Chapter 493 – Falling for the Alpha as a Surrogate Novel

Filed To Story: Falling for the Alpha as a Surrogate Novel

“They would,” Cora snaps, glaring at Sinclair and me. “They would say whatever polite nonsense they could until they got us alone and then they would break the news to us! So!” she’s almost shaking with her anxiety now as I finish pulling the warm socks over my feet. “Spill! Please!” “Cora,” I murmur, reaching for her, and my sister lets me pull her down onto the bed. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and she bursts into tears. “No, Cora, really – it’s all right!” “Is it?” she gasps. “Then why are you all wet – why did Dominic look like that when he came out of the forest!? What went wrong?” “I’ll tell you everything,” I murmur, rocking my sister back and forth. “But first I need you to tell me how much you want to know.” “What?” she gasps, pulling back and looking at me.

“It’s the same choice you gave me,” I say quietly, looking between her and Roger, “at Rafe’s baptism. You said there were some details that perhaps a mother shouldn’t know – but that it all turned out right. Well, the same thing is true here – it really does all turn out right, Cora. The Goddess – she showed me a vision of Jesse very old, very happy – he lives a long life.” Cora lets out a long, shaking breath, and then her shoulders begin to tremble as she tucks her head down against her baby and starts to cry tears of relief.

“Cora,” Roger says, his voice breaking on her name. I take my arms from around her shoulders so Roger can take my place, and he sits next to her on the bed, pulling her and the baby into his lap and holding them tight against him.

Sinclair comes and stands next to me and I lean against his side, resting my head against his muscled stomach. Very suddenly I want to be holding Rafe but he’s downstairs with Henry, because I knew Cora would need my whole attention for this.

I sigh, denying myself the impulse to run down and get him. My sister needs me more.

We stay like this for a long few moments while Cora catches herself. Then, when she’s ready, she lifts her head and looks into Roger’s eyes. He nods steadily to her.

“Whatever you want, Cora,” he murmurs.

Cora turns her eyes to me and nods, finally ready to know.

Ella

Cora wipes at her face with the palms of her hands. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I just…I kind of flipped out.”

“The vision wasn’t bad,” I say, “I promise it wasn’t. And we get it – if you came out of the baptism ceremony looking like you’d jumped into the pool? I’d have freaked out too!”

“Yeah, well,” she murmurs, glancing down at my stomach, “maybe I’ll just do that out of spite in six months, see how you like it.”

I laugh then, the noise surprising me, and Cora’s face breaks into a tentative smile.

“There’s my girl,” Roger murmurs, lifting a hand to wipe at the last of her tears.

“I think we need to hear all of it,” Cora says, nodding to Sinclair and then to me. “Please. Just…maybe just for this baby, our first.”

“Okay,” I whisper, nodding. And then Sinclair and I tell her all of it – of all the wonderful things we saw for Rafe as he grows up, and his happiness with his cousins. And then we tell of the darkness we saw, and the incredible way he moved through it – of the challenge clearly laid out for him in his future.

“Wow,” Roger says, a little baffled as he looks down at his baby. “I have…I have no way of really comprehending what any of that means,” he murmurs.

“It was difficult to know what we were seeing,” Sinclair replies, looking down at me for confirmation. I nod. “Then, Ella got really pissed. That’s when she jumped into the pool.”

“What?!” Cora gasps.

I give a shrug. “I wasn’t going to let her end the vision there. So…we kind of got into a fight, and then she gave me the last image – of Jesse old and happy, so that I’d go away.”

Cora bursts into laughter then, looking down at her little baby. “We chose the right godmother for you, baby,” she sighs. “Always getting her money’s worth.”

“Damn straight,” I say looking up at Sinclair with a very clear told-you-so expression on my face. “Only the full baptism experience for my baby nephew.”

“So, what do you think it means?” Roger asks, looking between us.

“I don’t know,” I reply, resting my hand on my chin and gazing at the baby, wondering about his very strange and very interesting future. “He’s going to be very close with Rafe and with the new baby girl. And the way he handled a dagger, and the way he was dressed – I think he’s going to be a warrior.”

“That fits,” Cora sighs, looking up at me with a little guilt in her eyes. “We saw Rafe was going to be a warrior too. So, at least they’ll have each other.”

A little anxiety turns in me at that, but I just nod, tucking the information away. I mean, considering who his dad is? I can’t say that I’m surprised. But I can think about how I feel about it another day.

“I think it’s more than that, though,” I murmur. “Something mom said

“Wait, what?” Sinclair says, breaking in and stepping away from me a little, looking down at me. “She spoke?”

“Oh yeah,” I say, giving a little apologetic laugh and a shrug. “I forgot you didn’t hear her. My bad.”

“Your bad!?” he says, appalled.

“Yes, my bad!” I return, rolling my eyes and brushing a hand through the air at him, dismissive. I turn my eyes back to Cora. “Mom said that Jesse’s mission will be his own and that she doesn’t know the outcome. But honestly, Cora, he seemed…very capable. And very powerful.”

I look up at Sinclair, wondering if he felt the same. He sighs as he looks at me and then turns to nod to his brother and my sister. “That was the impression that I got too. That whatever gift the Goddess gave to him… it’s a powerful one.”

Cora and Roger are quiet for a long moment, shifting their gaze to their little boy. Sinclair and I sit quietly, letting them process their thoughts.

“You know,” Roger says quietly, thoughtful. “If you’d asked me before he was born if I wanted him to have a weird, cool, powerful gift, I’d have said hell yeah. But now that he’s here? And he’s so…tiny?” Roger takes a deep breath that breaks my heart a little bit, shaking his head as he stares at his son. “I wish his gift was something stupid, like…being really, really good at bowling. Or just being magically kickass at Scrabble.”

“He’s going to get that from me anyway,” Cora murmurs, smirking a little, and I bite my lip to see the humor returning to these two. Because if they’re joking about it…I think it means that they’re strong enough to get through it.

“The last thing mom said to me,” I say quietly, and Cora’s eyes flash up to me with a little bit of dread in them – like she doesn’t want any more information tonight –

I laugh and shake my head. “No, it’s good!” I say, putting up a hand. “She said to trust them,” I continue, nodding. “Trust our kids. And it felt very true – I mean, we’re all aware that we’re not bringing kids into an easy life. They’re born into responsibilities. We have to raise them to be strong, and then when they’re grown? We have to trust them to handle themselves in the world.”

Sinclair nods slowly, agreeing with me. “And I don’t think the Goddess would have given Jesse a powerful gift if she didn’t think he could handle it,” he says softly, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think she’s in the business of screwing over her grandkids.”

Cora sighs, nodding too. “Just giving her daughters extreme anxiety,” she mutters, sighing and running a hand over Jesse’s sleeping heads.

“I think that’s probably all moms,” I say, standing up and leaning against my mate, who pulls me tight against him. “But…I mean, I think it’s going to turn out okay.”

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