When I felt my chest tighten uncomfortably, I knew the strong emotions weren’t my own. Seb was blown away with the change of this orphanage from the one he’d grown up in, and his emotions were all over the place because of it. He also didn’t want to leave Remi here, as wonderful as this place was; he wanted Remi to come home with us.
Placing my hand on his upper back, I leaned in and whispered, “He’ll be okay. We’ll be back to pick him up in a few days.”
He took a deep breath. “I know.”
I kissed his cheek, then turned to Mrs. Hunley. “Thank you. Let me know what else you need from me to make this go as fast as possible.”
“I will.” She offered me a smile, then turned to Seb and said gently, “I can take him.”
Seb pressed a kiss to Remi’s forehead, closed his eyes, and breathed the baby in. I kept my hand on his back, letting him have his moment, and when he pulled back with glossy eyes, I kissed the baby’s cheek. Mrs. Hunley pulled Remi from Seb’s arms, and I reached up to my viramore’s neck to rub my thumb over his vitmea mark in the hopes that it offered comfort.
I asked Mrs. Hunley, “Is it okay if Seb and I talk to the girls one last time before we leave? I want to make sure they want to be a part of our family.”
She smiled widely at us. “I’m sure they would appreciate it. Since you’ve been vetted already, it’s fine to tell them.”
“Thank you. Do you need us to check in with you before we head out?”
“If you can, yes. If I’m not around, just let someone know.”
With a nod, I grabbed Seb’s hand, but his entire focus was on Remi.
“We’ll be back,” Seb whispered to Remi as Mrs. Hunley walked away toward the little feeding area in the back.
I leaned in to whisper to Seb, “We will, baby. Come on. Let’s track down the girls again and make this official.”
He nodded at me and let me lead him out and all the way back to the art room. It wasn’t surprising that both girls were still inside. Leilani saw us first and smiled at me, asking, “You’re back?”
I nodded. “We have something we want to talk to you about.”
She immediately looked worried, and I didn’t know how to ease that fear besides telling her, but I wanted both girls here with us.
“Niya, can you come here for a minute?” I asked.
The four-year-old seemed surprised to see us, but came over and had a seat beside her sister, both of them staring up at me with wide, nervous, bright blue eyes.
I offered a smile and sat across from them on a stool so we were in between two tables, our knees almost touching. Seb sat beside me, and after I squeezed his thigh, I refocused on the girls. Our future daughters. Even that thought had me floating. “Seb and I would like to know if you two would like to come home with us?” I cringed and added, “Not today because there’s… paperwork, but would you two like to live with us?” Somehow their eyes got impossibly larger.
Sebastian cleared his throat and said, “We’d like to adopt you. Both of you.”
Leilani’s eyes darted between Seb and me. “Really? You want both of us?”
My brow furrowed, but Seb leaned forward, and in that sweet and soft voice of his, said, “Yes, Leilani, we want both of you. We would never want to separate you from your sister, and anyway, we really, truly want you, too.”
Her eyes became glossy, and she began blinking furiously.
I rested my elbows on my knees so my face was closer to both of theirs. “We would like you to become Ellwoods, to become members of our coven, to be our… to be our daughters. Both of you.”
Leilani’s eyes blinked even faster, but Niya distracted me by squealing loudly and launching herself into my arms, bouncing on her toes. She was so happy and excited that a laugh bubbled out of me as I hugged her close.
After a minute, I said, “I take it that it’s a yes from you, Ni?”
She nodded frantically. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”
I chuckled and continued hugging her, then met her sister’s gaze over her shoulder. “What about you, sweetie? Would you do us the honor of becoming our daughter?”
This time when she blinked, a tear fell down her cheek, and her voice came out watery. “You really want me, too?”
“Of course we do,” Seb said, his own voice sounding a little choked up.
She made eye contact with him, then nodded slowly.
Seb smiled widely at her and got up to move to the stool beside Leilani. He hesitantly put an arm around her, and after a tense moment, Leilani fell into him, accepting his offered hug. All I could do was stare at my viramore. A few years ago, he wouldn’t have been comfortable enough in his own skin to offer comfort to someone he hardly knew. Sometimes he’d even had trouble offering hugs to the kids when he’d known them for months. This right here was an amazing sight. He’d come such a long way with his self-confidence, and an even longer way in his acceptance of family. It left me almost reeling to know that he was already offering comfort to Leilani, to our future daughter—no, not future, she was already ours. Seeing him hug her was a wonderful thing, and warmth bloomed in my chest at the sight. They were fucking beautiful.
Seb caught my eye, but only to roll his at me and shake his head a little. I suspected he wanted to flip me off or call me an asshole for being so sappy, but he somehow refrained.
I don’t want to call you an asshole. Or I hadn’t before you thought it.
I snorted at him, then closed my eyes and hugged the four-year-old tighter. Mother of All, I wished we could take them home today.
I never thought leaving this place would be so difficult. I don’t want them to spend another moment off coven land. Seb’s thoughts mirrored my own.
If we take them with us, we’ll be charged with kidnapping, and while I doubt they’d arrest us, it could make it harder to adopt them legally. Being Sage and having a hand in stopping the war, not to mention helping the government, had its benefits, but that wasn’t something I wanted to test when it came to our new kids.
Seb sighed inside my head. I know. I hate this.
Me too, but we’ll bring them home as soon as we’re allowed.
Okay.
After a moment, I said through our link, Sebastian.
Ailin.
Thank you for this.
He huffed out loud and shot me a glare. You don’t need to thank me, asshole. For fuck’s sake.
I couldn’t help but chuckle out loud. “There it is.”
He rolled his eyes.
At this point, every time he called me an asshole, it was with affection and more of an endearment than anything else. So I purposefully tried to get it out of him, and it never failed to make me smirk. Which was probably not the reaction he wanted, but he’d have to deal with it.
After the girls pulled out of our arms, Seb asked them a few questions, like what their favorite colors were and what type of art supplies they liked. At first, I thought he was simply trying to get to know them better, but I soon realized he was cataloguing everything so we could buy them everything they liked for our home. And that made me smirk at him more than before. He flat out ignored me.
Then I had a thought. “Girls?” They both turned their attention to me. “I wanted to let you know that we’re also adopting one other child.”