Page 72 of Knocked up By the Minotaur

“Grace,” I whisper. “Take her. What if I drop her?”

But Grace only shakes her head and smiles. “Trust yourself, baby. You won’t hurt her.”

I stare down at the tiny, now fully pink and flushed little calf in my arms. Her eyes are scrunched shut, her cheeks somehow chubby and crinkled at the same time. She has the cutest, tiniest little ears I’ve ever seen, currently soft from birth and flopping down around her face.

“I love you, little one,” I whisper, staring and staring and staring at her until my heart is so full I’m afraid it’ll burst. I don’t know how long I sit and simply gaze down at my child, but eventually, Grace reaches out and lays her fingers against my wrist.

“Is that what she is to you?” she asks quietly. “Hope?”

A shiver runs down my spine, and I look up into my wife’s weary, happy blue eyes. “Hope for the future,” I find myself saying. “Hope for a better me. Hope for our happiness. Yes…” I look back down and feel my whole chest bursting with the feeling. “She’s my little ray of hope.”

“Alright. I’m happy with that. Welcome to the family, Hope.”

I look down at the bundle of material and chubby flesh in my arms with a smile. Hope stirs, and farts loudly. Grace and I both chuckle, and I transfer her to her mother so she can breastfeed.

“Although for the record,” Grace says, as she positions our baby against her chest with the practiced ease of experience. “You’re already a better you. You’re everything I need, Oli. You always have been, and I refuse to hear any further negativity on the matter.”

“Would you like me to bring your visitors in?” A nurse pops her head into our room and makes a gesture behind her. “I have your son, with your sister and her mate and their three children. And two elderly humans—they tell me they’re your parents on a trip out from the nursing home—along with Mr. Strongarm’s parents who were surprisingly the first to arrive. Ismelda came over about thirty minutes ago with her niece, Nib, who was having dinner with some friends, so they’ve all joined as well, and for some reason Mr. Dupont has been dragged along too but he looks very awkward standing silent and stoic in the corner, and—”

I laugh and wave at her to stop, turning to Grace with my brows raised high. “Can you handle all that?”

Grace grins, wide and weary, and nods. “But tell them they can only stay for fifteen minutes, I don’t think I can do more than that.”

The nurse heads back out, and I lean over and kiss Grace on the forehead, and then my little girl gently on the side of the head.

“She’s so small,” I say, as I hear a wave of sound and chatter slowly approach our hospital door. “So fragile.”

“She is,” Grace murmurs, “but she’s got the strongest, most bestest daddy in the world to keep her safe.”

I smile at her use of Lucas’s phrasing. “Hope, and Lucas, and Grace.” My heart beats with joy and renewed purpose. “I’ll keep you all safe, for as long as I live.”

“And I’ll do the same,” she replies, reaching out to touch my face. “Now, and forever.”

Then the door bursts open, and Rhokar’s mother, of all people, is at the forefront.

“Where’s my newest grandbaby!” she cries, although somewhat quietly so as not to startle Hope.

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works, Mrs. Strongarm,” I chuckle, but she just shushes me and strides forward as everyone else trickles in behind her.

“Hush, Oli, how many times have I told you to call me Mom?”

“Oh, Aunt Isme, look at her darling little ears!”

“Mamma, they said I have a sister! Does that mean I get to be a big brother now?”

In the end, all Grace and I can do is sit back and accept the outpouring of love around us. Because in the end, we’re just one big, mismatched family, and that’s what family is for.

Meanwhile, in Whispering Pines…

Ismelda

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble…

I really do outdo myself sometimes. With a satisfied sigh, I lean back in my chair and stare at my finally perfected potion, scratching Gigi’s little black and white ears as she purrs in my lap. Goodness, it’s been almost two years I’ve been working on this, tweaking and tinkering and prodding and poking, until I’m finally, blissfully sure of the outcome, and ready to get rolling.

This is it. This is the potion that will call more human Fated Mates to our town, and I can finally say I’ve truly done all I can to help restore balance in my little corner of the world.

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