A Night Away by Carrie Ann Ryan Read Free Book Online

own parents done this seven times?
    Six little baby-boy wolves in less than a decade. Thank God Cailin was so much younger. If she had been the same age as the rest of them, his parents might have turned tail and run.
    And Maddox didn’t think he’d have blamed them.
    Finn squirmed, and Maddox lowered him to the floor before he fell out of his arms. The tyke ran—well as much as an almost-one-year-old could run—across the room and dove head first into a pile of stuffed animals. Maddox winced when Finn let out a piercing cry and then shook it off.
    Was that progress?
    Maddox watched as Finn put all of his stuffed animals back where they were before going to his blocks and organizing them.
    Huh. Maddox ran a hand through his hair. So the kid made messes but cleaned them up? Except for the endless crying, the kid was actually pretty good. Maybe he just needed to start talking. Like now. Maddox didn’t feel any pain or sadness from whenever Finn cried. It was as if that was the only way Finn knew how to communicate, something that would have to change. Soon.
    Finn accidentally knocked down his tower and screamed.
    Maddox winced. “How about we have quiet time?”
    Dear God, Uncle Maddox needed it. The exuberant emotions flooding him from this kid just about weighed him down to the floor. Usually he could block most of the emotions surrounding him so it was just a dull hum, but not with children. They were too good, too full of everything sweet and pure and didn’t have a way to funnel that. They showed all their emotions with each facial expression, each cry, each grin. Every emotion wound its way around Maddox and threatened to suffocate him. He didn’t want those. He needed to breathe.
    Hence the reason why he usually stayed away from them until they learned to control themselves a bit more. So at least until after the teenage years.
    Oh God, Finn as a teenager. Maddox closed his eyes and groaned. He might have to be far, far away for that part of his nephew’s life.
    Finn tilted his head and looked at him with blue eyes too full of knowledge. What did babies think of? He could feel them, but he couldn’t sense thoughts. He wasn’t aware of any wolves that could for that matter.
    His nephew squirmed then smiled widely. A pungent order hit Maddox’s nose, and he gagged.
    Oh. God.
    “Finn. You suck. I’m just saying that now. Wipe that grin off your face.”
    Finn just smiled and then froze before he broke out into gut-wrenching sobs.
    “Hey now, stop it.” Maddox panicked and carried Finn to his room to change him. “You need to stop crying like the world is caving in every time you don’t get your way. You will be Alpha one day. And despite popular belief, you won’t get what you want. Just the opposite in fact.” Maddox peeled the offending diaper off and put it in the Diaper Genie that Mel promised would keep the smell at bay before it went to the disposal area.
     “You’re going to have to learn to control your emotions better, buddy.” He wiped Finns bottom, powdered him, and somehow got the sticky straps on the diaper to work. He’d changed Cailin’s diaper when she was a baby, but that had been a couple of decades before and he was out of practice.
    Finn looked up at him, contentment at getting what he wanted flowing from him and into Maddox.
    “Now, don’t do that. You didn’t get what you wanted because you screamed. You stank and it would have been unsanitary had I left you in that. But you are the Heir’s first son. You need to learn some responsibility and let your parents be individuals as well as parents. They can’t do that if you keep acting like a butt.”
    Finn’s lower lip wobbled, but he didn’t cry.
    That seemed to be progress.
    “Yelling at babies now, are you?” Ellie asked from the doorway.
    He’d known she and North had walked into the house; he had just chosen to ignore them. Well, at least as much as he could ignore his twin and…her.
    “Finn and I are just having