Page 54 of The Alpha's Baby Girl

Strangely, she felt her fatigue disappear. The way she had used her power should have been dangerous for her, and should have left her feeling weaker. Instead, she felt stronger than she had ever felt before. She was confused by the phenomenon and decided to think about it later. Now was not the time.

She looked at the heap of dust beneath her with trepidation. She refused to believe that it was all over. She was sure that something else was going to happen. She knew it had ended but she was too afraid to believe.

She heard Rowan groan and finally tore her eyes away from the dusty remains of the vampire. The spear in his chest had disappeared, and now a red wound gaped on his shoulder, just a little higher than his chest. He had been lucky.

She rushed toward him as he helped himself off the ground. She gave him a hand and he accepted it, wincing. His body was covered in cuts and bruises, both those that were healing and those that were still open.

He had suffered quite the punishment at the hand of the vampire. He had held his ground, though, and had gone toe to toe with it, standing down only when her life had been on the line.

“Are you alright?” Rowan asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The dam broke. Tears poured out of her eyes in rivulets. Rowan pulled her close but she pushed him away. He looked confused and worried by her reaction. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice dripping with concern.

He was broken and battered, and yet he asked her what was wrong?

“How could you have done that?” she asked angrily, through sobs. “How could you put your life on the line like that? How could you just give yourself up to die? What were you thinking?”

At first Rowan looked confused, and then he scratched his head and smiled. “I wasn’t exactly thinking,” he admitted.

She couldn’t believe it. He was laughing about this! Was this all a joke to him? She frowned at him and he just laughed some more. She hated that he found mirth in her pain.

She shook her head and stretched her hands out toward him. Her eyes and hands glowed as she began to heal him. Fortunately, he also had tremendous healing abilities, so it took little from her to fix him up.

She glared at him when she saw that he was still smiling. “What’s the point of living if the price of that life is your death?” she asked seriously. “And did you really think he was going to just turn around and walk away after killing the one person strong enough to hold him off?”

Rowan shrugged. “I told you, I wasn’t really thinking.” He walked forward and took her hands. He wiped the tears from her face with the back of his hands. He smiled at her. “What would have been the point of living if you had died? I love you, Juniper.”

With tears in her eyes, she admitted what she had been holding back from admitting for so long. “I love you too, Rowan.”

Rowan smiled wider and put his arms around her waist. He pulled her close, gently, and kissed her softly. Juniper melted into his embrace and forgot all about her pain and fear and frustration. She wrapped her arms around Rowan, happy that she could hold him again.

She had been so afraid of losing him. She had been so afraid of dying. And yet…here they were. She gripped him tighter, wanting to make sure he was real, not another sliver of her creative mind, a figment of her imagination. Yes, he was real. This was real.

She was startled to hear voices and broke the kiss abruptly. The entire pack approached them, whooping and cheering loudly. She blushed slightly with embarrassment. She had completely forgotten all about them, and with good reason.

“Wow!” Articus said. “What you did? We have never seen anything like it before. Where did you learn that from?”

Juniper blinked at him, then glanced down at her hands. “I…I don’t know for sure. I guess I had always had the ability locked inside me. I feel…funny. It almost feels like I absorbed some power from the vampire.”

Several eyes shot down to the heap of dirt on the floor, and Juniper saw not a few shudders. She could understand the reaction. The vampire made her blood run cold too, even if all that was left of him was dust.

“Well, you couldn’t have discovered that power at a better time,” Articus said. “I was quite certain that we were screwed. Looks like we have a lot of work on our hands fixing the town though.”

Juniper looked around and realized that Articus was right. She saw the destruction for the first time. Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of wreckage and damage.

With the hurricane, the blood spears, and the vampire’s fight with Rowan, she hadn’t realized how much of that damage the town had suffered. Judging by the damage, it was going to take them months at best to fix the town.

Asher cleared his throat and raised his hand. “Am I the only one thinking about this? I’m pretty sure that the humans must have noticed the hurricane, the tremors, the sky filled with blood spears, and the unmissable vampire flying through the air? What are we going to do about that?”

“We could always talk to the vampires to compel the humans to forget?” Articus said. “I mean, seeing how it was one of theirs who started this mess in the first place.”

Juniper and Rowan exchanged glances and she could tell he was thinking the same thing she was. This was not their problem anymore. They had worked together to thwart the threat. It was up to the rest of the pack to figure out the rest.

She reached for his hand and found it immediately. He squeezed her hand gently, and she felt lightning bolts of joy flash brightly in her chest. This was real, after all.

Chapter 20 - Rowan

One month later

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