Chapter 403

| wait until we’re alone in the cabin, Grace’s emotions have been all over the place since we arrived. | know some of it is concern for seeing her father, but there was something else that | felt and didn’t understand.

“Baby, what’s going on? Your emotions have been all over since we got here. It’s not all about your father. It feels like something else.”

She walks up to me, leaning against my chest and my arms immediately go around her. | pick her up and sit on the edge of the bed, putting her in my lap. “Talk to me.”

She’s got her head tucked up under my chin so | can’t see her face. When | hear her sniffling. | lean back, putting my finger under her chin and lifting her face. “Baby?”

“Yes.” She says as if answering my question, her voice quivering as the tears start to fall. Okay.

saying ‘yes' to me asking her what's going on doesn’t answer my question.

“lm not sure | understand.”

She tucks her head against me again, her hand rubbing the tears from her eyes. I’m rubbing my hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her.

“| want a baby.”

| feel like time stands still for a moment. My hand stops its comforting motion on her back. When |

feel her tense in my arms, | start my motion again.

“We talked about it before. We said after the tournament. And now, seeing Lily and Richie it feels like my ovaries just dropped a bunch of eggs into my uterus to get fertilized but I’m still on birth control, so it won’t take but, but.” She sniffles, burying her face in my chest again.

“But?” | ask gently. Honestly, I’m thrilled. We've done so much in the pack that I’m not nearly as concerned about bringing a baby into the world. And the thought of my mate’s stomach growing with my pup has me and Louis ready to do cartwheels.

She looks up at me with her beautiful milk chocolate eyes, glistening with her tears. “I want to start trying.”

| lean down and gently kiss her lips. “Okay.”

She pulls back looking at me, hope shining bright in her eyes. “Really?”

| chuckle at her. “There is nothing that | want more than to build a family with you, Grace. |

wanted to wait until our pack was in a better place, but | feel like it’s good now. Things will +15 MONO continue to improve, but yeah, let’s start trying.” | can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. “Want to start right now?” |

ask, wagging my eyebrows at her.

She laughs but then her face drops. “There’s something else.”

“I'm listening.” | tell her, but I’m distracted by the idea of putting a pup in my mate.

“I saw my father.” That gets my attention and all thoughts of pup making get pushed aside.

“Where? When?”

“When we were walking to our SUV to come to the cabin. He looked right at me.”

I tense. | wanted to make sure she wasn’t alone when she faced her father.

“And?”

“And he didn’t even recognize me.”

| think for a minute. “You were only 12 when he banished you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you're a lot different than you were six years ago, Grace. Not only that, but I’m also sure he’s not expecting to see you here.”

“He was carrying a toddler. | think it’s the child Liam and Rik told me about.” She says quietly.

“That’s very possible, and it’s possible that his mate will be here. If you plan to confront also very him while we're here, you need to be prepared for that.” |

hold her for another couple of minutes.

“Come on. Let's take a shower and get into bed. We have a very early morning and we've had a long day of traveling.”

“What about trying?” My sassy mate says as she gets off my lap.

“Who says we can't ‘try’ in the shower?” | say, and | chase my mate into the bathroom where we’ try‘ three times before we finally drop into bed.

The next morning, we both groan when the alarm wakes us ridiculously early, but by the time we get to breakfast, the energy is buzzing from everywhere and we're ready to cheer our warriors on to victory.

As we're eating, the elders come in to announce the beginning of the tournament.

“Welcome to the Tournament of the Moon Goddess. This four-day tournament will showcase the strengths of your packs and allow us to rank the packs in strength and numbers.”

+15 BONOS He goes through an explaination of how the days will be divided, points given and that each day the packs will be ranked based on their total number of points. There is a challenger board, where we can watch the progression of the matches and see which of the challengers progresses as well as who they will fight in the next round. All fights will be in human form, which is why Carlos is able to participate.