"Are you sure you'll be alright, I mean I'm sure Carden wouldn't mind holding the fort on his own for a while." I could hear his laughter through the phone as Carden eagerly protested to my idea. I looked up to see that I was closer to the borders of the Crimson Moon Pack.

"Like I said ten times before you left this morning and twenty times more last night, I'll be fine. Carden will be with me." Idris tried to reason with me. "Xander needs someone there for him whilst the twins are out, he can't be left alone."

"Yeah I know," I sighed, why did I always give in so easily.

"Besides, when I was pregnant you were amazing at calming me down, he'll benefit from it."

"Yeah you're probably right." I said as I remembered the year Idris was pregnant with the boys, he was a mess.

"Of course I'm right," he chuckles, "okay I've got to go, I'll check in with you later."

"Okay babe, I'll tell Xander you said hi."

"Yes do, okay, I love you baby." I hear Idris sigh, I mumble an 'I love you too' before we both hang up the phone.

I'm immediately recognised and let onto the grounds, finding my way towards the pack house. The architectural technique of Xander's people still amazed me, every building carved and structured to perfection.

I made my way into the Alphas apartment and surveyed for Xander, the sounds of tape ripping brought me straight to the nursery.

I looked around at the blue walls with stickers of clouds and teddy bears, the furniture white with floral designs, shelves with books, nappies and plush toys. And then in the middle of it all was a very pregnant Xander opening boxes of gifts no doubt from the rest of the pack.

"I was told that you were supposed to be taking it easy, hunching over like that will kill your spine." I said, grabbing his attention. As soon as Xander's eyes met mine he lit up in a smile, getting up from his position on the floor and wrapping his arms around my neck as best as he could with his bump.

"I missed you Vladimir." he mumbled into my neck as I wrapped my arms around him.

"I missed you too little one. Come on, let's go watch a movie, I'll make some popcorn." I say as I lead him out of the nursery.

"Can it be toffee popcorn?" he says innocently that makes my heart melt.

"Of course it can, show me where you keep them."

Two bowls of popcorn, along with some chewits later and myself and Xander are relaxing on the couch onto movie number two, kung fu panda, Xander had begged me to put it on.

"I feel sorry for Matt and Damien." Xander says as he stares at the screen.

My forehead creases, "What do you mean?" I ask.

"They grew up as kids in the 1890s and early 1900s, they never got to grow up with cool movies like this." Xander snuggled into my side more as he heaved a sigh, he seemed really tired.

"Well you are right about that, Damien would've loved movies like this when he was little. They both had to make due with books and Idris' and I's stories." Movies would've been a way easier way to entertain them, but our stories I'm sure made up for it.

He chuckled at that, taking his eyes away from the screen to look up at me. "Oh those beautiful doe eyes, how do my sons ever say no to you." I say making him blush.

"With great difficulty." he jokes shyly, hiding his face on my shoulder. I smirk at his cuteness, he always blushes so easily. I wonder if their baby will be like Xander , a Submissive Alpha?

"Will you tell your stories when our son is old enough?" Xander asks.

"I'd love to. Have you guys thought of a name yet? Your due date is in a few days." I smile down at him.

"Yeah, we've decided to go with Luca. Matt thought it sounded cute and I agree."

Luca, "That's a beautiful name." and it was, it will be unusual for an Alpha but then again, Xander wasn't your usual Alpha.

"You miss your mates yet, or am I a decent enough replacement?" I tease making him blush again.

"I do miss them, but I love your company too. You don't come around as often as you used to, you and Idris." he said sadly.

"I know, and I'm sorry. We thought that you'd want to be left alone with your mates."

"Yeah I guess."

"Don't worry, you'll be seeing a lot more of us once the baby comes. We'd love to help out, Idris has been dying to babysit ever since he found out you were expecting." the night we heard the news he'd talk for hours about all the fun activities we'd do with our grandchild. Our daughter Elizabeth never had any kids and probably won't for another couple hundred years, so this being our first grandchild meant the world to us.

Xander smiled up at me, "Thank you Vladimir, it really calms me knowing that we can always depend on you guys."

"No problem Xander." I'd say now would be a good time to ask a question I'd been wanting to know the answer to for some time. "How has Damien been, I know himself and Matt are away today, was that your doing?"

Xander groaned and slowly sat up so he could face me more, chuckling as he struggled to do so. "Yes and no. Damien's been all over the place, I thought I was bad-"

"-you are bad. Your anxiety is through the roof and you refuse to sit still. I'm surprised you so willingly sat with me today." I cut him off sternly, the boys had told me much of how hard they were finding it to get Xander to relax.

"Yes well… " he looked away sheepishly before returning his gaze to me. "... He's gotten worse over the past few weeks, he's been having these little stress episodes where he thinks he's going to be a bad dad and fuck everything up. I spoke to Matt and we both agreed he needed a day out of the pack, away from taking care of me and everything else."

I smiled fondly, it was no secret how in love Xander was with Matt and Damien but he was always too shy to express it in words. Seeing him speak so lovingly about his doms with such concern made me feel so proud.

"They are so lucky to have a sub like you, a mate like you Xander."

"T-Thank you…" he said, that all too familiar blush rising up his cheeks. "I know being a dom, a mate in general is stressful on him. Matt said he was taking him somewhere special, somewhere they went to when they were kids, a… erm, like a lake or something?"

My eyes opened in shock, not sure if I heard him correctly. "They haven't been to that lake in centuries. It was they're favourite place to spend time together, especially when they were going through rough times."

"Rough times?"

I looked at Xander for a few seconds before sighing, they clearly hadn't told him everything about their childhood. "When they were little, well they were 18, I know that's the age of an adult for you guys but to us Vampires they were still seen as really young."

He smiled and nodded for me to continue.

"When they both entered the academy, Damien used to get bullied. Very badly bullied in fact. He'd have nightmares that would take him hours to calm down from. The lake they've gone to is the place Matt always took him when the bullying got too much, when he needed an escape. " It still hurts to think back to that time.

Xander's lip wobbled as tears started spilling out of his eyes, my heart broke at the sight.

"W-why didn't he tell me? They never told me they had a hard childhood?" he started sobbing, too far gone to stop now.

I reached over and pulled Xander into my lap, holding him close. "Ssh sweetheart, it's okay. I thought they would have mentioned it but perhaps he was still too embarrassed and ashamed, it took him years to get over it."

Xander looked up at me as I tried to wipe away his tears but they didn't stop. "How did it end, surely he didn't suffer all ten years in the academy, did he?"

"No, no he certainly did not. At first Idris and I weren't aware of what was happening, he hid it from us very well. We'll enough until one day we made a visit to the academy to speak to Ren, there we saw Damien hunched over in the hallway and clinging to Matt's arm. The bruises he'd received hadn't had enough time to heal." I took a deep breath to try and keep myself calm.

"You weren't happy?" Xander says quietly, his sobbs not as harsh now but he was still visibly very upset.

"Not in the slightest. We weren't happy that he'd kept it from us, especially that Matt hadn't come to us about it. But the boys who'd done it made me livid. That same day all of them and their families were kicked out of the coven, apparently the parents had known of their sons behaviour and had done nothing. No Vampires like them deserved a place in our coven, not at the hands of my children."

Xander sniffled and came in for a hug, a hug I greatly needed. "You're a great father Vladimir, and I know you will be an even greater grandfather to our Luca." he mumbled into my neck as we both calmed down.

"Thank you Xander, that means a lot." I said, smiling happily as I held him close. He leaned back after a while and wiped his face.

"I'll need to talk to him, to both of them. But not now, I'll wait until Luca is born and then talk to them. None of us need to be stressing each other out more than we need to."

"That's a little rich coming from you little one, considering I'm here practically babysitting you myself." I smirked at him, causing him to blush deeply.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay Xander. Why don't we finish Kung Fu Panda and then we can make some cookies? I'm sure Matt and Damien would greatly appreciate a treat when they come back." This earned me a smile as Xander snuggled back into me as we finished the movie.