o 35b0a02a46796a4f (35 page)

“I’ll go soon,” she said.

“What? Where?”

She continued to stare at the sheen of the half-moon that coated the village in liquid silver ice.

“This is your place not mine.” She lifted a hand, but she didn’t turn around. “Don’t worry. If you can hold on for a few days, I’m sure Edward—make that Elise—will concoct something to make this.. . connection go away.”

“You won’t go near him,” Julian said, and the house shook just a little. “Not ever again.”

“I won’t tell him where you are. I know you didn’t believe me, but now—” She took a breath, and it shook. “I’d never let him hurt—” Her voice broke.

Was she crying? No. Alexandra Trevalyn would never cry.

So why could he smell her tears?

“I’ll stay here until it comes. I’ll let you keep it. You know that I’d never bring the
Jäger-Suchers
down on—”

What was she
talking
about?

She turned, and it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room, his lungs, the universe.

“Our child,” she finished, placing her palm on the full swell of her belly.

Julian did the only thing a man could do at a revelation like that.

He fainted.

Julian went down so fast and so hard, Alex would have thought he’d been shot if the night hadn’t remained completely silent.

She went onto her knees. He was already coming around.

“Impossible,” he said as he opened his eyes.

She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. The child, no doubt irritated at being awoken by the thunderous thumping of Alex’s heart, took the opportunity-to give her its usual vicious kick.

Julian gasped and lifted his gaze to hers. He didn’t appear capable of further speech.

“That’s kind of how I felt when I heard.”

Ella had figured it out. Alex refused to believe her until her stomach began to expand, and the baby began to do the mambo. -

“Impossible might be a good name,” Alex murmured, keeping her hand on top of Julian’s on top of her stomach. “It’s your child, after all.”

“But I can’t— We can’t—”

“You obviously can, and we
did.”

“How?”

His face was gaunt. He broke her heart. She wanted to kiss him, to touch him and pull him close. But that would only make what she had to do so much harder.

“You healed a silver bullet, Julian. Is there anything you can’t do if you put your
mind
to it?”

His forehead creased. “A boy with my gold hair. A girl with your green eyes.”

She stared at him for several seconds. “Did you hit your head?”

“I thought that once, when we were. . .“ He sat up, but he didn’t remove his hand from her stomach.

“Oh!” Suddenly everything became clear. Julian was magic, and when he thought of things, they happened.

“We were having sex and you thought of kids?”

“I didn’t mean to. I was thinking about—” He looked

away.

- -

“Alana.” That he’d been thinking of his wife while he was doing Alex was kind of.. . yuck. Then again, had she’ really believed he’d been thinking of her?

“You were angry?” she asked.

“Back then, every time I looked at you I was angry.” Julian twitched his shoulders, more of a wince than a shrug.
“Green
eyes. That was you. So I guess I wasn’t really thinking of her at all.”

But he always would be. Alex knew that now.

Julian sighed. “She died because I couldn’t give her a child, but it seems that I could. I never considered—”

Alex squeezed his fingers, and he looked into her face. “I don’t think you could have given her one. This mate

-bond seems to be the cause of a whole lot of—” She floundered

for a word.

-

“Weirdness,” Julian supplied.

“Yeah. Besides, would you ever have been able to work up enough fury at her to change the course of lycanthropy?”

His lips quirked. “Probably not.”

Alex didn’t say what else she was thinking. That Alana had taken the easy way out; that if Alana had truly loved Julian, she’d have chosen the hard way. As Alex had.

She lifted her hand from hi-s and got up. He scrambled to follow, and she stepped away. She couldn’t be near him and not want him.

“A life for a life,” she said. “It’s only fair.”

“What are you talking about?” -

“I took Alana, but I can give you this.” Her palm skated over the fullness. “Once I have the baby, I’ll leave him or her with you. I’ll go to Edward. He’ll have to do something to make this connection between us go away. If he wants me to be able to work for him without puking all day.”

“Work for him,” Julian repeated.

“There are still werewolves out there that need to be killed. But now I know that there are some who don’t. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“That’s—” Julian appeared to be searching for his words. Maybe he
had
hit his head. “The stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in all of my lifetimes.” -

Alex blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“You should be.” He reached out and drew her to him— too fast, they bumped bellies. “You’re my mate, Alex.”

“You didn’t choose me; you didn’t choose this?’

“I did.” He touched her stomach again as if he had to just to make sure it was real. She did that several times a day herself. “I chose to make you like me. For all the wrong reasons, true, and I hope you’ll forgive me. I was wrong. if you want to go back to the other world and be cured, I’ll understand.”

She laid her hand on top of his. “Why would anyone want to go back once they’ve found this?”

“It’s a miracle,” he said.

“No.” Alex lifted her lips and kissed him; then she knew

without a doubt that she was home. “It’s magic?’

Their son was born three months later. As soon as Alex held him in her arms, she understood why Julian had said her idea of leaving the child behind had been the stupidest thing he’d ever heard.

“I couldn’t have done it,” she said.

“I know,” Julian murmured. Sound asleep, the baby still clutched at his finger.

-

“I don’t think he should be able to do that yet?’ Alex

leaned down and nuzzled the child’s head. He smelled like the first snowfall of the season.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of things he does that he isn’t supposed to be able to?’

They were treading new ground. As far as they knew,

there’d never been a werewolf pregnancy, let alone a child born of two lycanthropes. Alex would have been lying if she said she hadn’t spent a lot of sleepless nights worrying if the child would be all right. If it would actually
be
a child at all.

But now that he was here and he was “perfect,” she whispered, all her fears seemed kind of foolish.

Julian had worried about who would take care of the child on that single night when every inhabitant of Barlowsville ran beneath the moon. Alex had pointed out it wasn’t as if the moon snuck up on them. They
knew
when it was corning. A few hours before it did, they would drop the baby off with an entire village of Inuit babysitters.

Julian also worried that Alex would someday feel the

need to go out hunting for her father’s killer. But the closer she got to her due date, the less she thought about anything

but her child.

“Edward will find him,” she said with a shrug.

For a while she’d been concerned that Edward would find her. She hadn’t reported back. But neither had any of Edward’s other toadies. He’d believe she was as dead as they were, and she’d let him. That part of her life, that other Alex,
was
dead.

Ella and Jorund appeared in the doorway. Ella had proved a huge help with all things baby, and Jorund… he went wherever she was.

The two had recently married, and Jorund now lived in Barlowsville. He’d left George in charge.

The day after he’d come home, Julian had given in to Ella’s request to make Jorund a werewolf. Julian could no longer deny the power of true love. It crossed boundaries of age, of race, of species. True love made all things possible. Their child proved that.

“What are you going to name him?” Ella asked.

“Charlie,” Julian said, and tugged his finger from his

son’s grasp.

In his sleep Charlie frowned; then he opened his tiny,

perfect mouth and he—

“Was that a growl?” Alex asked.