thing or if it’s a
consistent ability. Third, we make sure she’s okay. That using this gift
-if that’s what it is–doesn’t hurt her.”
“How do we test it?” I asked. “We can’t just hand her dying plants
and see what happens. She’s a baby.”
“We watch her,” Orion suggested. “Carefully. See if she does
anything else unusual around plants or nature. Document what we
see.”
“And we don’t tell anyone else yet,” Derek added. “Not until we
understand what we’re dealing with. If word gets out that one of your
children has a powerful gift, it could attract the wrong kind of
attention.”
He was right. There were wolves who would see a child with
unusual abilities as something to be exploited or feared. We had to be
careful.
“What about Adrian?” The words burst out of me before I could
stop them. “If Ari inherited my gift–maybe stronger than mine–what if Adrian inherited something too?”
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The room went completely silent.
Everyone turned to look at Adrian, who was gnawing on his fist
and drooling contentedly, completely unaware of the weight of our
stares.
“You think they both might have gifts?” Sarah asked. She’d
appeared in the doorway, Lily and Liam behind her, clearly having
heard enough of the conversation to understand something
important was happening.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But they’re twins. If one has abilities,
it makes sense that the other might too. Maybe different ones. Or
maybe the same. I don’t know how this works.”
“What would Adrian have inherited?” Derek asked. “What’s
Tristan’s gift?”
We all looked at Tristan.
His jaw was tight, his expression carefully controlled. “Enhanced
strength and speed. Basic Alpha abilities but stronger than most.
Nothing particularly unusual.”
“And the ability to heal quickly,” Orion added. “Remember when you broke your arm during that pack fight eight years ago? It healed
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in three days instead of three weeks.”
“I’d forgotten about that,” Tristan admitted.
“So if Adrian inherited enhanced healing,” Derek said slowly,
working through the logic, “we might not even notice it yet. He’d have
to get injured for us to see it, and he’s a baby. They barely do anything
risky enough to get hurt.”
“I’m not testing that theory,” I said immediately. “We’re not
deliberately injuring our son to see if he heals faster than normal.”
“Of course not,” Derek agreed quickly. “I’m just saying we might
not know for a while. Unlike Ari’s gift, which is apparently very
obvious.”
Arianna chose that moment to reach toward the plant again, her
little hand stretching toward it.
I yanked her back instinctively. “No, baby. No touching.”
She made an unhappy sound, her face scrunching up like she
might cry.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
