Accidental Surrogate for Alpha novel Chapter 410

#Chapter 410 – Assembling the Team

Cora

When I wake up the next morning the dawn sun is already streaming through the windows, and I am absolutely – hands down – the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m curled up against my mate’s side, my hand still on his chest where I placed it when I fell asleep, and when I look up into his face? I see him already smiling down at me.

My mouth bursts into a smile.

“Well,” he says, turning fully towards me now and nudging my nose with his. “That was an incredible dream, wasn’t it?”

“Do you think it was real?” I whisper, desperately, desperately hoping that it was.

“I do,” he replies, nodding. “I don’t think…well, the things that you made up the beach, the landscape…they were all pretty static, no?”

I gasp a little, offended – “It was not static! It was intricate and there was a breeze I could smell the salt -”

“No, Cora,” he says, laughing, “I mean like, unchanging. The things that changed – you, me, the feeling the baby passed to us, and the wolves? Those all seemed very real.”

“Yeah,” I say, relaxing again and snuggling close, tucking my head beneath Roger’s chin. “I think it was real too.”

“He’s a really cute pup,” Roger murmurs, sleepily kissing my hair. ” Way cuter than Rafe.”

“I know, right?” I mumble, yawning. But we don’t have to tell Ella and Dominic that.”

“No way,” he replies. “No need to hurt their feelings. They’ll find out soon enough. We’re quiet for a moment before I ask my next question. “Did that go…how you thought it would?” I ask, hesitant.

“No,” Roger says instantly, laughing. “Honestly, Cora, I thought we were going to have way more sex -”

And then I burst into laughter too, because that’s what I had expected as well. I don’t know what Sinclair told his brother, but from everything Ella has said? It sounds like the dream state has been a place for them to really explore their relationship in a very physical way – after all, they had sex there first, before they ever did with their real bodies.

And while I can certainly see Roger and I using the dream state for that kind of exploration in the future? A part of me is really, really glad that mine and Roger’s experience brought us closer in a different way.

Because right now, I feel so much more like a family than I did before we went to sleep. And it’s not that we weren’t a family before – but now that we’ve…we’ve felt him? Met him, just a little bit?

The baby is so real to me now, so vividly himself, already, that I can’t help but think of him as my son, and me as his mom, and Roger as his dad, and us – all of us – as a very real family.

“I know,” Roger says, placing a finger under my chin and turning my face up to his. “I feel exactly the same way.”

I laugh then, curious. “Wait, how do you know what I’m feeling?”

“You’re passing it down the bond,” he murmurs. “Are you not trying to?”

“Not intentionally,” I say. “But…I was thinking about you. And the baby. So maybe it just…went.” He nods, agreeing, understanding.

Then, curious, I reach out and take Roger’s hand, giving it a little squeeze and passing a curious little pulse down our mating bond to him, seeing if I can do it intentionally. I’m still not used to this wolf stuff, and I don’t know how good I am at it. “Did you feel that?” I ask.

“I did,” he murmurs, pleased. ” You’re curious.”

“Yes,” I reply, smiling happily. And then I close my eyes and concentrate, still keeping one touch on the bond between me and Roger but also giving a little tap on the bond that I now feel so much more powerfully between me and the baby than I did yesterday. I give it just a little nudge.

And to my shocked pleasure, the baby responds, nudging us back.

My eyes flash open and before I can even ask, I see on Roger’s thrilled face that he felt it too.

And then I laugh, and look down at myself, and send another little nudge, this time with a question attached.

…Happy? I ask.

It takes a moment, but then the reply comes and I feel it ring through me like a bell. Happy! My boy sends back, and I laugh, and feel myself start to cry again. Happy, happy.