Page 43 of Forced Plus-Size Mate

Gina puts her hand on my shoulder. “You never stopped loving him, and you hate yourself for it. Now you want him, and somewhere deep down, you’ve already forgiven him. But you can’t forgive yourself.”

“Gina, will you stop making so much sense?” I sniffle.

She hugs me, and I feel the arms of the other girls go around me, too. Having such a strong sense of family touches me deeply. Even being with the coven, I never felt this safe, or loved.

After a few minutes, my sobs settle down, and the girls pull back a little. Lena puts a glass of chocolate daiquiri in my hand as Leslie hands me a donut. I accept both gratefully.

“I heard from the others that they are getting their powers back,” Lucy says. “But so far, it’s unreliable. How have yours been?”

“Better than ever,” I admit. “I’ve been doing things I couldn’t do for years—and a few things I’ve never done.”

“Like what?” Lucy asks.

“Well, I kinda almost caused an earthquake.”

“That was you?” Gina exclaims. “The town went on avalanche alert.”

“Oh, I had full control of it,” I answer without thinking. “I wasn’t going to let the snow or rocks go anywhere. I was just shaking them around a bit.”

Lucy is smiling at me with some awe in her eyes, but when I cast my gaze around the circle, the wolves look a bit scared.

“It was nothing,” I say quickly, trying to cover it. “Like, it was the limit for me. I couldn’t have caused any real damage.”

This seems to comfort the wolves, but Lucy gives me an eyebrow raise that means she expects an explanation later.

“Well, that’s good news, then,” Gina says. “Getting your magic back was the point of the ritual, and it worked. You should be happy about that, at least?”

I shake my head, taking a big sip of the chocolate daiquiri. “It actually just makes it worse. On top of all the other confusion,I’m wondering if my urge to stay with him is because of my magic and he’s just obeying his alpha.”

“Oh my God,” Gina laughs. “Trust me, Amanda, that’s not what’s going on at all. Body couldn’t wait to marry you. Bae couldn’t hold him back.”

“Really?” I ask hopefully.

“Really,” Gina affirms. “I’m pretty sure your motivation isn’t wholly to do with your powers, either. If you asked yourself what was more important—Body, or your magic—I’m pretty sure it would be easy to answer.”

Too easy. That’s the problem.

“Well, we should get these daiquiris finished,” Lena says, filling up everyone’s glasses. “Then we can get to the party and really start drinking!”

“I’m not sure I can keep up,” I admit. “It’s been a long time since I partied this hard.”

“Trust me,” Lena says, eyeing me over the rim of her glass. “Once you have kids, you’ll throw down as hard as you possibly can, every chance you get.”

“Where are all the kids?” I ask.

“Left them with Bae, Jack, and Rider,” Fiona answers with a giggle. “Carla is taking them tonight so the boys can come, but we said we had an emergency and the boys had to step up.”

“I wonder how they’re going?” Gina muses. “All of them have gotten pretty good at managing their own kid, but the whole crowd?”

“Isla is displaying telekinesis, too,” Lucy says with a grin. “Nothing much yet, but she did make a bottle fly across the room the other day.”

“Oh, dear,” Lena laughs. “Those poor boys.”

Even though my heart is still heavy, I can feel my bad mood lifting. It’s good to be out having fun with the girls, and to know that their marriages didn’t start perfectly, either.

There seems to be a very consistent track record here. Maybe, if I can trust Body… trust myself… I can have everything I’ve ever wanted.

Chapter 14 - Body

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