Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

#Chapter 485- Jesse’s Baptism

Ella

A few hours later our entire party is gathered in the forest close to midnight, sipping champagne and mingling quietly as we wait for the hour to be right for Jesse’s baptism. We have a priestess here as well, of course, though this one is much more thoroughly vetted than the last.

I’m in incredibly good spirits as I look around at our party of loved-ones, truly enjoying my night, but when my eyes fall on Cora I see that she’s gnawing her lip a bit with anxiety.

“Oh, Cors,” I sigh, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder. I glance over at where Roger is standing a few feet away next to Henry with the baby in his arms, both of them talking with Sinclair, who has a sleeping Rafe held tight against his shoulder. “It will be all right!”

“I know it will,” she sighs, twisting her hands together and speaking softly to me. “And that even if it’s not, it’s not like I can change anything, you know?”

“I know,” I say, remembering how anxious I was at Rafe’s baptism. “But mom she can’t have anything really bad in store for him. It’s going to be all good things!”

“Oh, come on, Ella,” Cora says, shooting me a little glare. “It’s not like mom gave us the easy road just because we’re her daughters. We grew up in an orphanage. We had dark priests stalking us our whole lives.”

“But we had each other!”

“I just want my baby to have a good life,” she sighs, looking anxiously up at the sky, almost as if she can bully our mom into giving her baby a blessing if she glares at the moon enough. “It tortures me to think that he’s going to have to go through…half of what we did.”

“He’s going to have ups and downs, like the rest of us,” I say, wrapping my arms around my sister. “You can’t spare him from that.”

“Yes, I can,” she growls. “I’ll just… lock him in a very comfortable little basement. Very safe, very cozy.”

is going to

well, we’ll see how cheerful you are six months from now,” she says, reaching out to trail a little finger down my baby bump. I grin as I look down at it, tapping on my little bond with babygirl to say hello. But she’s sleeping or something at the moment and doesn’t reply, which is fine.

I sigh, happy but knowing that Cora’s

well. In many ways it’s not that different from my first two weeks with Rafe, except with significantly less drama in my personal life. And while I treasured every single moment I was pregnant with Rafe, this pregnancy? Well, it’s kind of

so grateful to

still, tonight is about Jesse – and as much as I could

dressed in the silvery-white robes of the goddess. She gives us a warm, motherly smile and holds out her

with her. Our mates meet us there in front of the goddess, and Henry draws close

give Rafe a little kiss on his sleeping cheek before Sinclair hands our baby

and safe,” Henry says, giving us a wink. “Enjoy

running a hand over Rafe’s dark head

you’re going to take my little baby into the forest without me,” Cora whispers, her voice breaking a little. “I haven’t been away from him

minutes,” I say, laughing and touching my sister gently on the cheek, even though I remember precisely what she’s feeling. I feel emotion stirring in me as well, the product of the special day combined with my memories, combined with my love for our growing

and sniff,

crying already,” Sinclair murmurs, his

want,” I mumble back, laughing a little. “I’m

attention to the priestess, who reaches out her arms for Jesse. Cora gives a half -hearted little sigh, but passes him over, making many of our

at the wide- awake little Jesse, who looks like he peers back at her curiously, seeming to understand, somehow,

this child for dedication?” the priestess says,

voice steady and more