Accidental Surrogate for Alpha novel Chapter 384

#Chapter 384 – Road Trip

Ella

I watch Cora struggle with her choice, biting her lip and trying to figure out how she feels. My heart goes out to her now, because I know that she thinks it is an impossible ask to tell us that she wants to put a coronation on hold so that she can visit a temple.

But suddenly, quite suddenly, it’s all I want for her. Because Cora has been here for us through all of this – and she deserves answers to these questions. And I open my mouth to say this, but Sinclair beats me to it.

“I think we should go,” he says, and I whip my eyes up to see him giving a casual shrug. “It will only take a few days,” he adds, looking down at me to see how I feel. “And, quite frankly, we could…use a break before the madness begins again.”

A little smile creeps over my mouth. “Would it,” Cora begins, and then hesitates again. But we all wait, letting her find her voice. “Would it be safe?” she asks.

“We think it would,” Roger says steadily at her side. “Xander’s on the run, which means he’s scrambling. He’s an old man and we took out the forces that he was using to physically attack us. Even if he’s working to get more, we think that we have…at least a small window of time.”

“We would have to move quickly and quietly,” Henry adds, more cautious now than he’s been in the past – I think spooked, still, by the disastrous results of our last plan. “No planes or anything flashy – just…a small, anonymous family trip.”

I turn my attention back to Cora, wanting to know what she thinks. But she’s still sitting perfectly still and quiet, clearly putting her thoughts together.

“I can’t ask you to do this,” she says after a long, quiet minute. “I – we need to get the coronation going, to keep us all safe.”

“You don’t have to ask us to do it, Cora,” Sinclair answers quietly, and I turn my eyes up at my mate. “We’re telling you we want to do it. Right?” he looks at me now and I nod eagerly.

“Honestly, Cora,” I say, leaning forwards her. “It’s what I was thinking. I think it’s right – I think we should go.”

Roger says nothing, simply staying steady at Cora’s side, letting her make up her own mind. But she just continues to shake her head. “But there’s already so much to do here.” She sighs, putting her head down in her hands for a moment as she collects her thoughts.

“The Cult, and the priests, and Xander – it was already a distraction from the aftermath of a war with the humans that has been terribly complicated. There is still so much work to do here, and Ella,” she looks up at me now, “we could be spending this time going to the refugee camps, actually helping people, now that we have the gift -“

My face falls when I realize that she’s right. That there is so much to do here, that it’s perhaps selfish to consider this possibility –

“Two days, Cora,” Roger says quietly next to her, taking her hand. “Two days, and then you can come back and save the world, and take on those problems and surely everything else that’s going to come along with them. But,” he gives her hand a little squeeze, “it would be okay to take two days. You deserve that. You’ve earned that.”

And I find myself nodding, agreeing. Because as I consider what the rest of our lives are going to look like…it’s going to be a lot of dedication to the people of this nation, of this world. And it will make me so happy to do that work – to help people.

But Cora is one of the people I want to help. She deserves it as much as anyone else. Plus, she’s my sister. And that has to count for something.

“Let’s go, Cora,” I say, leaning forward and giving her an encouraging smile. “Two days.”