Chapter Forty Five-For Once In My Life

The warm sun poured over us, and I tugged at the canopy until it covered his pale skin. The soft tuft of curly white hair stood in the middle, and I licked my fingers to try to tame it.

Despite my fears, being a mother is everything to me. Maybe it’s my arrogance, but every time I looked down at this little piece of me pulling at his toes in his stroller, I saw a prince. An angel. Perfection. And I lived to serve him.

Our Jakey would rule all this someday. No, he wasn’t born of Alpha blood, but I dare one of these motherfuckers to test me about his lineage when the time comes.

I had to make the world we lived in safe for him. I spent my pregnancy and my parents’ money tracking down and killing every human and traitor wolf who set up or profited from the hunting excursion that day.

For a thousand years, my family’s curse has been blood, and I may have finally satisfied it with my offering. There was one last piece of the puzzle left, and he was getting his comeuppance right now in the jail on the other side of the door I sat beside.

The musty, moldy air passed by me as Teddy opened the door and leaned outside. “I believe we’re all done in here if you’re ready.”

While I gave my Jakey air kisses as he giggled and flashed his gummy grin in my direction, Mrs. Hexom rose from the bench and pulled the stroller away with her. “Always.”

Like we did in every lifetime, Teddy and I walked hand in hand down the stairway to the dungeon that once caged me.

I saw Logan wiping his bloody hands on a towel as I reached the landing, and when I turned the corner, Haldir was waiting for me. His arms were draped over the barely recognizable human tied to a chair, and he smiled at me. “Happy birthday, Tess.” He patted the red bow affixed to the dying man’s head. “We even gift wrapped him for you.”

While Teddy opened a metal folding chair and placed it in front of the human, I reached out on my tip-toes and planted a kiss on my father’s cheek. “Thank you, old man.”

Like the proper gentlewoman my mother always hoped I’d be, I sat up in the chair and placed my hands on my lap as I crossed my ankles.

Surrounded by Jacob’s fathers, my brother, and my Alpha, I gave the CEO of the sports entertainment company that sat before me my most toothy, pageant queen smile. “Mr. Riley, let me introduce myself.”

I placed my hand over my heart, and I felt it steadily ticking along. “My name is Tessa Hexom.” My finger wagged through the air around me. “I’m what you might call the head bitch in charge round these parts.”

His swollen eye managed to open enough so he could get a glimpse of me. I was hoping he would. “So, let me get to the point of this little family gathering today. See, about a year ago, your people killed my husband, the father of my child.” My head tilted to the men in the room. “Their son. Their brother.”

I shrugged a shoulder as I peeked out the little window along the wall beside us. “Well, you actually killed lots of folks that day, not that I really give a shit.”

I scooted to the end on my chair, and leaned forward as Haldir gripped the handle of his knife and came to my side to protect me from the bloody pulp of a man. Even though I’d recently killed more people than cancer, he still saw me as the helpless little girl in a hospital bed. “But Jacob was special, and he was mine. I don’t take people stealing what belongs to me lightly.”

The knife came hilt first to my line of sight, and as I wrapped my hand around it, I peeked up to Haldir. “Thank you, sir.”

As my brother’s hand wrapped Mr. Riley’s hair around it, he pulled his head up from his chest and winked at me. “Whenever you’re ready.”

My Jacob would probably frown upon what I’m about to do. He wanted a sweet woman like his mother, but he got me instead. And as I thought back to the month we shared alone in Savannah, it still filled me with sadness, knowing I could never be that for them.

As I told Logan when we agreed to get back together, I am who I am. Either accept that or let me go. He couldn’t say okay quick enough.

His big hands covered my shoulders as Logan leaned down into my neck and kissed my mark. “Let’s get this over with. Jakey’s waiting on us.”

I sliced through Mr. Riley’s neck like it was hot butter, then backed away and pointed my finger gun at him. He was ashes now. Nothing.

***

In the soft light of the evening, Logan stood in front of the picture window that overlooked the property. He kept his word. There was no better father or husband that I could recall, and I watched him rock our son in his arms.

The big, scary man’s soothing, deep voice spread through the room as he sang some lullaby under his breath, and he was just a little embarrassed when he caught me smiling at him. “He’s asleep.”

He laid him softly in the bassinet we kept in the quiet corner, and when he looked up at me, I knew what he was after.

On the couch where he claimed me, he pulled my hair as his hips smacked against mine. I had everything I ever wanted in my grasp for once in my life, but it wouldn’t last forever.

The end…for now!

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