recognized him.”
“He looks similar to his father, an unfortunate enough thing for him. You likely spotted the resemblance. The boy often shows up where there are gorgons in public. It is our nature—possibly his. He would be drawn to a family unit because gorgons are not solitary creatures, and Morrison is not precisely a nurturing individual.” Thomas grunted. “Alexander has not created any trouble for any hives, and he has made himself useful from time to time. He is known to rescue whelps from trafficking rings and returned them to their parents.”
My eyes widened as the memory of playing with the gorgon whelps flared back to life, and one of the boys had looked strikingly similar to Alexander Hautlin. “He’s the boy from the time my parents tried to dump me with a bunch of gorgon whelps. Traffickers tried to grab them. He was the one who took the lead on petrifying them. But he was a gorgon, not a human.”
“Perhaps the dust has made him a shapeshifter, and he wisely hides his form, much like you do, Samuel.”
“That doesn’t match the NYPD’s record on him going to boarding school,” Quinn stated, and his expression darkened. “But the NYPD’s databases have been wrong in the past.”
I huffed. “Or he wasn’t in school when that happened. Remember, Morrison’s close friends with my parents. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had been in on the attempt to get rid of me from the start.”
“And then he would have known about your immunities and would have wanted you for his projects. Assuming he’s involved with the dust production and rabies,” my husband speculated. “How does that sound to you, Thomas?”
“It sounds like your bride is wearing a rather large target on her back.”
“No kidding. Remember Winfield?”
“Yes. I heard he came to a rather abrupt end.”
“He pointed a gun loaded with ambrosia at me.”
“Well, that was rather stupid of him.”
“My bride, while in her fur coat, took offense to that. She squished him like a grape. Her words, not mine.”
“I popped him like a grape. But he was also squished. He deserved it. It was his fault. If he hadn’t threatened you, he would have survived for at least five more minutes. And that gorgon. Well, maybe not. He looked at you wrong.”
“My bride becomes very offended when rival males look at me wrong. It makes enrolling her into challenges quite difficult. We try to leave the other contenders alive,” my husband said in an amused tone.
“I better get to fight at least once, Quinn.”
“Not until the twins are born and you are no longer breastfeeding.”
I shrugged, as I couldn’t see myself seriously fighting when worried about their milk supply. “That’s reasonable.”
“You are expecting twins?” Thomas asked.
“We are. Fostering your children won’t be a problem. The chances our children will inherit her general immunities or my general abilities are rather high. Beauty and Sylvester are currently with my grandfather learning how to socialize with other gorgons. Their education has been unique. If you can, begin teaching yours how to read a little early, as our whelps are voracious readers. You may want to inquire if your whelps would like to learn how to cook, as Beauty will be starting as soon as we move into a new home. Ours is not sufficiently sized. We’ll also have pets in the house, so we can work with your whelps on that as well. Sunny, my wife’s wolf, should be capable of handling defensive whelps, but our other pets are mundane in nature.”
“I will begin their lessons immediately. When would you like to begin their fostering?”
“Bailey?”
“As soon as we have space for them is fine with me.”
Quinn smiled at me before focusing his attention back on the road. “I’ll get back to you on that as we start our house search. Do you have a contact we can reach in Chicago about Miss Hautlin?”
“Yes, of course. I will text you with the information, and I will warn him you will be calling. I have a relationship, as he sought out my advice regarding her. She misses humans.”
‘Bailey?”
“There is no reason we can’t take the kids to visit her and her family, especially if she can help us sink Morrison.”
“I think you will find her an eager participant in your investigation. She hates him with a burning passion. She only gave up her son because she was terrified she would infect him.”
That poor woman. “But he’s already gorgon enough he won’t be infected, will he?”
“It would be a