“Let’s talk.”

Fuck.

This is it, where I get rejected and lose him forever.

I don’t bother to look at him or speak, I just nod my head.

“Magnus?” Jing’s voice is gentle and quiet. I can feel him step closer to me.

His hands gently cup my face, lifting it up, connecting our eyes. His mask is totally gone, his eyes gentle and calm, a small smile on his face.

“I’m not mad Magnus. Overwhelmed, yes. Caught off guard, extremely, but mad? No. I think this all is just a simple misunderstanding. So, let’s start with why you didn’t mention Zhen to your mother yesterday.”

“I wasn’t trying to hide him Gorgeous; I already love him like my own and my bear feels the same. Zhen is our cub now. It’s just,” I sigh deeply, “She was already so upset when she called, I didn’t want to make it worse, plus she would have asked about his mother and that is not my story to tell.”

He smiles at me, his hands moving up to comb through my hair.

“That’s understandable, however, so is her reaction, a child is a big piece of information to leave out. Like being a triplet or having a family large enough to populate an entire town.”

I can’t help the snort that escapes me.

“Honestly Gorgeous, I didn’t think about it. I wanted to focus on us first. I would have told you more about them, but Ma moved dinner up by two weeks and I kept getting… distracted last night. But it’s like I said, they are mostly normal, just very loud and they like to get involved in each other’s lives…. A lot.”

Jing shakes his head at me.

“For the record Mister Bruin,” There he goes again, being distracting. “This is far from what I know as normal. I have no siblings, no aunts or uncles, no cousins. I was an only child, my parents are only children, Adrianna was an only child, her parents too. We don’t have large families where I’m from.”

Leaning my forehead against his I take in his scent.

“I’m sorry, I honestly didn’t think about it.” I let out a deep sigh, feeling like a failure as a mate, “This is all so new, I’ve never been with anyone for longer than a night or two, let alone introduced anyone to my family.”

Jing just chuckles at me, pulling away to grab my hand. He starts to lead us down the hallway.

“No time like the present.”

I don’t even need to tell him how to get to the kitchen, he just follows the noise. My family is not quiet…. At all.

It’s lucky my Pa insisted on a fully equipped restaurant grade kitchen when they remodeled, it was large enough to fit all of us and we were not a small family. Pa’s loud, booming laugh filled the area as we entered. No one noticed at first, their attentions all on the little panda who was perched on Pa’s huge shoulders, trying to reach the cookie he held in his hand, arm stretched out.

“Now I see where you got your looks.” Jing says as he takes in my immediate family.

Like me, my five brothers all look like my Pa, tall, built, with red-brown hair, though Pa’s was peppered with grey now. I had my mother’s lite tan eyes while the rest had Pa’s dark brown. My sister has my Ma’s features and hair but was also tall like the rest of us. Ma frequently jokes about being surrounded by giants.

8 sets of eyes turn to look at us after Jing spoke.

Ma’s eyes light up and she rushes over grabbing Jing’s hand, pulling him away from me.

“Jing, dear, let me introduce you to everyone. That sinfully handsome man your adorable son is using as a tree is my Mate Horatio.” Pa nods at Jing briefly and sends a smirk and a wink at me before focusing back on Zhen.

“The other two triplets, Mercutio and Morgana. They, along with Magnus, are my oldest. Both their Mates are outside with the kids. Morgana has twin 7-year-olds and Merc’s daughter is 3.”

Jing looks to where she’s pointing and see’s the two people I shared a womb with. Mercutio looked almost exactly like me, except he kept his hair long and pulled back in a ponytail and had no tattoos. Merc had partnered with Pa and was set to take over Pa’s restaurant when he retired. Morgana had Ma’s features but had a severe bob haircut. She was also the shortest of all my siblings at 6 feet. She was a journalist and traveled a lot for her work.

“Over there trying to sneak some of the cookies are Barnaby and Brutus.”

The identical twins look over, guilty. They are 20 and still sneaking sweets like toddlers. They look like your typical college frat boys, which they are. Played multiple sports, passed classes because they had to, loved to pull pranks, and constantly getting into some form of trouble. I’m not sure why they still wear the exact same clothes, probably because they are assholes and like to confuse people. Not that Merc and I didn’t do the exact same thing in high school before we grew up.

“Last are Iago and Indy, our youngest, hiding in the corner over there.”

They were both 6’1 and lanky, stuck in that awkwardness of being 17. They were huddled close together, watching everything intensely.

Iago and Indy were probably the easiest to tell apart. Though they are technically identical they had established their individualism quickly. They both had curlier hair that seemed to be in constant states of bed head, but Iago had died his black. Indy had a pair of large, round, thick black glasses that made is eyes difficult to see and lived in an over sized hoodie and ripped jeans, no matter that weather. He lived on his laptop and phone, honestly, I think he’s secretly a hacker. Iago has discovered his inner punk, with his black hair, more black clothes than I knew one person could own, he had gaged his ears, pierced one nostril twice with hoops and had 2 bars through one eyebrow. I could see a huge thick book in his hand, probably in a different language, I don’t think he even owned a phone, but he was never without Indy, so he honestly didn’t need one. They were both intellectual geniuses and could be intense to talk to. Under all their differences you could still see the identical features that would mature into the rugged good looks we all got from Pa.

Jing nodded slowly as Ma pointed out people, looking like he was trying to commit everyone’s names to memory.

“Those are all incredibly unique names Siobhan. You must be very well read.” Jing says turning to my parents.

“She is, now my house sounds like a halfway house for book villains.” Pa laughs, putting Zhen under one arm and picking up the giant platter of cookies. “I’m gonna take these and my newest Grandchild outside. See if he wants to play with the cubs. Otherwise, we have some great climbing trees.”

“Hey, you agreed to every name Horatio!” Ma shouts as he walks out a sliding door to the very landscaped, very fancy backyard. I could see tables full of food. Pa must have started prepping early this morning and drafted several of my siblings to get it all done. Merc, no doubt, was here at the crack of dawn.

Pa looks over his shoulder with a smirk.

“Of course, I did dear. Every time you suggested them you were naked.”

A chorus of groans fill the kitchen from myself and my siblings while Jing chuckles lightly.

Ma leans close to him with a smirk.

“Works every time.”