Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

#Chapter 410 – Assembling the Team

Cora

When I wake up the next morning the dawn sun is already streaming through the windows, and I am absolutely – hands down – the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m curled up against my mate’s side, my hand still on his chest where I placed it when I fell asleep, and when I look up into his face? I see him already smiling down at me.

My mouth bursts into a smile.

“Well,” he says, turning fully towards me now and nudging my nose with his. “That was an incredible dream, wasn’t it?”

“Do you think it was real?” I whisper, desperately, desperately hoping that it was.

“I do,” he replies, nodding. “I don’t think…well, the things that you made up the beach, the landscape…they were all pretty static, no?”

I gasp a little, offended – “It was not static! It was intricate and there was a breeze I could smell the salt -”

“No, Cora,” he says, laughing, “I mean like, unchanging. The things that changed – you, me, the feeling the baby passed to us, and the wolves? Those all seemed very real.”

“Yeah,” I say, relaxing again and snuggling close, tucking my head beneath Roger’s chin. “I think it was real too.”

“He’s a really cute pup,” Roger murmurs, sleepily kissing my hair. ” Way cuter than Rafe.”

“I know, right?” I mumble, yawning. But we don’t have to tell Ella and Dominic that.”

“No way,” he replies. “No need to hurt their feelings. They’ll find out soon enough. We’re quiet for a moment before I ask my next question. “Did that go…how you thought it would?” I ask, hesitant.

“No,” Roger says instantly, laughing. “Honestly, Cora, I thought we were going to have way more sex -”

And then I burst into laughter too, because that’s what I had expected as well. I don’t know what Sinclair told his brother, but from everything Ella has said? It sounds like the dream state has been a place for them to really explore their relationship in a very physical way – after all, they had sex there first, before they ever did with their real bodies.

And while I can certainly see Roger and I using the dream state for that kind of exploration in the future? A part of me is really, really glad that mine and Roger’s experience brought us closer in a different way.

I feel so much more like a family than I did before we went to sleep. And it’s not that we weren’t a family before – but now that we’ve…we’ve felt him?

me now, so vividly himself, already, that I can’t help but think of him as my son, and me as his mom, and Roger as his dad, and us – all of us

under my chin and turning my face up to his. “I feel exactly

then, curious. “Wait, how do

bond,” he murmurs. “Are you not trying

thinking about you. And the baby. So maybe it just…went.” He nods, agreeing,

out and take Roger’s hand, giving it a little squeeze and passing a curious little pulse down our mating bond to him, seeing if I can do it intentionally. I’m

he murmurs,

I reply, smiling happily. And then I close my eyes and concentrate, still keeping one touch on the bond between me and Roger but also giving a little tap on the bond that I now feel

the baby responds, nudging us

ask, I see on Roger’s thrilled face

myself, and send another

…Happy? I ask.

feel it ring through me like a bell. Happy! My boy sends back, and I laugh, and feel myself

he curls away again,

happy,” Roger says, choked up, taking my face in his hands and kissing me again. “And I don’t think I’ve ever once been happier, not in my

reply, laughing at how stupid it sounds, to say it so simply like that. “Roger, I feel exactly the

Ella

a to-go mug of tea in her hands, a big smile on her face. Rafe gives a little squeal of anticipation when the car stops and Cora starts to

his car seat, in surprise. “Can you tell when your

peers into the car, blinking a bit in surprise at the two extra men in the row of seats behind me, and then at the guard sitting beside Conner in the passenger

and closing her door behind her. “Um, what’s all this?” she asks, a little hesitant before

us to have extra guards,” I say, giving a chagrined little shrug. “Do

Conner pulls away from the house. “Actually,” she continues, ” Roger had the same idea. Did

laugh. I shake my head, thinking that our two wolf mates sometimes really do have the same mind, even if they’re such different

at Cora. “Why

tell you later,” she says, waving a hand at me while she glances around at