“I’ll go with you then.” I nodded, peering through the holes at Gideon. “I’ll be back shortly. If have anything, gather them, please.”

“Annie showed me a bunch of pictures his adopted family took of him. I’m going to steal those. He’s sooooo cuuuute!” Gideon said with a squeal, quickly turning to loudly run out of the room and out of sight as he shouted that he was stealing the chess pieces as well.

I turned to the man, giving him a polite smile before I followed him out of the building an across the street.

Behind the massive wall across the street was a much larger courtyard, many children roaming around but none looking very happy. My stomach twisted at the sight and I had the distinct feeling this wasn’t an adoption agency.

It was a matchmaking building, the sign above the main building confirming that.

Child brides were outlawed in Victoria, but we did allowed the families of compatible children to meet and discuss preliminary plans. My sisters had all been on several date with other children, usually going as a group with my parents and the children’s parents – sometimes with a couple siblings as well – to the zoo, or park.

Teenagers usually went to the matchmaking district with their prospective mate and both sets of parents – as well as their matchmakers, the older the children got the more independence they had. When my sisters were older then twelve, they were allowed to go with their prospective around our hometown alone as long as they checked in, but Roy always insisted on tagging along with Little Lawrence.

But in Trinity and other places where child marriages were allowed?

Someone could purchase a sapien that was compatible with their child and marry them off at any age. The child was often given an advocate from the clan to check in with them once a month and then the sapien and novus child would have a second marriage as adults, but there were no laws that restricted what ages a sapien child could get married as long as their clan signed off on it.

And if the sapien was brought down from the wilds?

Then there was even less restriction.

As long as the sapien was marrying a novus child that had less then a two year age gap, the clans didn’t care.

It was an awful place, and my heart hurt seeing so many sad, confused children quietly playing in the courtyard.

But I was very confused as to why I was brought here.

We entered the building and I was brought to the office of the man, who I found out was the head of the adoption agency. Mabel was brought in then and we embraced briefly and I quickly filled her in on what was going on before the man sighed loudly, catching both our attention.

“You know what would be good for you? Adoption.” He said with the same empty smile. “Nothing helps cement a relationship together better then having a child, and given you two are both men, adoption would be the easiest, drama free way of doing that.

My eyebrows lifted, Mabel reaching up to flip her long braid over her shoulder. “Adoption?” I asked slowly, blinking. “Do you think?” I asked carefully, confused.

“Yes, I do.”

I held his gaze, narrowing my eyes. “And...what makes you think that...would-”

“It’s pains us to have to give up a sapien such as Gideon, who is compatible with a Type A novus, since he is now here in the city, where we have so many type A novus in need of a mate,” He interrupted. His words sunk in and I straightened my posture, my hand on Mabel’s back to feel her heart beat picking up. She was on the defense. I didn’t blame her. “But it would pain us a lot less if it also meant we were...losing the burden of an uncivilized sapiens that wasn’t compatible with Type A novus. And not house broken.” He said coolly, smiling then, thin and long. “I think a sapien son would do you and your soon to be mate good!”

I lifted my chin slowly.

So the rumors of Trinity were true.

They bought orphans from The Wilds, quickly determined if the child was compatible with any of their surplus of type A residents, and if they weren’t they shipped them out to whoever they could pass them off to. Greater Lakes usually absorbed them, I was told, but I had no way of knowing for sure.

Victoria tended to be prejudice against folk from The Wilds and in certain cases would go as far as to kill a novus simply upon finding out they were from there. Roy had hidden Mabel in a sun proof tent in the tool shed on our property out of fear of her being killed. We had to convince him that it was safe to have her in the house, but he cried for days and hide her in the closet, he was so scared the local peacekeepers would kill her.

And his anxiety wasn’t without reason, of course, but once Mabel won second place in the north American tracking championship, she was asked to enroll into the peacekeepers cadets. Once she proved herself to them, she was quickly accepted and she moved her sisters down so they could join as well.

Once her parents came down from The Wilds, they all took the citizenship course and became full members of the Deatherage Clan, and it was all smooth sailing since then. No one really liked to talk about them being born and raised in The Wilds though, especially not Mabel, who had some world wide recognition for tracking.

I personally had zero qualms about novus from the The Wilds as long as they didn’t hurt anyone or steal my mate.

And I had even less qualms about sapiens from The Wilds.

And if it took adopting a child to get Gideon back home and out of this hellish place, then I would be more than happy to do so. I’d adopt ten children if that’s what it took.

“I would be okay with adopting, yes.” I said with a polite smile.

His smile widened to show teeth. “Wonderful. I’ll get you one. Any preference? Boy? Girl?”

“Not at all.” I said with a little smile, patting Mabel’s back as I looked to her. She looked and me and I nodded a little at her, feeling her relax a little under my hand.

“Then sit here and I’ll fetch you one.” He stood quickly from his desk and walked out of the room in a hurry, like we might change out mind, and I turned to Mabel then.

“You’re okay with this?” she signed to me.

I nodded. “Absolutely. Getting Gideon back is what I want. Saving a child from this place is a bonus.”

She nodded firmly. “I support you, whatever you need.”

I patted my chest, meaning ‘thank you’, and embraced her for a long minute.

What a scary situation that had been – we weren’t quite out of the woods yet, but we were close, and I was so glad to have Mabel at my side.

When we heard the man coming back up the hall we broke apart and Mabel said she would go get the van, leaving then.

The man came in a moment later carrying a toddler sapien male, setting him down and turning him so we could see his dirty face.

“This is Colin,” The man said simply, “He has low compatibility with all classes. So...good luck arranging that.” He said lamely, giving the little boy, Colin, a disappointed look, “I’ll go speak to Ilan about releasing his brother.”

“Do I need to sign anything?” I asked lightly as the little boy looked between us with a nervous look before he turned and went to the wall to press his face and hands to it, reeking of fear, and my heart sinking.

The other man shook his head. “Nope. Just...take him off our hands. That’s it.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Thank you...”I said carefully as I went to kneel down to look at the toddler, holding out a hand for him. “Hi Colin,” I said softly as I looked him over. He seemed to be wearing overalls and nothing else, smelling like he hadn’t had a bath in weeks, his overalls urine soaked and hair knotted. “I’m Laurie. I’m going to take you home with me.” He kept his face pressed to the wall, chin tucked as his hands lowered to grip the front of his dirty overalls. I slowly went over and sat against the wall next to him, reaching out to tap on his naked foot. “Where are your shoes?” I asked lightly, smiling at him. He stared at me before he reached out and touched my mouth.

“Are you a fairy?” He asked in a small voice, staring at my mouth with tired blue eyes. I frowned. “You have nightwalker eyes, but daywalker teeth...”

I laughed, smiling, leaning down so Colin could poking my teeth with a curious look. “Are you talking about the Woodland fairies?” He nodded a little. “Well, I guess in some ways I’m close to those, yes. I don’t steal sapiens, for starters – I’m actually here to get my sapien mate, we’re in love...but and I’d like to take you back home with me to stay there. Would that be okay?”

His face crumbled and he put his hand against the wall, looking unsure. “No one wants me since Mama died.” He said in a little voice, taking the finger he had used to poke my teeth to press to the wall, his eyes watering.

“Well, I-I want you. I’d like to be your Daddy, if you’d like.” I smiled a little bit as he watched me, sniffling. “Or if your more comfortable with me being your brother, I can be that as well, but I’d like it if you were my family.”

“But what if you die like Mama?” He squeaked, a big tear dragging down his face as he made a high pitch crying noise, his entire little body shaking with his sob. “Will you send me back to the woods?”

I reached out and stroked his dirty cheek gently, “If I die, then...I have parents, and sisters, and cousins, and lots and lots of people that will want to have you with them, because if you come home with me, you’d be my baby, and I have a big, big family that would love you.” I said softly, “It’s okay now, Colin. It’ll be okay – you’ll have a family now.”

He dropped his gaze and turned this way and that, rocking himself side to side before he slowly pressed his forehead to the wall.

Sapien children weren’t like novus children.

They had far, far more simplistic thoughts and their understanding of the world around them was vastly different. They could absorb a lot of information and had some level of critical thinking, but it was no where near as complex as a novus. Normally when you told them something, especially when they were as young as Colin, they were likely to believe you.

“Okay.” He said then in a little voice.

I smiled and held out my hand for him and he took it, but kept his forehead pressed to the wall. I gently pulled him toward me and when he came over, I held him in my arms like I did with Roy’s children, rocking him gently.

He smelt so sad, and scared, and a little bit sick, like he had been cold for a very long time. I held him tightly and he rubbed his face with his hands, smearing his tears into the dirt on his face. I patted around my jacket before I withdrew a handkerchief, gently starting to clean his face. He held still as I cleaned off his face before he took the handkerchief from me to pull on between his hands, blinking up at me as I smiled down at him.

“You’re very pretty,” He whispered, “You remind me of my mama.”

“Thank you.” I smoothed back his greasy, dirty hair. “You’re going to really love my family, Colin. They’re very, very good people. And Gideon, my mate? He’s a lot of fun. You’ll love him as well and I know he’ll love you.”

He nodded a little with a frown, sniffling as he reached down and took my hand.

“Who the fuck is this?” Gideon said as he came into the room.

“This is Colin, he’s coming home with us. I’m adopting him.” I said with a smile, looking down to where Colin was resting his head on my shoulder with an anxious look, stroking my jacket. Gideon frowned but didn’t object, instead giving a big shrug with a bewildered look before he knelt down to press a kiss to my mouth. I kissed his briefly before I saw that Gideon’s brother was standing in the doorway with a cool look on his face.

He didn’t look to much like Gideon, but sure enough, he did smell like he was his brother.

I laughed a little. “You must be Ilan – I’m Laurie.” I said with a polite smile. “And this is Colin, my new son.”

Ilan said nothing but stared with an icy gaze, his yellow eyes sharp and annoyed, a muscle under his eye twitching.

And I knew exactly what he was doing.

Sizing me up.

As the mate to his brother, he was trying to figure out if he could take me in a fight for the dominant male of the family.

When he gave a sniff and a jerk of his head, I knew he had finished his assessment, likely decided that he could take me – and he could, I supposed. I didn’t fight unless I needed to, though I knew I would fight for Gideon.

And Colin now, to.

What an eventful couple of months!

I stood carefully, Colin clinging to me as I slid my back up along the wall, holding him as I stood with Colin in one arm and Gideon hanging off my older shoulder. “Thank you for coming to find Gideon, Ilan – I can’t tell you how happy I know he is to have you in his life.” I said as Gideon grinned wide, Colin frowning at him.

“And I’m going to find a way to make it so he’s more present in my life! Annie doesn’t want to move to Liliport, HAHAHA,” Gideon said in a forced laugh, “But I’m going to wear him down – I want his to come be with us if possible!”

“I would be more than happy to have you,” I said to Ilan with a smile and a nod, Colin coughing a little, a wet sound I knew we’d have to get checked out. “We’ll make room.” I said firmly, “There will always be room for Gideon’s brother.”

He turned his face a little and lifted his chin, but after a moment gave a slow incline of his head. “Thank you.” He said politely, his gaze jumping from me to Gideon. He frowned and cautiously lifted his arms, Gideon immediately detaching from me to run over and embrace him. He fully slammed into him but Ilan impressively stood perfectly still. “I’ll call you.” He mumbled to Gideon, Gideon whispering back he’d bother the shit out of him with messages and calls if he didn’t come down to visit him.

I looked to Colin then and he looked up at me, pressing a finger tip to my perfect teeth, ones that took years of braces, filing down, and whitening to get to where they were – perfectly civilized, something all my sisters and now all of Roy’s children were having done as well.

Colin then rested his head quickly against my shoulder and whispered that he was going to go with a woodland fairy and live in a fairy tale and I smiled as Gideon roughly rocked him and his brother back and forth.

My gaze cut to the man watching all of us and I gave him a polite smile and asked if there was anything else I needed to do for us to leave. He tried to talk me into adopting another child, but Gideon said they only had room for one toddler and one baby brother back home, and the man dropped it.

We left then, Ilan walking us to where Mabel was in the van.

And then we left Trinity in a hurry.