Page 47 of The Beast's Baby
Dad’s here?one of her brothers asked, sounding surprised.
Not your dad, she clarified.My dad. He’s that big, gray wolf you tackled.
Your dad is Brendan Rosen?another of her brothers asked.
Is he alive?she returned.
Barely, the third of her brothers replied.But yeah, he’s alive. We’ve stashed him for safe keeping. Want to be reunited, mother?
The mother wolf looked at her children as they all came to a stop before her, Isobel having gracefully leaped over the entrance gates to land on soft paws on the other side. Isobel and the brothers looked back, waiting for her to make her move.
Finally, she lowered her head in submission.
There would be no battle between them.
She seceded.
Isobel could finally look over at the three wolves to her right, taking each of them in with a heart that was growing full. She’d been through hell in the past few weeks—in the past few days especially—but at the end of it she had found this. Them. Jay. And whoever was fluttering inside her belly.
I love a happy ending, she admitted, and if wolves could smile, she knew her brothers all were.
Chapter 14 - Jay
The sound of waves crashing against the shore was calming. For a minute, he hadn’t been certain he’d ever see the outside of the facility again and here he was standing on the stretching beach of a vast lake, breathing in the fresh air. Isobel came up from behind, wrapping her arms around him, leaning her head between his shoulder blades. He closed his eyes, hands placing themselves over hers gently.
They both smelled faintly of smoke.
The blaze had taken its time to spread through the facility—once the wolf called Peter had set it—but within twenty minutes the place had been an inferno. Everyone had been escorted out through the main doors and gathered in the parking lot beforehand, which meant that Jay had stood with his colleagues and watched their place of work turn to cinders.
Isobel and her brothers, as well as Peter, had shifted back to human form. There had been thick coats waiting for them to wrap themselves in as they watched the fire spread. There had been more snow in the air, but it hadn’t fallen, as though it was choosing to avoid the heat cast off from the building.
Brendan Rosen and Eva had been among them as well, restrained through some form of magic one of the brothers had informed. Though he hadn’t elaborated.
This was the world now. Magic, werewolves—though Jay would never call them that to their face—and a baby on the way. And love.
He shifted to encourage Isobel to move from his back to his chest, wrapping his arms around her when she did.
The sun was just about to come up. The sky was overcast, the light almost fragile, as though it was tentative about having chased away the dark. He cherished it.
And he cherished her.
“I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He said the words plainly because they didn’t feel grandiose, they didn’t feel like they needed to be a declaration, they were simply the truth.
She hugged him harder. His spine made a soft cracking noise and she immediately eased up, but he chuckled. “Nice correction,” he remarked. “Got anything to add to that?”
“I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too,” she said, moving her head to meet his gaze. “But can we take it slow?”
“We can take it one day at a time,” he reassured her. “We can take it an hour at a time,” he added, bringing a smile onto her lips. “Hell, we can take it a minute at a time, for all I care.”
She laughed. He kissed her.
Those blue eyes of hers were full of warmth when they ended the kiss. She reached up, stroking her fingers down the side of his face.
“Iamin love with you,” she said.
It was the first time she had said it. His heart felt tight, or maybe his chest, or possibly his heart in his chest. There was fear, and then joy. Like a balloon that began to expand with the air breathed into it. Without those words, it would have been left empty and pointless, but now it was becoming a symbol of their future together. He’d care for it, keep it from ever popping. And he couldn’t believe this was the analogy his brain was throwing at him. He really needed some sleep.
“I am in love with you, too,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose.
