Tie It With a Ribbon

“Zanzibar,” I mumbled, getting his attention rather easily.

We locked eyes for a moment, and he then moved his eyes to his parents. Hesitance appeared on his face, but then he scowled and looked back down to his boys, playing with them quietly rather than playing nice with Cadence and Grayson.

“Zanzibar,” I repeated, more firmly this time.

“What do you want from me? I can’t even look at them, and you expect me to be able to apologize from the bottom of my heart. It’s not going to happen, Alena,” he snapped, scoffing. “I can’t believe you’re even suggesting it.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong!” Cadence argued, breaking into our conversation.

Zanzibar laughed then, but it wasn’t that musical laughter I had come to love; it was a harsh, hacking, mocking laugh. He handed me our sons, standing up and striding past Salina and Amelia.

“Nothing wrong?” he asked incredulously, that derisive laugh still on his tongue. “You’re going to stand here and throw these lies at me? I’m not your little boy anymore, and you can’t just shove your words down my throat and expect me to just accept everything!”

“Watch your mouth,” Grayson warned, his eyes forming slits yet again.

I clutched more tightly to my boys, and they started to cry. But not even that sound could pull Zanzibar back into reality.

“What you did was wrong! There was nothing acceptable about it,” he spat, shaking his head fervently. “It is disgusting, and you’re the most repulsive people I know at this point. At least Alexandros believed in what he was trying to do—he admitted that he believed in what he did! And you? You’re playing the innocence card! That traitor has more of my respect than you do!”

“I don’t want to leave your children without a father,” Grayson growled, only growing angrier with each second.

“As if you could take me,” Zanzibar spat, stepping up to the challenge. “I don’t have to hold back anymore.”

“This is ridiculous!” Cadence screamed, trying to stop them.

“What happened?” Salina asked me, her jaw dropped.

I shook my head. “Just cover my baby’s eyes.”

I did not cringe when the two men were replaced with beasts, though I could not help but notice that my sons tried to peek past the hands I had placed over their eyes as if they wanted to see what their father could do.

Amelia, however, did not fight Salina’s protection.

I screamed out his name when he was knocked to the ground, but thankfully he did not stop on account of my verbal slip. To my relief, he was able to overpower his father and pin him, snarling and snapping in his face. I glanced to Salina, and she looked absolutely horrified. Cadence was crying.

So why was I not fazed by this obviously horrifying display? Well, I did not care as long as Zanzibar was okay. If Grayson had hurt him so evidently, then I would not waste my tears on him.

“Zanzibar, get off of him!” Cadence sobbed, trying to pull her husband out from under the vicious lion, but he snapped at her. She pulled her hand back just in time, tears rolling down her cheeks. “What have you done with my baby?”

“Zanzibar,” I mumbled quietly, but he was by me in a second, having already traded such powerful paws for two legs.

“Is anything wrong?” he asked, kissing me softly with the sweetest look in his eyes as he stared into mine.

“I think you need to explain this to Salina,” I murmured, kissing his cheek.

I glanced to Grayson, but Cadence was already hovering over him, sobbing into his chest.

He looked absolutely terrified as he stared at his own son.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped, pushing himself to his feet and storming out of the room, his wife at his heels.

Zanzibar scoffed, but his face fell when he looked to his trembling sister.

“Oh, Salina,” he murmured, biting his lip. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

She handed him Amelia, shaking her head quickly. “What’s wrong with you?”

He sighed, passing Amelia to me. I worked to juggle the three carefully.

“We need to talk about something Cadence said to me,” he told her, glancing to me.

I sighed, dismissing him with but a wave of my hand. He still wouldn’t tell me, and that meant it had to do with me; and it was obviously quite the big deal.

The trio finally fell asleep after much coaxing, and Zanzibar reentered the room quietly.

“I tried to apologize for you,” he told me, shrugging. “I just couldn’t lie to myself like that.”

“Are you ever going to tell me what she said?”

He frowned. “Once they’re dead, maybe. I don’t want you to look at her and resent that image as much as I do.”

“Come here?” I asked, and he was by my side in that second. “Look at these three.”

A smile immediately split across his face, and he kissed me gently. “I’m looking.”

“Look at how much Xavier and London look like you. But you look like Grayson. Do you hate looking at them?”

“I don’t look like him very much, and I don’t look like my mother at all. Besides, I look at them and I think about you. How could that upset me?”

I smiled. “But how are we going to stabilize things? I finally finished that diary, and now I’m out of leads. And we also need to face our people and tell them of our three ‘miracles,’ though they may disagree with that term. How can we continue to ensure our success while we have to watch over these three? I was hoping for more time before they were born.”

“I wanted them to be here as soon as possible,” he admitted coyly, shaking his head. “Besides, I’m sure Salina and Camille won’t mind watching them. But I will not have them leaving the Den unless someone breaks in… That means we live here, not at the Nest.”

“I have no one there anyway,” I mumbled quietly, letting out a breath. “When do we talk to our people?”

“How does ‘now’ sound to you?”

I gaped.

Zanzibar stole Xavier from my arms, smiling as he held him up to my eyes. “How could they not love this face?”