Page 21 of Autumn After

She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, practically buzzing with joy.

It was time to find my alpha. Hopefully he’d feel the same.

Chapter 14

Cedric

Everyone was thrilled with how the festival was going. People were having fun, children were laughing, and cider, slushies, pies, and pumpkins were flying off the shelves. It was a great day. Even I had loved painting pumpkins, and that was very much not my thing. But I was quickly discovering that anything I did with Willow somehow became my thing. If he asked me to do cross-stitch, I’d sit on that porch and have the best time ever. If he wanted to dig rocks? Best day ever. If he wanted to build a barn? Best day ever—because that’s how it was. Every day with Willow was better than the day before.

It was one thing to know Willow was my mate, to feel the physical attraction, but these feelings we had for each other—this love that was growing—it just put everything else on the sidelines. Fate was real. Willow was meant for me, and every day I was discovering new reasons why. If our first few days were full of this much love and happiness, I was sure that the rest of our lives just might kill me.

I met him back at the baked goods table where he was re-arranging the remaining items. Fern had already gone off to do other things.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Willow gave me a far-too-quick kiss.

“You have?” I mumbled against his lips. I wrapped my arms around his middle so that he couldn’t get away from me. Only now, our hips were aligned, and my cock was taking notice. The sucky part about being in a wolf pack was that everyone around you could smell your arousal. Not that I could hide the evidence anyway.

“Yeah, I have. I always miss you when we’re apart.” Gods, he was the sweetest thing ever. “I need to show you something. Can we go inside for a second?”

“Yeah, okay.” I signaled to James who took our spots at the table.

We were both due for a break. Willow and I had been on our feet for far too long, and there were a lot more hours left of this festival.

We walked the short distance to my cabin, then up the steps into the house. He shut the door behind us. It was much quieter inside, though we could hear the noise of the events going on around us. Here I could pull Willow into my arms without a care in the world. I could kiss him, strip him naked, and worship his body.

I moved to do just that, but he held up a hand.

“Is everything okay?” I asked. I sniffed the air to see if I could discern anything amiss with my mate’s scent. He didn’t seem distressed. If anyone had said something to him that would make him feel less than welcome, I would be having words. Seamus better not have upset my mate in any way. He had promised the Alpha he’d be on his best behavior.

“I think it’s even better.” He smiled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small plastic pen-like thing, handing it to me.

“What is this?” I asked, confused.

“Turn it over.”

When I did, it became abundantly clear. It was a pregnancy test. And it didn’t have just one line—it had two.

I didn’t know much about pregnancy or omega things for that matter—I didn’t even pretend to—but even I knew that two lines meant he was pregnant. We were having a baby. My throat tightened, and I felt the emotion welling up inside.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s good, right?” he asked, his voice tinged with nervousness.

“That’s... that’s the best,” I said, already choking up. I wrapped my arms around him and twirled him in the air, hugging him close before letting him down so I could kiss him breathless. My hands cupped his face, and the kiss deepened.

One kiss became two, became both of us stripping naked and ending up on the bed together. I was on my back and Willow straddled my hips. Both our cocks were hard and leaking.

“I’m just so freaking happy,” he said. His smile stretched a mile wide.

I laughed. “I am too, mate.”

Willow’s grin turned mischievous, and he rocked his hips. “Show me.”

I gripped his hips and flipped us over so that he was underneath me. “Gladly,” I said.

My lips went to his neck, flicking over the mark where I had left my bite. He moaned and thrust his hips up against mine. I dropped my hand to our cocks and jacked us off together. Between my movements and the rocking of our hips, our releases were so close I could feel it rising in me like a tidal wave cresting.

“You taste like sugar and apples,” I said into his neck. I nipped lightly at his skin.

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