Accidental Surrogate for Alpha by Caroline Above Story
Chapter 378 Family Planning (Ella)
We’re an almost ridiculously cheerful group about an hour later when Roger and Cora come to join me and Sinclair 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 Sinclair 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 Sinclair’s side, so I have a front-row seat.
“Hey, Rog,” Sinclair says, looking up and giving his brother a warm smile.
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“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?” Sinclair 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 Sinclair’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 glaring around at the three of us. “Seriously? Three days later, 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 glares around at all of us, starting to get pissed again, and Sinclair – to my glee – feeds into it.
“You’re demoted,” he says with a deep Alpha’s command, glaring back at his brother. “No longer my Beta, Roger. I’ll see what I can do about getting you some menial command, see if you can earn my trust back-
“Dom-“Roger gasps, his face falling, but the slow smile that spreads across Sinclair’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!” Sinclair gasps, pretending to be hurt and flinching his leg away.” Roger, I’m healing -”
Roger’s face goes slack, but when we all burst again into laughter he just crosses his arms and glares 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-in-law,” 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,” Sinclair interrupts, laughing 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 blames you for anything. Except maybe Hank.”
Roger groans a little, sitting down on the edge of the bed as Cora comes 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 her laugh.
“How’s the baby, Cora?” Sinclair 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 Ella healed me,” she gives a little shrug and meets Sinclair’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,” Sinclair 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 glad my pregnancy can continue.”
“Precisely the right attitude, sis,” I sigh, leaning against my mate.
“Where is dad?” Sinclair 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 – Sinclair aside, of course – have spent a lot of time trying to convince Henry that we all agreed to the plan, 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,” Sinclair 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 similar 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. Sinclair 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 Sinclair. 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 Sinclair 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, glancing 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 relationship?
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 Sinclair’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?” Sinclair asks quietly, glancing 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 glances around at the rest of us, trying to gauge how we feel. “I promised Ella 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 him laugh. “Who are very cute, if helpless!”
“They’re here for morale,” Sinclair 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 plan.
What on earth are we going to do next?