Markus POV

The next day they were given their own room in The Family Centre to spend the morning in, bonding with their soon-to-be sons.

Seth and Mason resembled each other in the way cousins did, where the similarity is almost entirely an aura rather than physical features. Despite being only three months old, Seth had already overtaken Mason in bulk, and his medical records (piled on the table for Sam and Markus’ perusal) stated that he was already weighing in at just over seventeen pounds. Mason, on the other hand (literally, Markus could probably perch him on one hand easily) was barely scraping ten.

“Look at him!” Markus marvelled at the younger but much larger baby. “He’s a hefty little fella!”

“Just like his dad,” Sam added with an uncharacteristically wide grin. Upon hearing himself called ‘dad’, Markus felt his heart growing until it was about to burst out of his chest. The day they got to take their sons home and begin their journey of fatherhood could not come soon enough.

“My parents are going to be so excited when they feel how heavy he is!” He exclaimed and mock-weighed Seth in his hands comically. His mother in particular would be in favour of fattening him up even more. She had always been a feeder - in Markus’ baby pictures he resembled the Michelin man.

“Mmm.” Sam hummed, stroking the fluff that adorned Mason’s head softly.

The older-yet-smaller brother snoozed through the stimulation, already utterly content in the arms of his new father. Sam buried his nose into the top of his head, inhaling that incredible baby smell that radiated from their crowns.

Seth’s eyes were wide and curious, peering up at Markus from his pudgy face.

“It’ll be so weird when they’re old enough to talk, and Seth will have to call Mason his big brother.” Markus chuckled, never taking his gold eyes from Seth’s brown ones.

That was one of two things that were actually identical between them: their almost-black eyes and dark, downy hair.

When the boys were each dozing on a chest, Sam and Markus flicked through their records, starting with their family history. It was not a delightful read.

Seth and Mason’s parents had been members of a small pack, barely numbering twenty adult wolves. Their father was a guard, and their mother worked in the fields growing crops to sustain the pack. A human woman was murdered on pack lands, and their father was charged, convicted, and executed for the crime. The file did not give any details into the trial or the evidence, only that he was dead and had a criminal record with the Elder Wolves Judicial Office, where all packs reported their crimes. Their mother was pregnant at the time, approximately 7 months, and went into an early labour. The pack doctor noted in their file he believed this was because of the stress the trial had put on her and the trauma of losing her mate. Wolves didn’t tend to live long without their mates unless in a dazed or depressed state. She died during childbirth. Her pack, Golden Eclipse, had given Seth and Mason to The Family Centre, citing lack of bodies in their pack to provide adequate care as their reason for abandonment.

“How do we tell them their biological father was a murderer?” Markus whispered, almost afraid the boys would understand him if he said the words too loudly and clearly.

“If they ask when they’re young, we tell them he died,” Sam answered carefully. “If they ask as adults, I believe in telling them the truth.”

Markus sighed with relief. He was so glad his mate knew what he was doing, “Okay, but you can do the truth-telling. I’d rather take potty-training.”

“You’ve got a deal.”

Their three allocated hours of bonding time disappeared in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, their babies were being pried from their arms by nurses with small and sad smiles.

Misty eyes prevented Markus from pulling out of the car park for fifteen minutes after they climbed into his Jeep. Sam rubbed small circles into his bicep with his thin fingers. It soothed his aching heart a little, but not enough to keep Mason and Seth’s small round faces from his mind on the long journey home.