Chapter 501 – Happily Ever After

Ella

“Nope,” Sinclair said, heaving himself out of bed and grabbing his phone from the bedside table. “I can’t live like this, Ella. I’m calling Roger; I have to know—”

“Dominic!” I said, laughing and reaching for him, trying to catch the edge of his pajamas but failing because I was holding a sleeping baby and another was nestled warmly against me. “Don’t! Come back!”

“I just—” he said, pressing the phone to his ear and running a frantic hand through his hair. “You tell me there’s drama in her life, but it’s no big deal, ‘girl stuff’? What the hell am I supposed to do with that for the next twenty years!?”

“You’re supposed to sit down,” I said, laughing harder and patting the mattress on his side of the bed, still warm from his body heat. “Honestly, if this is your reaction after all our daughters’ baptisms, we’re not having any more—”

Sinclair sighed, pulled the phone away, and slumped back onto the bed. “Fine,” he sighed. “Just boys, after this.”

“Okay, sweetie,” I murmured, though my mind flashed back to the vision my mother’s priestess gave me long ago. We’re having two more—I think a boy and a girl. But who knows what their futures hold?

“I’m glad you came to your senses and hung up,” I murmured, scooting closer to him and my children, my voice a little smug.

“I didn’t,” Sinclair muttered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Roger didn’t answer.”

I grinned, shaking my head. “Why can’t you just accept good news? Human families don’t get insight into their children’s futures at birth, and Roger and Cora told us Ariel has an incredible life. The drama—it’s going to happen whether you know about it or not.”

“Well, you know what it is,” he said, giving me a rueful glare.

“I do not,” I said, laughing and resting my head on his shoulder. “Cora knows, and she’s sworn Roger to secrecy. Ariel’s life is her business. We should be grateful our two children are healthy and happy.”

“I know,” Sinclair sighed, pulling me closer, relaxing into his exhaustion as the morning light streamed around the closed curtains. He kissed my hair, making me smile as I looked down at my baby girl and traced my thumb along my son’s cheek.

We stayed that way for a long moment, peace and contentment radiating through us.

“Dominic,” I said quietly, my mind turning. “What do you think? If you had the chance… would you want to know? What your godmother saw, what the Goddess revealed?”

“What do you mean?” he murmured, and I turned to see his eyes moving between our children.

“I mean,” I said, and his green eyes met mine. “If you…had a chance to know that your first mating would fail, but that I would be on the other end of it. All the confusion when we met, me already pregnant, everything we went through, and these two beautiful children—”

“Alongside a wonderful partnership,” he murmured, kissing my cheek. “Which, honestly, is my favorite part—”

“Even more than the kids!?” I gasped.

“I mean, the kids are amazing,” he said, shrugging, which made me laugh. Then he stiffened, raising his eyes. “Wait, are you saying you like the kids more than me!?”

My laughter burst forth as I shook my head. “No, Dominic. We both mean the same thing. It’s our family—each part individually wonderful, and you are at the center of it all for me. You’re my mate, my love,” I shook my head, smiling. “The center of my universe. But the whole universe we’ve built is wonderful.”

“That’s precisely how I feel,” he said with a sigh, kissing me. “You just say it better.”

“Well,” I said haughtily, tossing my hair over my shoulders. “I have a way with words.”

“Mmhmm,” he hummed, kissing my jaw and neck, sending a shiver through me. “Amongst other things.”

I smiled, waiting for his gaze. “So?” I pushed, wanting his answer. “What do you think? If your godmother saw all this—would you have wanted to know?”

He took a deep breath. “Well,” he said contemplatively, “on one hand, it would have saved me a great deal of stress and sadness. To know this was waiting for me, the wonderful hand the Goddess had dealt.”

He shared memories through our bond: the loss of his mother, the years pining for his first mate, their tumultuous marriage, the longing for a child, the rejected mating bond, and the emptiness afterward. Then meeting me, wanting me and our child, unsure what it meant to have a child with a woman he thought was human…

I nodded, understanding. “It would have helped me, too.” I shared my memories: the years with only Cora, the dark years, my terrible ex-boyfriend, the longing for a child I thought I’d never have…

“But,” Sinclair said, gazing deeply into my eyes, sending his love through our bond, wiping away those terrible memories. “As much as knowing would have been good, Ella…it’s important that we chose this, that we fought for it every step of the way. That it wasn’t just fate. Even if fated…we wanted it, we wanted each other. We’d have picked this life anyway.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I nodded. He’d said it perfectly.

“I’d pick you, Dominic,” I said, my voice shaking. “In a thousand lifetimes, I’d do it all again.”

Tears filled his eyes as he pulled me close, miraculously avoiding crushing our children.

“So, I guess it wouldn’t matter,” he murmured against my hair. “Knowing or not? I have you, our wonderful life, and it’s worth everything. You’re my everything, trouble.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “I think we’re obligated to pass the ‘trouble’ nickname down to Ariel.”

“Nah,” Sinclair smirked, wiping my tears. “She might be baby trouble, but you’ll always be my trouble. And you’ll always be mine.”

I smiled softly. “And what about this one?” I said, running my hand over Rafe’s hair. “He’s not trouble?”

“This little guy?” Sinclair grinned, rubbing his son’s back. “No way—he’s too sweet. He’s going to be the best kid.”

“You’ll have to teach him to act tough,” I laughed, “or everyone will take advantage of his soft heart.”

“No problem,” Sinclair grinned. “We’ll build him some steely armor to protect that sweet heart.”

I smiled at my son, thinking of his father—the scariest and most powerful man, but also the kindest. A good king, a better mate, a wonderful father.

God, how did I get so lucky?

“I love you, Dominic,” I sighed, resting my head against him.

“I love you too, Ella,” he murmured, holding me tight as we dozed, our perfect son between us, our baby girl against my arm.

And, though I knew I should put Rafe in his crib, Ariel in her bassinet, and get proper sleep…I let myself doze. Everything was perfect.

Curled against my mate, with my children, I slept in complete peace, knowing that when I woke…it would be the start of the rest of my wonderful life—with my Alpha by my side.

THE END