Page 76 of The Alpha's Forced Bullied Mate

His crushing touch grounded me back as he lifted me up and shakily carried me to the stairs. I kept a tight hold on him, still shivering from my orgasm, still wanting so much more.

“I’ll always give you anything,” he whispered huskily, “so long as you let me carry you.”

I went limp in his arms. “Deal.”

Epilogue - Faye

Almost exactly nine months to the day, I had a baby girl.Sierra. She was just the sweetest bundle who did plenty of sleeping, and lots of burping. She was resting inside her bassinet in the FROG that we converted into a nursery. My brother trailed in after me as I went to check on her, practically dancing on his toes to get to his niece.

He pushed past me. “Hello, Sierra,” he said as he scooped her up. “Are you ready for another bottle?”

I propped my hands on my hips. “That’s the third time you pushed me, Cliff.”

He smiled nervously. “I just love her.”

I sighed on my way to the nearest rocking chair. “You're a saint for helping me today.”

“Hector asked. I couldn’t say no.”

“And you love her.”

His grin was as bright as the sun. “And I love her.”

As he handled his niece with expert gentleness, I rocked myself in the chair, feeling like I was getting ready to snooze. I smiled while listening to Cliff talk to Sierra, “You're going to be so tall. You're going to have the coolest hair. You already have the most beautiful eyes ever.”

I looked down at my wedding ring, studying the stone that combined the color of my eyes with my mate’s eyes. It looked exactly like Sierra’s eyes. It was such a gorgeous hue that I found myself staring into her eyes all the time, getting lost there. She would smile at me and make the sweetest little cooing sounds. And then she'd wrap her tiny, pudgy fingers around my forefinger and squeeze as hard as she could.

She was doing the same thing to Cliff now that he had a bottle perched in her mouth. “Has she shown any signs of, you know…” My brother nodded to his niece. “Witchy stuff?”

“Nothing yet. I'm kind of hoping she might be a little normal.”

Cliff smiled. “Oh, come on. It'd be so cool to have a niece with superpowers.”

I laughed. “I guess we'll find out when she does her first shift. Whichever comes first—magic or shifting.”

“I don't care. This pack could use a few more hybrids.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Are you saying I should have another baby already?”

He laughed. “Well, you know, when you've recovered from having this one, it'd probably be cool to have more.”

“I'm sure Hector wouldn't mind doing that.”

Cliff expertly handled the bottle and balanced Sierra in his arms, walking over to sit on the couch near me. Birds chirped in the window and reminded me that it was another season. Another year practically of being in the Silverfang Creek. I stared at my brother, noticing that something was missing from his smile, a certain happiness that I'd come to know from him. My eyes kept drifting to his chest, imagining a small hole forming there, a pinprick, something that barely allowed the light to get into his heart.

When he was done feeding Sierra, he propped her up on his shoulder and started to burp her. The rhythmic sound of back-patting filled the nursery. I glanced around at the baby elephant wallpaper, at the plush giraffes sitting on the dresser, at the cute little pink and yellow pajamas hanging over thecrib. Everything was perfect here. Everything was quiet and wonderful.

I didn't have to deal with rejection anymore. My parents visited often, and so did Hector's parents. I tapped my chin, feeling like something was missing.

“Cliff, I’m worried about you.”

Cliff laughed. “Are you having another one of those wonky dreams again?”

Now that he mentioned it, I had been having strange dreams. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see my brother standing on the edge of a cliff, staring into the distance at a foggy cloud that hid a figure on the other side of the crater. She kept raising her arms and waving. She kept yelling, “Come back!” And then he would cry out, “Robyn, I’m sorry…” A smaller figure stood next to Robyn. I couldn’t make out any details.

And then I would wake up.

I couldn't shake the feeling that it was highly familiar and relevant somehow. I picked at the chair's armrest. “Cliff, do you know a woman named Robyn?”

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