Her Alpha Mate Season Finale

*Two months later*

Zack:

"So?" asked Chance as he marched into my office.

"Nothing!" he threw his hands in the air in frustration, "Your lips are sealed!"

Reece looked up from his corner of the room, "You two are so impatient. You'll just have to wait a few more hours to find out."

I rolled my eyes and stood up, "Reece, if your mother kept the sex of your child from you, would you sit still?"

He paused and let out a short sigh, "Probably not."

Chance plopped down on a chair, "This is all your fault, Zack. If you had not agreed to have that gender reveal done, we would not be having this problem."

I was about to roll my eyes again, but I restrained myself. It was not really my fault - I was just trying to be a good friend. When Freya asked me about it, I could not say no.



FLASHBACK


"Zack, can I ask you something?" she asked in her innocent, sweet voice.

I turned away from the pan and looked at her curiously, "Sure, baby. What's up?"

She bit her lip, "I do not know if you agree or not."

I turned off the stove and leaned over the counter to lift her chin, "I promise to do anything you want."

Her eyes darted back and forth before she slowly nodded her head, "Okay, in a few weeks we can find out the sex of our puppy."

"Yeah," I mumbled, not understanding what she was getting at.

"I was hoping we could reveal the sex to the whole pack. That way everyone will know at once."

"Exactly....," I said, hoping she would get to her point quickly.

"That includes us."

I blinked, "You want us to know when the sex is revealed?"

She nodded again, "It's a special moment, and I do not want to find out in a hospital room. I want it to be a moment we can always remember."

"So someone would have to find out the gender before we do, so they can do what you want to do."

"I thought our mothers could find out first. We could ask the pack doctor to write it down for them. Then we could let them decide how they want to tell everyone."

I nibbled on the inside of my lip, "We could do that. It should not be too hard to wait a little longer."



END OF FLASHBACK


I. Was. Like this. Fucking. Wrong.

The moment I saw the doctor hand my mom the envelope with our puppy's gender, I desperately wanted to know. The thought that someone knew and I did not was killing me inside. For the past week, I could not think of anything else, and it did not help that there were several bets going on in the pack about whether the future Alpha would be male or female.

I was so close to marching to my parents' house to marching and trashing the house until I found the damn envelope. But according to my dad, my mom had shredded the paper immediately after she told Luna Jennifer the results. He also mentioned that they had already planned everything, which only added to the excitement.

Thankfully, the day of the sex determination could not have come any faster, and in a few hours I would be able to celebrate my son or daughter.

I stared at the clock and watched the second hand move at a pace that almost made me cry inside.

I felt like those few hours would feel like a lifetime.





***





The speed at which my heart was beating would probably be classified as dangerous. It was definitely over 100 beats per minute, but I tried to keep it together for Freya. A high heart rate was not good for the baby, so I tried hard to make sure she was calm and collected while I was freaking out inside.

We walked toward the lake where the pack was slowly forming a large group. Freya squeezed my hand as we walked to the edge of the lake where we could see two canoes making their way to the middle of the water.

Luna Jennifer and my mother had decided that the best way to announce the sex was with fireworks so everyone could see, so we had to wait for a blue or red explosion in the sky.

"We are not going to do that with our next puppy." I muttered to Freya as I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants.

"We will cross that bridge when we get there. Let us see how we do with a puppy first." she said and lovingly rubbed her bump.

I pulled her closer to me and kissed her head, "This puppy is giving me gray hairs, and he or she is not even out of the womb yet."

She rolled her eyes in amusement and turned to Betty, who was just emerging with Chance in tow.

"I am surprised Michael showed up," he said quietly, looking at the man curiously.
I followed his gaze, eyeing Michael from top to bot"tom. He did not meet my gaze, however but I could see that he knew I was watching him.

After all the drama, I had stripped him of his title as tracker and demoted him to the lowest level, where he had to work his way up and regain my trust. He had apologized and said he was just angry because of his sister's broken heart. Little did he know that Queen's heart had not been broken for long.

A few days after our night in the hut, Freya's brother came to visit for his twenty-first birthday, and to everyone's surprise, Queen was his mate. Fortunately, the two got along splendidly, and Freya happily accepted her new sister-in-law.

Everything had fallen into place. No more griffins and avenging brothers. Just peace.

And I could not be happier about it.

"Zack, would you like to say a few words before we begin?" my mother asked, pointing to the picnic table.

I climbed up on the table and stared out at the vast sea of wolves.

"Thank you all for coming today," I said loudly, giving the crowd a few seconds to settle down. It was quiet as a mouse as the hundreds of wolves stared at me excitedly.

"This moment is not only for my Luna and me, but also for all of you. You will find out if you will have an alpha male or alpha female. But as a reminder, regardless of their gender, I promise you that they will be trained to have the best interests of the pack in mind. They will definitely exceed your expectations."

There were a few cheers and whoops before I nodded to my mom, "We are ready."

I got up from the table and walked over to Freya, who slapped her hands together. "This is it," she breathed so softly I almost missed it.

I squeezed her hand and stared up at the clear night sky.

Soft whistles sounded as the fireworks were set off.

There were several explosions that nearly burst my eardrums.

Sparks were flying.

And all I could see was blue.






***





Freya:

The moment I saw the fireworks explode, my heart almost burst with joy. I held one hand over my mouth in shock as tears welled up in my eyes, and with the other I held onto Zack's hand as if it were my lifeline. I couldn't say a word while my wolf howled with happiness.

A little boy. My little boy. Our little boy.

I didn't even realize I'd blocked out all the other sounds until Zack's hand was ripped from mine. I turned my head in time to see him being thrown to the ground by Chance and Reece.

I couldn't make out what they were saying over all the noise, but whatever they were saying made the grin on Zack's face grow even wider. He was positively beaming and had a look of pride on his face. I could only imagine what he was thinking.

Before I knew what hit me, I was pulled into my mother's embrace, whispering in my ear with excitement about her first grandson. As she let go of me, my dad leaned over and gave me a quick hug, "You know, Nathan is a great name for a puppy."

I chuckled softly and decided to humor him, "I'll put it on the list."

"Don't forget Kennedy. I think Kennedy II or Kennedy Jr. is a wonderful name for a puppy." Zack's father spoke up as he hugged me.

"How about we combine the two names? Like Kennedy? Or Nathan?" my father grumbled.

I broke away from Kennedy and stared at my dad to make sure he wasn't really serious. But from the way he scratched his chin and nodded approvingly at Kennedy, it was clear that the two future grandfathers liked the idea of the name combination. I decided to let them have their moment and not burst their bubble by saying they sounded like ship names.

Zack appeared and said, "Touché. Now if you'll excuse us, I just want to talk to my mate for a moment."

Our dads shrugged and went back to thinking up names that no sane person would give their puppy.

Zack pulled me away from the crowd just as another fireworks display was being set off. We both looked up at the sky at the same time with big grins.

"I bet he's going to be a mama's boy," Zack said softly, stroking my bump with one hand.

"He could be a daddy's boy, though."

"I doubt it. I mean, you're going to be a great mom."

My heart warmed at those words. It all felt so surreal, and just the thought of our little family brought tears to my eyes. I turned my head to look at him and smiled slightly when I saw the reflection of the blue sparks in his gray eyes. He looked like he was at peace, and seeing that made me happy.

"Thank you," I whispered, for his ears only.

He tilted his head in confusion, "For what? For getting you pregnant? I want you to know that..."

I rolled my eyes and slapped a hand over his mouth, "Thank you for everything. You do so many sweet things for me, and I can't stress enough how much you love me.
I can't stress enough how much I appreciate it."

He smiled and pulled me into his arms,
"Well, I don't mind a kiss to say thank you."

"Of course you don't mind," I murmured, standing on my tiptoes.

Our lips collided in an explosion of our own, while my heart pounded in my ears with the pop of every firework that was set off. It was just the two of us in a moment we'd never have again in our lives, and it felt beyond heavenly.