Chapter 379
idental Surrogate Chapter 379-Family nning E
We’re an almost ridiculously cheerful group about an hourter when Roger and
Corae to join me and Sinir in his little clinic room.
Roger is first through the door, his face stark with worry as he storms into the
room after getting word – probably from Hank – that Sinir is awake.
“Dominic -” he says, all anxiety as Cora follows him in, closing the door quietly
behind them. But Roger stops in his tracks when he sees Dominic sitting up
happily in bed, smiling down at Rafe who has just woken up from his nap and
finished eating. I’m sitting happily on Sinir’s side, so I have a front-row seat.
“Hey, Rog,” Sinir says, looking up and giving his brother a warm smile.
“Seriously?” Roger asks, staring a little dumbfounded at his brother. “You – you
sleep for three days after being miraculously healed and all I get is ‘Hey Rog’?”
“What else do you want?” Sinir asks, frowning confusedly at his brother.
“I don’t know,” Roger says, throwing out an exasperated hand. “Something more
significant I guess – maybe some kind of address to the fact that you had us
worried sick when you wouldn’t wake up
“Ignore him,” Cora says happily, crossing the room to Sinir’s side and
dropping a happy little kiss on his cheek. “He’s just had a hard couple of days
groveling to Hank after punching him in the face and handing Rafe back to his
kidnapper.”
Roger scowls, sinking his hands into his pockets and ring around at the three
of us. “Seriously? Three dayster, and I can’t get a break about that?”
“We’ve forgiven you,” I say, raising my eyebrows and gesturing between me and
Cora – and, I admit, enjoying his awkwardness a little bit. “But Dominic,” I say,
pointing at my mate now, “hasn’t even had a chance to be mad. Not to mention
Rafe, when we tell him in ten years. He’s gonna be pissed.”
Roger clenches his hands into fists and res around at all of us, starting to get
N?velDrama.Org (C) content.
pissed again, and Sinir – to my glee – feeds into it.
“You’re demoted,” he says with a deep Alpha’smand, ring back at his
brother. “No longer my Beta, Roger. I’ll see what I can do about getting you
some menialmand, see if you can earn my trust back-
“Dom-“Roger gasps, his face falling, but the slow smile that spreads across
Sinir’s face has me and Cora cackling. Roger quickly figures out the joke.
“Jackass,” Roger growls, taking a few steps forward to smack his brother on the
calf.
“Ow!” Sinir gasps, pretending to be hurt and flinching his leg away.” Roger,
I’m healing -”
Roger’s face goes ck, but when we all burst again intoughter he just
crosses his arms and res at us. “I reject all of you,” he murmurs, staring at
each of us in turn. “I break the bonds of mate, of family, of…sister-inw,” he
continues, though I can see him fighting his smile. “Because I refuse to spend
my life bonded to jerks who take joy in my guilt and pain – ”
“Oh, get over it, Roger,” Sinir interrupts,ughing and looking down at Rafe
now, who coos and smiles, apparently picking up on the good mood in the room.
“It’s fine. No one mes you for anything. Except maybe Hank.”
Roger groans a little, sitting down on the edge of the bed as Coraes to his
side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “I almost wish it was Hank who
betrayed us and tried to kidnap Rafe,” he murmurs, looking up at his mate.
“Then I wouldn’t have to be nice to him.”
“Poor baby,” Cora murmurs, frowning insincerely down at him. “You’ll just have
to get over it. And, of course, admit I was right.”
“Never,” Roger growls, pulling her close and making herugh.
“How’s the baby, Cora?” Sinir asks, shifting Rafe who he hasn’t put down for
a moment since he got the baby in his hands so that he can look all around at
us. I bite my lip a little as I watch my mate with his baby boy, pleased to see the
obvious love that runs between the two of them.
“Baby is okay,” Cora says, smiling down at herself and putting a hand over her
stomach. “We were worried for a little bit – I also lost a lot of blood 1 but after
E healed me,” she gives a little shrug and meets Sinir’s eyes again. “We
were anxious for a day or two but Roger says that the connection is still strong. I
don’t think there’s any reason to be worried anymore.”
“Good,” Sinir says, raising his eyebrows. “Rafe needs his buddy.”
“Oh yes,” Cora says, raising her eyebrows a little sarcastically, “As long as Rafe
gets his buddy, I’m d my pregnancy can continue.”
“Precisely the right attitude, sis,” I sigh, leaning against my mate.
“Where is dad?” Sinir asks, leaning back into me.
Roger tilts his head back towards the door. “In another room. He’s okay too but
he’s…tired. And I think he feels a lot of guilt.” He grimaces a little and I do as
well. Henry and the rest of the men took a hard beating at the bunker. They
ultimately came out victorious, but…. not everyone made it. I know that Henry
feels a lot of guilt for what everyone went through – and especially for putting his
grandkids at risk.
All of us – Sinir aside, of course – have spent a lot of time trying to convince
Henry that we all agreed to the n, we all thought it was best. But he hasn’t let
it go.
“You should talk to him,” Roger says
quietly, shaking his head at his brother. “He…he might listen to you.”
“I will,” Sinir says seriously, his eyes on his own son. And I intuit, perhaps
through our own bond, that he’s hoping to hell he never puts Rafe in a simr
situation, or that he never, ever feels like he’s failed Rafe in the same way his
father feels he’s failed his children now. “Of course I will.”
I press myself tighter against my mate’s side, sending a little pulse of love and
reassurance down our bond. I want him to know that it’s never going to be like
that. Sinir turns to me, grateful, and presses a little kiss to my forehead.
I nudge him with my nose as he turns back his brother and I look that way too,
but instead of Roger, I find my eyes falling on Cora who looks at me with
something a little strange in her eyes. And as I tilt my head at her, curious, I
see her blush and look away.
And I realize, quite suddenly, that it’s jealousy. Because while she and Roger
are incredibly close, and growing closer every day…she doesn’t have the wolf’s
bond with Roger that I have with Sinir. And I know, in my heart, that she
wants it. Maybe even feels a little bit guilty that she can’t give that to him.
My face falls when I realize this and I call her name softly as Roger and Sinir
chat about more details of the raid on the bunker, but she looks sharply at me
and shakes her head. I slowly close my mouth, ncing at Roger and realizing
that she doesn’t want him to know that she feels like she …I don’t know. Has
failed him in some small way? That his choice in her as his mate means he
gives up some of the things he always thought he’d have in his rtionship?
My heart breaks to think that she thinks that because I know that’s not how
Roger feels.
But I nod to my sister, letting her know that I won’t say anything. And she gives
me my own little nod in response, letting me know she’s grateful for my secrecy.
I smile at Cora but then Sinir’s words draw my attention.
“We have to decide,” he says, looking between us as Rafe wraps a hand around
his dad’s gigantic finger, “what our next step is. What we want to…do next. As a
family.”
“Really?” I ask, surprised. “No more reconnaissance meetings? No more board
room councils? Just…us deciding?”
“Well, those didn’t work, did they?” Sinir asks quietly, ncing down at Rafe
who gives a happy little noise that makes us all smile. “Dad will be involved, of
course, but I think that moving forward…”
My mate nces around at the rest of us, trying to gauge how we feel. “I
promised E peace,” he says quietly, and I meant it. But I think that the best
way forward with that is to…stick together. Us four. No more splitting up, no
more dividing our forces. Because we have work to do.”
“Well, I, for one, like it,” Cora says, raising her eyebrows and looking around at
all of us. “We’ve got a doctor, two gigantic wolves, a goddess-gifted healer… I
think we’re quite a force to be reckoned with.”
“Hey,” I say, frowning at my sister. ” I’m a wolf too.”
“Fine,” she says loftily, “two and a half gigantic wolves.”
“And one and a half tiny babies!” I point out, leaning in to tickle Rafe’s stomach
and making himugh. “Who are very cute, if helpless!”
“They’re here for morale,” Sinir rumbles beside me, making me grin. “All
right,” Roger says. “So, we stick together from here on out. But what do we want
to do next?”
And as the four of us look around at each other, I realize that…none of us has a
n.
What on earth are we going to do next?