Page 76 of Curvy Alpha Bride
“Yes,” Mabel says, stroking my face. “It will.”
I look up at her, and in the pale light of the moon glowing around her like a halo, she looks like the moon goddess herself, the ancient mother of our race.
“I love you, Mabel,” I whisper. “I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you, and I’ve been a goddamn fucking fool. I don’t deserve you, but I need you. I can’t live without you.”
“Xavier, my love,” she answers, running her fingers through my hair. “I’m not going anywhere. Where do you think I’m going to go, all barefoot and pregnant.”
I blink stupidly, and she grins.
“Pregnant?” I ask.
She nods.
“Like, actually?” I ask again.
Mabel giggles. “Yes, my love. I’m going to have a baby—we are. You’re going to be a dad.”
Powerful emotion sweeps through me, stinging my eyes and making my heart race. Even though my arms still hurt like hell, I manage to take Mabel’s hand and give it a weak squeeze. The alpha wolves howl as they signal their return to the valley, and even though I struggle against it, the pain of my injuries catches up to me, and I can feel myself passing out.
But I slip out of consciousness with a smile on my face, knowing that the danger has passed, Mabel has accepted me into her heart… and we’re about to be a real family.
Chapter 27 - Mabel
A fresh breeze dashes down from the mountain, pouring into the valley to whip across the sun-bleached grass of the main courtyard. I pull my coat a little tighter around me and look up towards the dark, jagged edge of Kootenai Peak where it cuts a shadow across the perfect blue sky.
Stay where you are, Ivarra. We might not be able to kill you, but be damn sure, if you touch my man again, I’ll make sure every second of your existence is a screaming, relentless hell!
Since our battle a year ago, the witch has been very quiet. Sometimes, in the longest stretch of a moonless night, her howling can be heard, and the scratch of her nails across a barricaded door. Other than that, there has been no sign of her.
It doesn’t mean we are safe. In fact, the entire town of Valentine Creek has gone back to strictly observing the rules it has lived by for centuries.
Except for a full moon.
The smile that curves my lips as I walk through the park is one of pure joy and contentment—a feeling I thought I’d never be able to embrace again. It comes from an enduring aura of safety, and it’s only been achieved by accepting the help of other packs.
Galen, Kit, and Damon were shocked to find out that this evil had stalked the hills so close to them and that the tiny town had resisted Ivarra for so long without assistance. Immediately, the other packs helped to cut clear roads through to the Pass to make travel quicker and supply routes, so we could never run out of essentials. They even volunteered their own warriors for guard duty.
“Mabel,” I hear Cass’s voice call to me and change direction, heading over to the picnic table where my old friend waits for me, as impatient and catty as ever.
“Were you ignoring me?” she asks.
“Yes,” I reply, rolling my eyes. “I was trying to, anyway. You’re such a trial to me, Cass, maybe you should take first watch on the next new moon?”
“How dare you!” she splutters in mock outrage. “That’s nothing to joke about.”
“I’m not joking,” I say, looking at her very solemnly. “You’re so bitter, the witch would never be able to swallow you. You’d probably poison her for good. Actually, this is starting to look like a brilliant idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
Cass lunges at me, catching me around the shoulders and rolling me to the ground. We wrestle for a few seconds before I come out on top and pin her down.
“Get off me, you heifer!” she shrieks.
“Make me, skinny bitch.”
“Am I interrupting something?” Damon asks warily.
“Don’t worry about them,” Lexa answers. “They’re insane.”
“I didn’t think it was normal for grown women to wrestle like schoolboys,” Damon muses.
