Chapter 46
TWO YEARS LATER
NICO
My eyes keep track of Rosalia as she chats with our friends in Pack Mayor’s backyard.
Silas still enjoys throwing a party, and we all come out to hang out when he has them. I may not have been their favorite person when they first met me, but we’re all thick as thieves now.
Plus, everyone wants a reason to coo over our new baby that Rosalia has bundled into a wrap against her chest. When she told me about baby carriers, I worried they’d be too warm, but I was wrong.
Carina's cheek is pressed against her mother’s heart, and she’s sleeping soundly.
She’s three months old, and was born at home with Dr. Walsh present at the birth.
He is still Rosalia’s physician, and will now be our children’s as well.
My arm snags around Verona’s waist as she walks past me, and I pull a battery powered fan from my pocket. Our pack’s swimmers got really excited, and we knocked up both Verona and Rosalia. Verona is currently four months pregnant and always seems to feel as if she’s overheating.
“I got you,” I promise, letting her sag against me as I let the cool air hit her face.
“I think you’re my favorite right now,” she mumbles.
“That’s okay. You’ll be mad at me five minutes from now,” I tease her. “Dog collars are banned this pregnancy.”
“This one?” she laughs. “I don’t know if I have another one in me, Nico.”
“You never know,” I grin, angling the fan to ensure the wind hits her chest as well. “The weather will cool off soon, and then it won’t be so terrible. We’ll be prepared for whatever comes.”
“I can’t believe you have that thing in your pocket,” she says, her eyes closing in pleasure as she enjoys the cool air.
“We decided not to leave the house without a fan, gun, and our wallets from now on,” I explain. “There’s no way in hell we’re getting caught without the fan with this heat wave we’re in.”
“I feel like a giant baby,” she mumbles.
“Verona, you’re going to pass out,” Lyle says, hurrying over to her. “Let’s take this inside.”
“I’m going in too,” Rosalia says, coming toward us. “No amount of fans are going to save us right now.”
Rosa no longer uses alpha blockers, not unless she’s around a bunch of alphas she doesn’t know. She recently finished her associates degree, and Lyle offered her a job as his paralegal. She initially wasn’t sure she wanted to take it because the baby is nursing, but he told her to bring the baby.
I’ll be sending her with a guard, but I think she’ll be fine. My bond sickness has relaxed its hold, and I can go a few hours without her before I need to get my omega fix. I’ll just have to bring her lunch every day while she’s working.
She has quite a few years of school left, which isn’t a problem for us since there’s always one of us to take the baby. Carina has dark hair and dark eyes, leaving us with no way to know who the father is. However, that’s just as well, because we all adore her.
She’s a really good baby who knows how to use her voice, and man is it loud.
Everyone begins to move inside to escape the heat, while I sit outside for a moment with the fan. The cooling plate on this thing is fucking magical.
Pablo squeezes my shoulder and I glance up to see he’s checking on me.
“I’m good,” I promise. “Will you see if you can get Verona to eat some cold watermelon? It’ll help her cool off. We’ll draw her a cool bath when we get home. This heat wave and the pregnancy are not agreeing with each other.”
“I’m going to steal an ice pack from the freezer too,” he murmurs. “I feel like even my asshole is sweating.”
“Is the ice pack for Verona or your asshole?” Easton snorts from the doorway.
Pablo bursts out laughing, realizing how he might think that.
“Verona,” he promises, shaking his head as he heads inside. “I will not try to stick an ice pack in my asshole.”
“Good to hear that,” Easton laughs, following him in.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, alerting me to a text I’ve been waiting for. Earlier this week, I got a message from an unknown number telling me they’d captured Emilia. Now that Avery is dead, this is one of the loose ends I’ve been eager to hear back from.
My cousin’s first letter to me was not the last. I’ve been getting letters from her every few months, and each one is more delusional than the last. She’s been having them delivered to a P.O. Box that I am forwarding my mail to, because I don’t want anyone to know where we live.
We’ve been there, done that, and definitely own the t-shirt.
Taking a deep breath, I pull out my phone and open the text awaiting me.
Unknown
It’s done. Emilia won’t be bothering anyone ever again. Any debts you think you owe karma have been paid.
A photo of Emilia’s decapitated body fills the screen, and her head sits perfectly next to it for proof that it’s her. She did not have an easy death, and she didn’t deserve one.
Me
Thank you.
Standing, I walk inside now that my curiosity has been settled, and I also want to smell my baby’s head as she sleeps.
I’m not sure what it is, but I’m addicted to it.
I’ll take twelve more please. I doubt Verona and Rosalia will feel the same, so I’ll enjoy every moment I do have while my daughters are babies.
Verona is also having a girl, and she is excited to even out the levels of testosterone in the house. I can’t wait to experience the chaos of all the stages of life that parenthood brings. I feel lucky to have it.
Rosa is deep in conversation with Pack Mayor’s omega, and I decide to wait my turn. Leaning against the wall in the living room, I accept a glass of lemonade from Silas, and bring it to my lips as I watch the omegas chat.
“How is she doing?” I ask Silas softly, inclining my head toward his omega.
She has long dark hair and shadows that still cling to her eyes as she speaks with Rosalia.
“Better,” he murmurs. “She always gets a little quiet when she speaks to her brothers. They both adore her and want a relationship with her, and she doesn’t believe she’s worthy of it.
She swears she’s not the person she was when she disappeared from their lives, and that she doesn’t deserve their love. ”
“I’m not the same person I was three years ago, much less when I was a teen,” I say quietly, sipping my beverage.
Tucking my fan back in my pocket, I shrug.
“She’s going to need to realize we all deserve to be loved, even if we made less than smart choices during a time when our backs were to the wall. ”
Silas stares at me for a long moment, and I ignore him as I watch Rosalia because I rarely open up to other people the way I just did outside of my pack. My voice is still the shit of nightmares, but as long as they’re not Rosalia’s, I’ll live with the damage to my voice.
People tend to treat me as if I’m going to bite their heads off at any moment, and I use that to my advantage in business as needed.
If I need to not scare the shit out of people, Ciro or Dario will pretend to be me.
While we don’t look alike, a stranger often has no idea they’re not meeting with me.
“Maybe you need to have a conversation with my omega,” Silas breathes. Glancing at him, I just shrug.
“I don’t think she needs anything from me,” I tell him. “My voice alone freaks people out.”
“Yeah, I doubt that’s going to bother her,” Silas snorts. “She’s faced scarier bastards than you.”
“God, that sounds terrible,” I mutter, but my feet still begin moving in their direction. If I can offer the girl a little bit of peace, then so be it.
I want my children to believe their father is a good man, I may as well start proving that while they’re small. Maybe I’ll even believe it myself at one point. Carina and Vitoria will get the best of me, no matter what.
Even when you’re unsure of what your place in life is, how you show up in the world matters.