Chapter 150
The Pack
The story of the Golden Wolf defeating the Evil Sorcerer was spread wide throughout the region. At least a mystery had been solved, and the world felt safe again.
Nico, father of Lucian and Tessa, held a longtime grudge against the Alpha system in Werefol society. He raged against the nepotism that chose new leaders, the corruption of those who he deemed not worthy enough to lead a Pack. After a bad deal with suspicious practitioners of the dark arts, he became a sorcerer with immense power but at first it could not be contained. He left his family for fear of harming them.
In his solitude he stewed and his bruised ego festered, driving him to extreme measures. Over the years, he began to wonder how he could change the fate of those like him, if he could create strength and power that could overpower the Alpha aura that was passed down through an arbitrary bloodline.
Mira and Dominc were not the first he’d used for his experimentation, but they certainly had the greatest impression on him. Pack Grey was large and old, and Nico hated Davos Grey more than any other Alpha in the area, for reasons he would take to the grave.
Even Davos could not explain it, but some things must be left in the dark and abandoned to history and myth.
In the end, the sorcerer was no match for the supernatural power and courage of the Golden Wolf. Pride goeth before the fall, and Nico’s ego was the only thing left that showed he was ever human. The details of Mira’s vanquishing of her foe were stretched and twisted until they seemed more like legend than truth.
When fact-checkers came calling asking the Luna to verify, she replied the best way she knew how.
“No comment.”
And yes, she returned to her Pack and to her Fated Mate.
With the threat of sorcery fading from the area, the Pack leaders gather to solidify an alliance that would benefit all. Generations-old border discussions were re-opened, and families that had been rivals welcomed new marriages between younger wolves.
The future, as far as could be seen, was bright.
Mira
One year later.
Dominic’s head was resting on my stomach, one hand lazily caressing my hip.
My fingers were lost in his thick head of hair, massaging his scalp and occasionally bushing the back of his neck. The hairs would raise under my tender touch, and he would inhale sharply at the sweet sensation.
“Are you trying to tease or torture me?”
My belly vibrated with the timbre of his voice. It was like he was speaking directly to my bones.
“Maybe a bit of both,” I said with a sly smile. He growled low in his throat, almost a purr. “Do you want me to stop?”
I lifted my hands off his head, causing him to immediately react. He lifted his head just enough to glare at me.
“How dare you?”
He raised his voice in mock disdain, then the shocked expression turned into something salacious.
“For the slight,” he said, dropping his eyes from my face to my bare chest, “you will be punished."
I gasped as he placed his mouth over my breast, nipping and suckling while his hand reached for the other side. My eyes closed as he tongued circles around my nipple, and I grabbed his head again just to keep myself from floating out of my body and into the air.
He responded to my body by lifting himself over me, my body open and welcoming as he entered me for the second time that morning. Our bodies moved in a rhythm that could not be composed by even the greatest musical genius.
Hearts pounding in sync with one another, hands squeezing flesh so tightly it was like we were trying to become one being, and perhaps we were. We didn’t care how loud we were, the room filled with gasps and exhalations and laughter and words of adoration and undying love.
Mornings belonged to us, only for us, and most were similar to this one. Before the sun had fully risen above the trees, before the Pack needed us to put on the faces of leaders, and before our child cried out for his parents.
Dorian, our son, was eight months old but looked like a two-year old. Already trying to toddle around, the rumors were rife that he would be taller than his father. I was mostly concerned that he would want to climb and jump off of anything he could find, and I crossed my fingers I had a few years to prepare for that.
He had Dominic’s dark hair, but we were both elated to see he inherited my lighter golden-brown eyes.
While mischievous, he had a sweet and gentle soul. He could so easily and quickly pick up on the emotions of others, and loved nothing more than to be nestled into either one of his parents.
As Dominic and I lay in bed, catching our breath, the sound of our little boy came crackling through the monitor. He rarely cried, and his morning murmurations sound like the soft cooing of a dove.
“I’ll go,” Dominic said, peeling himself off of me and out of bed.
He returned with Dorian bouncing in his arms, a smile bright across his tiny face. He was pressing his fingers into Dominic’s mouth and nose, anything within reach of his curious grasp.
“Come here little one,” I said, sitting up to catch him as he tried to leap onto the bed. “Careful with mama’s necklace, sweet boy, don’t pull.”
He always wanted to hold the chain at my neck, the one that Dominic had give me so long ago. Always gentle and reverent, it was like Dorian knew the importance of the simple piece of jewelry.
Dominic sighed, looking at his phone.
“What is it?”
“Just looking at the calendar,” he said, scrolling the screen. “So many meetings, and a TV appearance in the afternoon. Whose idea was this?”
“What? The idea to run a Pack of wolves and protect its allies?” My eyebrows raised in gentle mockery. “I believe that was you, Alpha.”
“Ha, ha,” he said, climbing back into bed with me and our son.
Dorian immediately clambered over and crawled onto his chest, and Dominc started to gently toss him around and into the air earning squeals of glee from Dorian.
“I wish he could stay this age forever,” Dominic mused. “Babies are just so fun to play with.”
I smiled, my cheeks turning pink, and I had to bite my lip to keep from exploding.
“What?”
Dominic was looking at me intently now, since I’d gone silent.
“What is it?”
“Well,” I began, knowing I just needed to be out with it. “You might get your wish about that, not about keeping Dorian a baby forever, but…”
My hands rested against my stomach, and I gave my husband a knowing look.
“No…”
He said, looking from my stomach to my face with tears in his eyes.
“Yes,” I said, nodding feverishly. “We’re going to have another baby.”
Dorian’s giggles were all that could be heard as Dominic pressed his body and his lips onto mine.
We stayed that way, the three of us, basking in our good fortune.
For the first time in my life I believed it was possible: I could live happily ever after.
