Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins
Chapter 284

"A castle, mama?" Alvin asks a few hours later, sitting on the kitchen table and combing through some of the plans I've sketched out on scrap paper with crayons I've borrowed from my boys. "To live in?" "Well," I say, leaning back and considering. "Maybe castle isn't the right word. But palace is too fancy. And 'big house' is...too small."

"Can we make it from gingerbread?" lan asks, coming over to us with a pack of graham crackers that he opens and spills out on the table, starting to stack them so that they held each other up, like the walls of a house of cards. "Like this?" "Don't you think that baked goods would be...problematic? In the rain?" I ask seriously, c*g my head to the side as I study his structure.

lan stands up straight and stares at his building materials. "I didn't even think of that."

"See?" I say, tapping my temple. "That's why you need me around."

"But the mice would like it," Alvin says, leaning forward and playing with the graham crackers himself. "They'd never run out of food. And we have to think about Pinky and Bluey in the move - it will be hard on them, leaving the cottage." "We're not bringing the mice!" Victor calls from the living room, his voice brooking no counter argument.

"Yes, we are!" lan calls back, his voice taking on the same tone. I start to smirk.

"No mice!" Victor shouts now, a little threat in his voice saying not to push him on it.

My boys look to me and I wave a little hand in dismissal, nodding reassuringly and mouthing the words "we're bringing the mice. It's fine."

My boys smile at me and don't say a word, not wanting to give away our secret.

Suddenly, Victor's head pokes around the wall from the living room. "It's too quiet in here," he says, narrowing his eyes at us. "No vermin."

"You got it, Alpha," I say seriously, giving him a salute that just makes him groan as he walks away again.

"So, we're really going to build a whole new house?" Alvin asks, sitting up and taking a bite of graham cracker. I smile at him, thinking so much for those building materials. "Where the old big house was?"

"Yes," I say, nodding seriously. "Except this one is going to be really really big."

"Cool," says lan, smiling at me excitedly in the same moment that Alvin frowns and asks "why?"

"It is cool," I say to lan, and then turn to answer Alvin. "Because mommy wants to have her cake and eat it too."

"But I thought we said," Alvin says, confused, "that baked goods weren't going to stand up well to the rain..."

"No," I say, reaching out and patting his little knee, "it's an expression. It means that I don't want to make compromises, so I'm going to find a solution that gives me all the things I want without having to give anything up." "The best kind of solution," lan says, nodding sagely and sitting down in the chair to listen.

"Very true," I say, sorting through the drawings so I can show them some of my ideas. "See," I start, pointing at a little list I made of all the things I want to do in the future - all the roles I want to play. "Your dad and I want to take very good care of you, and we want to be an Alpha and a Luna that can help other people as well. And usually people have a house where they are at home, and a work where they go to conduct their business. But because we both want to spend all of our time being both things, I'm going to build a house that is both a house and a place of work!"

"Didn't daddy have that last time?" lan asks, leaning forward to see the list. "When he had his office? And we had bedrooms upstairs?"

"Yes, well pointed out," I continue, pulling forward a rough outline of the house I'm thinking of. "Except that your dad and I are going to be taking on bigger roles in the community, so we'll both need an office, and we'll both need a big office. And daddy will need some outdoor buildings so that he can start to train some of his Betas here and have all his Alpha weapons stuff," I say, a little hazy on the details because...well, that's not my area of expertise, is it? I see lan's face light up at this. "Really?" he breathes, his eyes shining as he looks at me. "Beta training? And helicopters?"

"Sure," I say, shrugging, "I guess that's up to your dad though. But anyway, we need area to do all of that, and then meeting rooms for your dad to do business with all of the other packs and the councils, and a ballroom for parties, and lots of guest rooms. And then!" I say with a flourish, pointing to the area out back that I've drawn in green. "We need our part of the house, that's just for us!"

Alvin leans forward, looking at it suspiciously. He crosses his arms as he stares. "I don't know, mom," he says quietly, "it looks too big. Why can't we just stay in the cottage?"

"Well," I say, considering, "we'll still have the cottage. But we need more bedrooms now. For the baby girls, and then one for each of you -"

Alvin and lan both gasp at that, turning to me, betrayed.

"What?" I ask, looking between them.

"Mama," Alvin whispers, shaking his head. "We can't have separate bedrooms! We have one bedroom! We are brothers."

"No," I say, reaching out and patting his little knee, "it's an expression. It means that I don't want to make compromises, so I'm going to find a solution that gives me all the things I want without having to give anything up."

I bite my lip to keep from laughing. "Well, I'm glad you like that now, but you might change your minds when you get a little bit bigger and want your own space -"

"No!" lan protests, slicing his hand in the air and shaking his head vehemently. "We will never want separate bedrooms! Absolutely not!"

"Well then," I say, taking a crayon and scratching out the line between the two rooms that I imagined would be theirs. "Then you two can just have one gigantic room!"

lan and Alvin look at each other for a moment, communicating silently, and then Alvin nods seriously. "This is acceptable."

"Good," I coo, laughing a little to myself. "I'm glad we could come to this agreement."

"Mama," lan says quietly, considering all of the papers on the table and looking up at me. "I know we need more room because dad needs and office and the babies will need space - for all their girl stuff," he says this last with a little disgust, making me smile. "But why do we need the rest of it?" he asks, pointing to the more palatial aspects of my plans. "We didn't need it before, when dad had the big house with Amelia. Why do we need it now?"

"Well," I say carefully, reaching out one hand to each of them. My boys comply with my silent request, each giving me one of their little paws. "Things are going to...change a little bit. The kind of Alpha and Luna that your dad and I want to be - it's...a little bit bigger than the life he had planned with Amelia. With more opportunity to do good, but more responsibility." I bite my lip, hoping they understand.

"Oh," Alvin says, dropping my hand and reaching for another piece of graham cracker, taking a happy bite. "You mean as the Supreme?"

My mouth falls open as I look between my boys, who wait calmly for a reply to Alvin's question as if it's no big deal.

"How -" I start, still a little disbelieving. "How did you know about that?"

"For like the millionth time, mom," lan says, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes at me. "We have the internet. People have been speculating about dad becoming the Supreme for a long time."

"Yeah," Alvin replies with his mouth full. "It's not exactly a surprise."

"Well," I say, laughing and looking up to see Victor leaning against wall between the living room and the kitchen, smiling at the three of us. I wonder how long he's been there and how much he's heard. "Looks like I'm yet again the last to know!"