“What is it, baby?”
She stares at me with sparkling eyes, lips lifting in a sheepish smile. “I’m pregnant…”
“What?!” I exclaim, pulling her close and sweeping her off her feet to do another celebratory twirl with the amount of pride that swells in my chest. I never thought that those were the words I’d want to hear the most.
Not when I’d spent my whole life resentful that I’d grown up being the only child in my household. It was as if a switch had been flicked inside me when I realized I wanted Cassandra as my mate. Nothing else mattered then, and suddenly, all the rules and regulations I once saw as imprisoning became the things I wanted the most in my life. Not just as the Alpha of the Moon Shine Pack but as the man who greedily devours Cassandra’s lipsand essence when his heart feels so whole, it might burst from the seams of his ribcage.
This is what being in love feels like. It’s a feeling so profound and so unexplainable that no words could ever do it justice. It’s all aboutfeelingit, and no amount of Moon Shine lore books could explain what an Alpha feels when he finds his mate.
I guess this is why my mother insisted I take a mate. The void of a sibling is something I’d forgotten whenever Cassandra was around. The other half of my soul resides in her vessel. And Goddess! What a vessel she has, her body curves in all the right places, where I can sink my teeth in and have her in the palm of my hand to shower her with love and appreciation.
“You have no idea how happy this makes me, Cass…” I say as I set her to her feet.
She stares at me with golden specks swirling in her eyes, ignited like fiery sparks that attest to our love. “Oh, I think I have an idea…” she muses as she lovingly cups my cheek, stroking the coarse hairs of my beard as if their soft bristles beneath the pad of her thumb. “If it’s as happy as you make me, then I would know.”
“You have no idea how happy I’m about to make you,” I drawl, pulling her flush to me and relishing in the way her breath catches when she feels the hard outline of my manhood nestling against her thigh.
As her arms come around my neck and she softly sighs, she glances around the open expanse of the meadow and asks, “Right here?”
I nod. “Right here, right now,” I groan, gyrating my hips against her thigh to make my point.
“What if someone sees us?” she asks, without a hint of concern in her voice.
I chuckle lowly, my hands settling over the fullness of her rear. “I am the Alpha of this pack…”
The reminder curls her lips to a smirk. “Ah, yes, I did need the reminder.”
“Oh, baby…” I squeeze the full mounds and feel her melt into my touch. “... I’m about to remind you of so much tonight…”
As I capture her lips in a fervent, hungry kiss, it’s as if a bubble grows around us in which only utter bliss exists. I know now why I’d been dismissive of the idea of a mate all along.
It was only because the only she-wolf for me was Cassandra Chikara. She’s the only one fit to be mine. It's as perfect as a glove, made just for me by the Moon Goddess Herself. Just as I was made to be the Alpha of The Moon Shine Pack and to love Cassandra with every breath.
Epilogue - Cassandra
Two Weeks Later
A stray tear slips down my cheek, but Cyrus is there to wipe it away as he hugs me tighter, his arm slung across my shoulders. Staring down at the grave where my mother lays, I no longer feel the emptiness of her departure from this world.
“There is one good thing that came from your passing, Agatha,” Luna Phoebe muses with a hint of humor evident in her voice. “Your death brought Cassandra back to town and got my son to do the right thing finally.”
“Mother!” Cyrus exclaims with horror.
I touch his arm, unable to stifle my urge to giggle. It was a customary part of our mating ceremony to visit the graves of our loved ones before proceeding. What would have been a painful experience on my own has turned into a lighthearted endeavor thanks to the Alpha and his mother.
“Luna Phoebe is right, Cyrus.”
“Uh-uh!” Luna Phoebe clicks her tongue, turning to me with hands planted on her hips as if I’m about to be scolded. “I’m not the Luna anymore, Cassandra. Or, should I say, Luna Cassandra?” She smirks proudly, and I can’t help but feel that same pride wash over me.
I glance at my mother’s grave, where the brightly colored cactus plants thrive and fill the mound with pretty shades of greens and pinks of their flowery hands outstretched on their sides. We’d already visited my father’s grave and Cyrus’s father’s resting place, paying our respects to both our fathers before the big night.
“Not just yet, Mother,” Cyrus chuckles as he slides his hand into mine. “She’ll have to make it to the altar first.”
“Then we should get going,” Luna Phoebe smiles, offering me a gentle, reassuring pat on the arm before heading into the town hall, where the Moon Shine Pack members have already gathered.
Cyrus turns to me, placing a hand on my tummy over the satin layers of the white dress that clothes me. The bump is hardly noticeable since I’m early into my pregnancy, and it just looks like I’ve packed on some extra curves. While the others haven’t heard the news yet, Cyrus takes every chance he can get to touch the little blip of a belly where our pups grow.
“How are the twins doing?” Cyrus muses with a mischievous grin.