Chapter 240

Cara’s POV

They didn’t keep me long at the hospital, as they couldn’t find anything wrong with me and my previous condition was healing now, not nearly so dire. Alaric stayed by my side through it all. My brothers had mysterious disappeared, but Alaric said they were okay.

I didn’t actually press the issue until we were leaving the hospital and headed home.

“Where did Aidan disappear to?” I asked him. “You talked to him, didn’t you? Before he left?”

Alaric was driving us, both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road. Still, he somehow managed to look guilty.

“Alaric?” I didn’t want us to build on our relationship with lies, and I hoped he felt the same. Fortunately, he must have, because he didn’t feel the need to argue, or even defend himself.

Instead, he just told me, “Yeah. All of your brothers went with Eamon to speak with the commission again. They wanted to see if they could finally have Lilia removed from the competition.”

Ah. That made sense. My brothers were furious, and as they couldn’t be there to protect me all the time, they would strive to protect me in the next best way they could. Eamon himself loved to work with the bureaucracy. If there was a peaceful yet argumentative way to solve a situation, Eamon would find it.

That it hadn’t worked so far however, to me, was a sign of things to come.

When I say the annoyed look on Alaric’s face, even in profile, I already knew how it had gone before he even told me so himself.

“The head commissioner defended Lilia like it was personal,” Alaric said. “Your brothers are looking into it.”

Oh. How strange. Could it be personal? Why? How? Did Lilia make some kind of threat against him?

I guessed we didn’t know, but I trusted my brothers to get to the bottom of it. I knew they wouldn’t rest until they uncovered the truth.

“Thank you for telling me,” I said. “I know you might not have wanted to, to protect me, but I want to keep in the loop about these things.”

He nodded, and we drove the rest of the way in a peaceful silence.

At home, we relieved the babysitter and I was thrilled to spend some time with my kids again. I hugged them both. Then, after smiling at Alaric, I asked them, “Do you want to meet my wolf?”

Both kids smiled wide. “Really?”

“Stay back a minute,” I said, and took a step backwards.

Alaric put a hand on each of the kids’ shoulders making sure they stayed still. Then, when he nodded to tell me they are secure, I closed my eyes and called for Lucy.

In the past, she wouldn’t answer. I was almost expecting that now, a mix of anxiety and trepidation rising within me. But then, in a flash, I felt the warmth of Lucy’s closeness.

“Maybe you’d like to finally meet the kids,” I told her in my mind.

She rushed into the forefront of my mind then so quickly that I got a little dizzy. In a flash, fur pressed out of my skin. I fell forward, my arms becoming legs. In the blink of an eye, human me was gone and in my place was my wolf.

I pulled back a little, allowing Lucy to take the lead, so that she could more directly meet the kids.

She rushed forward and licked each of them on the cheeks until they started giggling. After, she nuzzled them, and they hugged her.

Inside, I could feel her joy and her brightness.

During the accident, Lucy had thrown herself around the unborn children, protecting them in a horrific scene that should have killed them. In doing so, she had made herself so weak that she had laid dormant inside of me for years, unable to more than sleep.

That she could return at all was nothing short of a miracle. And now, she was here, able to snuggle the children, to feel their gratitude and their love.

Her happiness was so intense that it nearly hurt my heart to feel it so full.

I allowed her to stay with the children, playfully chasing them and being chased until she grew regretfully tired.

“I need to rest…” she said with regret.

“Heal,” I told her. “You will never be without any of us again.”

“Thank you for this,” she said to me, the gentle thing.

“How can you thank me, when I am the one who should be thanking you? It is only because of you that we can share moments like these at all. Without your intervention, Lucy, the children would have died…”

“Never,” she said, her voice growing weaker. “I will never allow that to pass…”

“I know,” I told her. “And as you protected them, let me protect you now. Rest.”

Finally, her regret lingering, she pulled back enough to rest. I shifted back to human form, and hugged my kids. Alaric came in and hugged all of us.

For the first time, our family felt well and truly complete.

Hours later, after the kids went to bed, I stood in the bedroom with Alaric. He was shirtless, and I was in my sleepshirt. We faced each other and I placed my hand on the center of his chest.

Under my hand, I could feel his heartbeat. Yet, at the same time, I could feel an echo of it inside of my own chest, like it was beating there as well beside my own.

How strange. I hadn’t felt this connected to him since our bond was fully intact, before we had mutually rejected each other.

It almost felt as if…

“Can you feel it?” I asked him. “Or is it just me?”

“It’s not just you,” he said, and smiled a little. The love was bright in his eyes, in the gentle curve of his mouth, and in the softness of his kiss as he leaned in to kiss me. “Our bond is reforming…”

“How can that happen?” I asked. “I thought the rejection was the end…”

“I thought so too, but it doesn’t seem so,” he said, so confident and happy. “But not for us, it seemed. I’m very happy to be an exception.”

“Me, too,” I said, and pressed myself up onto my toes to kiss him deeper.

After that, we easily fell into bed together and kept ourselves busy for some time.

Hours later, we both were awake, resting in bed, looking at each other. Despite how blissed out we both had to be, I could see a touch of worry in his eyes.

“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t want to ruin the mood…”

“Whatever worries you, worries me too,” I said. “Tell me.”

He hesitated a minute, and then he admitted, “Having Lucy back is a huge relief and will give you an advantage in the competition. But even so, Lilia remains a clear threat. She’s been escalating. Cara, I’m worried about what she might do next, even if you have a wolf.”

“We’ll find a way to stop her this time,” I said. “We won’t let her hurt us anymore.”

He nodded, but the worry remained in his eyes.

In a way, I could understand. It still felt like Lilia was pulling too many strings.

I could guess that we hadn’t seen everything she had planned for us. Not by a long shot.