Chapter 393

Chapter 393: Do You Know what I Know?

Cora “What?” I ask, confused. I – I have a gift? I quickly search for it within myself but....it’s not there. I mean, I know how Ella’s feels – she passed it to me before, I carried it – but there is nothing in me now that feels anything like that...

“Yours is different from your sisters,” the Goddess explains. “Ella’s soul is that of a healer, and so that is her gift. Yours,” she smiles lightly, “reflects you. You’ve used it before,” she says, turning her head to glance at Roger with a little laugh.

“I’m surprised you did not notice it then.”

“What?” I ask again, still baffled. But she turns to go and I grab for her hand.

“Please,” I say, shaking my hand, “I don’t understand -”

“Perhaps you should ask your sister for help,” the Goddess says with a shrug.

“She can guide you to it, I think, as hers is already unlocked. But you already have your gift, Cora.” She assures me. She hesitates then before laughing a little, “as does your child.”

“What!?” I say for the third time, my mouth falling open now as I stare at her and then glance down at my stomach before looking back up into her face. ” My child -”

“All your children,” she says simply, as if it’s obvious, “will be gifted, as you are, as Ella is. As you, my daughters, are gifts to me – it is my gift to you, and to all of your children.”

“Whoa,” Roger says, sitting back in his chair and raising a hand to his head in shock. “All...all are kids are going to be magic?”

The Goddess laughs a little. “Each will be gifted,” she says simply, turning back to me. “And each gift will be unique, and will reflect each child’s unique spirit. As yours does, as Ella’s does. They’ll all have pieces in common but -” she sighs happily now, shaking her head as if it’s too complicated to explain. “You will see, Cora. I need not explain it all. Your children will show you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“I love you,” the Goddess says, raising her hand and brushing my cheek with her fingertips. “Carry that knowledge your whole life. I will see you again,” she promises, and I cling to that prophecy just a little, “but until then carry my love.”

And then, as Roger and I watch, my mother passes through a door in the back of the room – a door that I swear was not there a moment ago –

stare at each other. And then, as I continue to stare at him, he starts to laugh – a low, delighted sound – as he gets up and crosses the small room to me, wrapping me tight in his arms and rocking me back and forth as he buries his head against my neck.

“I knew it,” he murmurs, still holding me tight. “I knew it was all going to be good news-”

“You did not,” I laugh, and finally as the shock leaves my system I feel myself filling with a deep and resounding joy in its place. “You were as anxious as I was!”

“Yeah,” he admits, his voice muffled against my skin, “but like... deep down. I knew it was going to be all right. You know?”

“Sure, baby,” I say, patting his back, letting him think it. But despite all of it, I can’t stop smiling. Inside me my wolf turns in a happy little circle, prancing around and shaking out her fur, getting used to the feel of her body moving freely.

Roger stands up a little straighter and grins down into my face. “This is so cool,”

he murmurs. “The baby is going to be a wolf, and you have a wolf, and we have a mating bond -” he shakes his head, laughing, thrilled at it all.

“I know,” I murmur, smiling up at him and raising my hands to bury my fingers in his hair. “I feel – I feel crazy different, like expanded – ” my whole body has-

“Should we do it now?” he asks, interrupting me and looking down at my neck, raising his hand to start to tug at the collar of my shirt.

“Huh?” and then as I see him eyeing that soft place between my shoulder and my neck I burst into laughter and swat him away. “Ew, Roger! No!”

“EW?!” He says, his mouth dropping open a little bit – but we’re both too happy for him to actually be offended. We’re we’re just...so connected now 1- that the mating bond has snapped together on both ends. It’s like he can intuit my emotions and my meaning without even having to look at me, even listen to me.

“Why not?” He asks, and I can sense his mild disappointment.

“Because!” I say, slapping his shoulder playfully. “We’re in my mom’s house –

there are people that live here! We’re not just going to like, throw down here in the back of the temple-

“Why the hell not?” he asks, looking at me like I’m crazy.

“Roger!” I gasp, “Absolutely not! I may be a wolf in spirit, but I was raised human. I have a little more decency than that.” And then as he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer, looking hungrily down at me, I start to laugh so hard that my whole body shakes. It takes him a moment but then he’s laughing with me, and we pass our joy between ourselves down that bond, a cycle of it that makes me so happy I can barely breathe.

“Fine,” he murmurs when we both calm down a little bit, after he presses his lips warmly to my mouth and kisses me, soundly, warmly, so that the love sweeps through me and makes me feel absolutely complete. “But as soon as we’re alone – really alone, Cora...” he snaps his teeth at me, letting me know his precise intentions.

And I nudge him with my nose, just as my wolf does to his in the precise same moment. “You’d better,” I whisper, feeling an intense hunger for his mark that I didn’t feel before.

Slowly, Roger exhales and loosens his arms, his eyes drifting down my body to my stomach as he makes space between us. “So cool that the baby’s going to have powers,” he murmurs. And Sinclair and Ella are going to flip when we tell them that Rafe -”

But he freezes, suddenly, unable to finish his sentence. I feel his shock and awe down the bond before he looks up and whispers my name. into my face-

“What?” I ask my eyes going wide. It’s not fear – nothing in his reaction tells me I should be afraid. But still...what.

And then, as he looks down at my stomach again, he passes me something down the bond – something I don’t understand, something that doesn’t have words...

And suddenly, quite suddenly, I become aware of...a new little connection inside of me. A link that has been there, but which I hadn’t been aware of before...

My wolf quirks her head, turning towards it, curious. And then, as we both realize what it is, I gasp and she gambols forward in excitement. Our pup! She shouts in my mind, her heart and my heart both leaping with joy to feel it.

“The baby,” I gasp – because now that my wolf is awake, I can feel the bond –

feel it in the same way Roger could. “Is it... is it more for you now?”

“Yes,” he murmurs, awestruck, looking back up in my face with wide eyes. “Yes, I can feel it so much more now – I think...I think as much as Dominic did, with Rafe...”

And I flush suddenly with joy to be able to give this to Roger, to be able to feel it myself, this wonderful, miraculous new connection...

I bite my lip with happiness suddenly as I explore the bod, prod it, connecting with my little baby and saying hello, and realizing...

“Do you know what I know?” I whisper, my face alight again with joy. A thrilled grin bursts on Roger’s face.” Yes,” he says quietly, his voice almost shaking with the joy of it. “I think I do.”

“A boy!” I shout, laughing, throwing my arms around his neck as Roger catches me, and picks me up, and spins me around laughing and shouting with happiness.

“A little boy,” he murmurs against my neck as I wrap my legs around his waist.

And then I take my mates face in my hands, and I beam down at him, and I kiss his mouth for the joy of it. We stay like that for a long time, absolutely thrilled and more connected to each other and to our child – than we’ve ever been.

“Are you happy?” I ask him when I pull away, just an inch. But I smile, already knowing the answer.

“How could I not be, Cora?” he sighs in reply, looking up at me with such love in his eyes that I can hardly bear it. “This is everything. Absolutely everything.”

And then he kisses me again, and I kiss him back, and with every passing moment I send a message down the bond to him with every beat of my heart:

I love you, I love you, I love you.

And he sends it right back.