THE FINAL CHAPTER
Getting some sleep, as Alex had suggested, proved nearly impossible for me that night. Between fits of anxiety, I just tossed and turned, trying to digest everything he had told me.
By morning, all my fretting was manifesting itself in tears, and I took a shower, sniffling all the while. It was only a while afterward, when I’d dressed in jeans and a cozy, oversized sweatshirt, that I began to feel more tired than wired, so I got back into bed and slept until noon.
After what Alex had told me, I expected some calamitous fight to break out in the city at any second. However, strangely, the next week or so passed completely uneventfully. Mason came to visit me alone once, just to talk, he said, but he was called away by Alex within a few minutes of arriving at my apartment. Two nights later, pretty much the exact same thing happened, only with Alex showing up at my place alone, only to be called away by Mason, who claimed there was some sort of an emergency with a captured Darkwing spy getting free.
The following day, Alex sent me a long text. I think Mason knows that I know something, and I don't think it'll be long before he and Michael Black attempt some sort of an attack. It’s occurred to me that Mason could even attempt to attack me the next time the three of us are in the bedroom together, but I don't think he will. I think he'll want to make my death look somehow like it was caused by the Darkwings and them alone, if possible, but I won't let him do this. I WILL defeat him and Michael Black somehow, so that you and I can be happy together. Please continue to trust me, and have faith. Also, please delete this text right away.
Deleting his text was easy, of course; however, continuing to have faith was a little harder. I did believe in him, though, and I did trust him. Also, no matter how much longer things continued on the way they were, I was determined not to lose hope that he would eventually kill Mason and Michael Black.
The day after Alex sent me the long text, he and Mason joined me at my apartment for a bedroom session. It took every ounce of my strength to act perfectly normal around them both and not show any sign of disgust toward Mason, but somehow, I managed to do it.
Over the course of that week, Dana asked me multiple times what Alex and I had discussed the night we’d had our long discussion, but I still felt like it just wasn’t safe to tell her. If she slipped up just once, just for a second, and told someone else, even completely on accident, and if that someone happened to be one of the few shifters in town loyal to Mason, I knew that could put her in some very serious danger. Not to mention that I’d also likely be in very serious danger, then, myself. I had no doubt that Mason would likely try to have us both killed immediately. For another thing, Dean obviously hadn’t clued Dana in yet as to what was going on, and I figured that he must have had a good reason for this, maybe the same one as mine. So, I just kept putting Dana off, and eventually she stopped asking, although at times, she seemed a bit miffed. I figured this was a pretty small price to pay when it came to keeping her safe.
A few more days passed. I had another bedroom visit from Alex and Mason together. Showing signs of possible mental strain, Mason had become far less jokey and decidedly more serious, and this night was no exception. After he’d brought us both to a climax, he just sat on the floor by the bed, seemingly off in his own little world. Meanwhile, Alex made love to me from behind, making me moan loudly with each one of his slow, powerful thrusts. I wondered if Mason was having second thoughts about his plan to kill Alex, maybe even having an actual attack of conscience, if he even had one. But then again, it seemed more likely that his and Michael Black’s planned takeover was becoming imminent, and he was just preoccupied with the details of it.
Two days before Halloween, Dana called me unusually early, being that she tended to sleep in. I asked her what was up, and she hesitated before saying just a single word, drawing out the vowel almost as long as possible.
“So….”
“‘So’ what?”
Again, she hesitated. “So, maybe we should meet up in person to talk. How about some breakfast at the café?”
For some reason, I suddenly just knew that Dana knew everything. However, it wasn’t just what she'd said about wanting to meet up in person; it was something about the tone of her voice too. Dreading our visit, yet looking forward to it at the same time, I told her that I’d meet her down in the lobby of the building in three.
When I arrived, I found her already there, waiting by a large potted plant. We began making our way out of the building, past small clusters of people waiting at the different elevator bays, and other clusters of people milling about the lobby, talking to each other with foam cups of coffee in their hands.
Once we were outside in the crisp autumn air, I spoke to Dana in a low voice, even though there wasn’t anyone immediately nearby. “I think there are too many listening ears at the café. Let's get in your car and take a drive to the nearest park or something.”
We did just that, arriving within minutes. It was only then, after Dana had parked the car in the little lot adjacent to the small city park, that she finally let loose with her characteristic rapid free-flow of words, basically telling me everything I already knew about the situation with Mason and Alex, saying that Dean had finally told her everything.
After a while, she finally paused briefly for air before speaking again. “You know, I have to admit that when Dean first told me all this, I was terrified, just because the Darkwings are such fierce fighters. Thinking about all this now, though, it’s pretty obvious to me that they’ll never be able to take over the country with Mason. They may be stronger than some of our own were-dragons, but we make up for that in numbers, which will help our side a lot. I even wish that I could help during any battle myself.”
I said that I wished the same about myself. “I’d do anything to help Alex, because I really love him. Last night, I had a dream that he was holding me, and I had the strongest sense...this kind of deep-down knowing in my heart…that he’s the man I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with.”
It was true, and the dream had been even more powerful and vivid than I was able to describe to Dana.
“I’ll do anything to stop him from getting killed, or to help him fight Mason, Michael Black, and the Darkwings.”
It was at this moment that I realized that even though I was simply a human woman, maybe there was something I could do to help Alex if the need ever arose.
*
That evening, I didn’t see Alex or Mason, but I did get a simple five-word text from Alex. I miss you so much. I texted back that I missed him so much too, which was definitely the truth. The moment his text had come in, I was actually curled up in bed with the part of the blanket that still held his scent. It was as if I’d become addicted to him or something, going into withdrawals when I couldn’t get my “fix.” Unlike with a true addiction, though, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be able to wean myself off him. I definitely never wanted to.
Shortly after showering and dressing the next morning, I sipped a cup of steaming hot tea in the kitchen, realizing that it was Halloween. Maybe Dana and I can pass out candy to kids in the building, I thought, right before hearing some kind of a thunderous boom in the distance. It honestly sounded like a bomb had gone off somewhere in the building. Horrified, I realized that this was entirely possible, since the Darkwings had bombed different public buildings in the past. Once, about three years earlier, they’d even bombed a shopping mall during the Christmas shopping season, killing eleven people.
Petrified, I grabbed my phone and called Alex, irritated when the phone just rang and rang, for what felt like a hundred rings, when in actuality, it was only four. On the fifth ring, I expected to get his voice mail, so my annoyance turned to surprise when it sounded like he’d picked up, although without saying hello.
I waited a second, then said hello myself. “Are you there, Alex? Can you hear me?”
There was a long pause.
“Well, I’m here, but I’m not Alex. He’s a little busy right now, getting his ass kicked so hard I expect to see his eyeballs come flying out of his head any second. You might have just heard some kind of a loud boom or a crash, which was just one of my friends slamming him on the roof of the building. He’s actually been beat up so badly already that he seems completely unable to shift.”
It was Mason. The moment I’d realized it was him, my blood had seemed to turn to ice water.
“Oh my God, Kira…you should really see this. I mean…my friend, Michael, really seems hell-bent on torturing Alex for a bit first before killing him. I guess Michael has a bit of a sadistic side, although I’m probably not one to talk. I roughed up my grandfather pretty good before killing him in his own office just ten minutes or so ago. Like Alex, the poor old bastard couldn’t even muster the strength to shift in order to defend himself. Kind of sad. I kind of really didn’t give a shit, though.”
I couldn’t speak. I could barely even breathe. I could hear muffled sounds in the background that sounded like they might be groans of pain. I knew they were likely Alex’s, and something terribly bitter began rising in the back of my throat.
“What’s the matter, Kira? Are you surprised that I’m not exactly the prince charming that you probably thought I was? It doesn’t matter anyway. Alex will soon be dead, and then you’ll just have me, and I wasn’t kidding when I said something to you along the lines of thinking we’ll make a good team. Once you get all your sad little tears about Alex out of your system, I know we will make a good team together, whether you like it or not. I say that because I’m soon to be the commander-in-chief of this nation; so, I think I’ll feel fully entitled to take whatever the hell I want and make it mine, which includes you.”
“If you kill Alex, Mason, I will kill you, so help me.”
With adrenaline flooding my body, I could suddenly speak again, as the ice that had seemed to flow through my veins at the sound of Mason’s voice became something like scalding hot lava. It was so hot, in fact, that it was making me break out in a sweat.
“And I really mean it, Mason. If you kill him, or allow him to be killed, or even allow him to continue to be hurt, I’ll kill you. And if I’m not able to do it myself, I’ll at least see that it gets done. I’m sure all the many, many were-dragons still loyal to Alex are charging in to help him right now, as we speak.”
“Well, no, that was so two minutes ago. Some of them tried to charge in to help him, but they got a little caught up in a line of Darkwings. See, there’s more of them than anyone anticipated. Well, I anticipated all of them, but I’ve secretly been working with them for quite a while now.”
I suddenly found myself jamming my tennis shoes on my feet without even being aware of having decided to do so. “Are your friends still hurting Alex, Mason?”
There was a long pause.
“Well, I don’t know if hurting is the right word as much as murdering is. But, yes, they’re still going at it pretty hard and heavy. They’ve shifted into their wolf forms now, I guess just to make it easier for them to rip him apart with their teeth.”
After dropping my phone, I ran into my bedroom so fast that my tennis shoes barely touched the hardwood flooring. Trembling from head to toe, I flung open the door of my walk-in closet, dashed inside, and grabbed my handgun from a shelf. This had been what I’d been thinking of the day before when I’d been contemplating ways that I could possibly help Alex if need be. When the government agents had taken me from my apartment over a month earlier, I’d packed my gun in a suitcase without either of them seeing. Then, unbelievably, no one had checked my suitcases for weapons when I’d arrived in New Detroit. I hadn’t even told Alex that I had a gun. It had just simply never come up in conversation before.
Using my gun, I was determined to do whatever I had to do to save Alex’s life, even if that meant putting my own life at risk. After all, I knew he’d do the same for me. The only problem was that I wasn’t that great of a marksman. After having purchased my gun a few years earlier during a rash of home invasions in my neighborhood, I’d taken a few firearms safety classes and had learned how to shoot. However, I just didn’t seem to have any natural skill, and I soon grew tired of practicing. And once the people responsible for the home invasions were caught, I locked my gun away and hardly ever thought of it again.
Racing out of my apartment, I now desperately wished that I’d had more patience and had spent more time at the gun range. Now that Alex’s very life might depend on my ability to hit a target, I couldn’t possibly have been filled with more regret.
You just can’t think about that right now, Kira, I thought while hopping in the elevator. Just stay focused on the task at hand.
When the elevator arrived at the highest level of the building, I all but flew out of it and raced down the hallway toward Alex’s penthouse, which he never kept locked when he wasn’t home. Once there, I threw open the front door and raced to the back of his apartment, where an ascending set of stairs led to another door. It was this door that led to the roof of the building, where I just prayed that Alex was still alive.
*
Not having any reserve of ammo in my closet, I only had six bullets, and I knew I had to make every single one of them count. However, very unfortunately, I wasted one immediately when stepping out on the roof. It was just an accident. Just a stupid, stupid accident. Having taken the safety off, I put my finger on the trigger when emerging from the doorway. I was immediately greeted by a snarling shifter wolf not fifteen feet away from me. Startled, I’d just accidentally squeezed the trigger and fired. The bullet seemed to go somewhere up in the sky, which was a small favor, because I could have easily hit Alex, who was already clearly in bad shape, completely covered in blood. Down on the ground maybe only twenty feet away from me, still in his human form, he was still being beaten by men and wolves alike, although it looked like he was making a valiant attempt to fight. He was at least trying to shield his face from the snapping jaws and razor-sharp wolf fangs that were coming at him fast and furiously.
My accidental gunfire served to alert everyone on the rooftop of my presence, including Mason, who was still in his human form, just standing and watching his own brother being ripped to shreds.
Immediately, he looked in my direction, and then smiled and called out to me. “Kira! Fancy meeting you here! I really hoped I might. Thank you for coming on up.”
Disgusted by his tone, I began walking toward him, aiming my gun at him. Mindful of how inexperienced with firearms I was, I just wanted to get a little closer to him before I fired another shot. However, very unfortunately, I never got the chance. One of the wolves charged at me from the side and knocked me over, snarling. Dropping my gun, or maybe more like wildly throwing it up in the air, I screamed, falling to the rooftop. Then, almost before I could even blink, Mason had run over and grabbed my gun.
Then, he hurled it over the side of the rooftop. “I don’t think you’ll be needing that anymore.”
Instantly, every pore in my skin seemed to exude boiling hot sweat, despite the fact that the wind atop the fiftieth floor was positively icy, and I was only dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. Literally frozen with fear, I could only make some sort of a feeble whimper, knowing that Alex was probably going to die, and now, I was probably going to die right along with him. Despite the fact that Mason wanted me for his own, I had no doubt that he still might have no problem killing me for my audacity in coming at him with a gun. Unlike Alex, Mason probably saw me as completely replaceable, I figured.
In response to my feeble whimper, he just leered at me. “Oh, what’s the problem? Are you rethinking your whole ‘hero’ plan now? Too bad, because once my boys finish off Alex, you’re now next. In fact, I think I might even do the job myself. I might even really enjoy it after the stunt you just tried to pull.”
Finally forcing myself to unfreeze, I began trying to get up, driven by panic.
However, Mason forced me back down again with a boot on one of my shoulders. “Oh, no you don’t. You just stay down and watch the show. I want you to watch while Alex gets killed. I want you to see every last gory detail.”
Whimpering again, I turned my face in the direction of Alex, and suddenly, my whimper turned into a loud gasp. This was because Alex was actually on his feet now, swinging at his attackers wildly, although with power that couldn’t be denied.
Allowing the tiniest little bubble of hope to rise in my heart, I called out to him. “That’s it, Alex! Keep fighting them! Just keep going!”
He did, and within just a few seconds, he’d shifted into his dragon form, massive and majestic.
Shrieking with joy, I somehow managed to crawl out from under Mason’s boot and hop to my feet. “That’s it, Alex! You can do it!”
Just then, most of the other shifters on the roof, including Mason, shifted into their dragon forms as well and took to the skies, breathing jets of fire. At that same moment, the sight of another group of dragons flying in from the west caught my attention, and within a few moments, it became clear that they weren’t Darkwings. Instead, they began attacking the Darkwings, blasting several of them with fire so hot that it was tinged with shades of purple, blue, and green.
Overjoyed, I began to think that Alex was really going to live, and so was I. However, a snarl coming from somewhere on the rooftop drew my attention, and I saw a single Darkwing wolf remaining, looking up at the battle in the sky. One of his hind legs was mangled and bloody, really just hanging onto his body by a thread, and I figured that this was maybe why he hadn’t been able to shift into dragon form with his fellow Darkwings. At any rate, I wasn’t going to waste time contemplating this. With him still remaining on the rooftop, I knew I had to get to safety, and fast, before he noticed me and attacked.
With my heartbeat hammering in my ears, I tiptoed back to the door leading to Alex’s penthouse, soon finding that it was locked. I wasn’t quite sure how this had happened, if it had just slammed shut behind me or what, but it didn’t even matter. Immediately, I went to my plan B, which was hiding behind a metal duct on the roof until someone could come help me.
I wasn’t exactly sure if the duct I was thinking of as a “duct” in my mind actually was even a duct or what. It was just some kind of large metal outcropping on the upper western corner of the flat roof of the building. It might have been a heating vent or some kind of an air conditioning unit. It also vaguely resembled an extremely wide and tall smokestack, like one that might be on the top of a manufacturing plant. Regardless of what it was exactly, my only hope for survival at present was to hide behind it and just pray that the single remaining Darkwing wolf didn’t spot me.
Slowly, I began making my way over to it, glancing over at the wolf every so often to make sure that his focus was still on the melee that was taking place in the sky. Fortunately, it was. At least, it was until I was maybe just three or four feet away from the duct. That was when the wolf began sniffing the air and then suddenly turned toward me, as if catching a whiff of my human scent had just suddenly reminded him of my presence.
Terrified, I let out a shriek of sheer panic, hearing some kind of a loud whooshing noise at the same time. The wolf charged at me. Screaming, I lunged out of the way, landing on my side on the roof. It was from this vantage point that I saw what had made the loud whooshing noise. It had been Alex’s mighty wings, beating against the air. He was diving now, and when he reached the wolf, he snatched it up in his mighty jaws and then unceremoniously tossed him over the side of the building. I could hear the wolf howling in terror, but just for a second or two before the sound quickly faded.
Suddenly weeping with relief, I got to my feet, calling out Alex’s name.
After landing on the rooftop, he immediately shifted into his human form and sprinted over to me, pulling me into his arms. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
I nodded into his chest. “I’m fine. But what about you?”
He was still covered in blood from head-to-toe; however, from what it looked like, his wounds were healing already. Very fortunately, fast-healing wounds were a benefit of being a shifter.
Alex told me he was just fine. “I need to get back to the battle, though, and you need to get to safety.”
“I tried that, but the door to your penthouse is locked, and I don’t have a key.”
“Neither do I, but at this point, I think we’ll just kick the door down.”
He soon did just that, then hustled me inside his penthouse, telling me to stay put until he came back. I said that I would, and he gave me a hasty kiss on the lips, then told me that he loved me. With my eyes overflowing with tears, I told him that I loved him too.
For the next several hours, I basically just paced around his penthouse, anxious beyond belief, wondering if he and the other fighters were doing okay. I paced the same route so many times that I very well could have worn a groove in the floor from the living room to the kitchen. Periodically, loud booms coming from somewhere far above the building told me that two dragons had collided. Each time this happened, I cringed, praying that Alex wasn’t one of them. I was becoming sure that if anything happened to him, it would be the end of me too.
Around noon, thoroughly exhausted and spent of all adrenaline, I finally sat down on the couch to wait for him to come back. And somehow, even though I definitely didn’t mean to, I fell asleep. Immediately, I began having hazy nightmares about Alex being hurt. Unable to wake up from these nightmares, I just somehow went through them, seeing scenes of Alex bloodied on the roof and feeling powerless to help him.
Apparently, despite my nightmares, I was out like a light for hours, because when I finally awoke to the feel of his arms around me, the apartment was dim with the approach of evening. Immediately, I flicked open my eyes and saw Alex beside me, shirtless and in a pair of jeans, clean of all blood. His hair was damp, indicating that he’d just taken a shower.
Gasping with relief to finally see him in the flesh, I grabbed onto him, then asked if he was okay.
He said yes. “I’m perfectly fine. I can’t say the same for Mason and most of the Darkwings, though. Many of them were killed today. In fact, a majority of them were.”
“Oh, thank God. That’s so good to hear. And what about our side? Any casualties?”
Alex said no. “None except my grandfather, that is. He was found murdered in his office. I know that Mason did it. He’d even written his initials on the wall with our grandfather’s blood.”
I told Alex that I was so sorry. “It’s absolutely despicable what Mason did.”
Alex agreed that it was. “My only comfort now is knowing that my grandfather lived a long and mostly happy life. And I know he’d be so happy to see the two of us together. That’s what I want to focus on right now. That, and being the best commander-in-chief that I can possibly be.”
I agreed that that would be the best way to honor his memory.
A few hours later, Alex and I fell asleep in his bed with our arms around each other. However, around three in the morning, I awoke to find that Alex was awake too. On his back, he was staring up at the ceiling in the moonlight. When he saw that I was awake, he rolled toward me and gave me a little smile.
“My sleeping beauty is awake.”
I gave him a little smile in return. “I guess my five-hour nap earlier probably wasn’t the very best idea, not that I could really help it after all my adrenaline had left me.”
He gave me another little smile, pulling me into his arms. And for a little while, he just slowly stroked my hair while I tried to drift off to sleep again. However, after a few minutes, the day’s events suddenly came rushing back into my mind, and I experienced a mini-surge of adrenaline, flicking open my eyes.
“Alex. I didn’t know I had that in me. That level of fearlessness to just try to jump right into a shifter fight. I did it just because I was so desperate to help you, not knowing that you wouldn’t even need my help in the end.” With my recollections making my heartbeat accelerate, I paused for a second. “When I called your phone, Mason answered, and when he told me what the Darkwings were doing to you, I didn’t even hesitate. All I could think about was getting to you to try to help you, because I knew you’d do the same for me.”
Almost startling me, Alex planted a few fast, forceful kisses all over my face, then pulled away to look at me with his eyes just slightly shiny in the moonlight. “As terrified as I am in hindsight, if that makes any sense at all, about you coming up on the roof in the middle of a shifter fight, and as much as I wish you hadn’t put yourself in danger like that, I understand why you did it, because love was what was driving me today too. Just love for you, my country, and everyone who lives in it. I felt like all that love was just continually compelling me to keep fighting. And now…after what you just said, I think I love you even a hundred times more. You’re everything I’ve always wanted to find in a woman, and I just want to spend the rest of my life with you and make you happy.” After planting a few quick kisses all over my face yet again, Alex continued. “As far as what you did today, I just want to tell you that you were beyond strong and brave. I think you were just phenomenal.”
Thrilled with his praise, yet uncertain that I really deserved it, I smiled. “Thank you. And I think you were too. As far as my part in things, though, I wouldn’t actually call an accidental misfire of a gun before quickly being forced to the ground ‘phenomenal.’ In fact, I might even call it pathetic. I did try my best to help, though, and I guess I am pretty proud of myself that I didn’t become dizzy to the point of fainting at any time today, even though I’ve done just that in incredibly stressful situations before. I guess I must just be getting tougher or stronger or something. Maybe it’s just your love that has made me stronger. I can’t think of what else it could be.”
Looking at me with an unmistakable twinkle in his dark gray eyes, Alex said that he could definitely say the same. “I was trying so hard to fight back against the Darkwing wolves earlier today, but I just wasn’t strong enough to break free of them and defend myself. At least, I wasn’t until I saw you down on the rooftop with Mason’s boot on your back. From that point on, I felt like some kind of a madman, because I’d seen a glimpse of the most precious thing that I was trying to fight for. It was you and your love that finally made me strong. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
Deeply touched, I found myself a bit misty in the eyes, and Alex brushed a tear from the bridge of my nose before speaking again.
“Now, we can be together, Kira. Now, we can spend the rest of our lives together.” Looking deeply into my eyes, he paused. “If you want that, that is.”
With fresh tears welling in my eyes, and with the lump in my throat becoming even bigger, I could only nod for a few moments. “Yes. That is what I want…more than anything. I want you. I want a happy life with you. I want a family someday with you.”
Alex wiped another one of my tears away, grinning. “By saying that, you’ve just made me the happiest man alive.”
About a month later, he made me the happiest woman alive when he presented me with a gorgeous, princess-cut diamond ring, asking me to be his wife and spend the rest of my life with him. Overjoyed, I repeated the word yes at least a half-dozen times while tears streamed down my face. Later on, we celebrated our engagement with lobster and champagne at the most exclusive restaurant in New York City, where we’d went to spend a romantic weekend together. Alex teasingly warned me not to have too much champagne, reminding me of the time I’d become just a little bit hostile after overdoing it on wine. Teasing him back, I claimed to have absolutely no memory of that ever happening.
“In fact, I have a feeling that you’re just making that whole story up. I don’t think I’d ever have more than a single glass of wine, under any circumstance.”
Champagne flowed again that May, when Alex and I were married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in the countryside. At our lavish reception, which was held in a ballroom about a half an hour away, he and I danced until midnight, which was when he carried me off the dance floor, kissing me, to the sound of wild cheers from the several hundred guests in attendance.
Once in the limousine that would be taking us to the airport where we’d be boarding a private jet to Hawaii, where we’d be spending two weeks for our honeymoon, I told Alex that my only regret of the day was that his grandfather hadn’t been there to see us get married. “And I mean, I regret that my parents and your parents weren’t able to be there either, but with your grandfather…well, he’s the whole reason that we got together in the first place.”
Alex said that was partially true. “I guess if we really want to find the party truly responsible, though, we’d have to go back a little farther in time, to my grandmother. After all, without her prophetic dream about a woman with different-colored eyes, my grandfather never would have summoned you to come stay in the capital, and then we never would have met. So, really, I guess the whole thing was a multi-generational effort.”
Alex smiled at me, and I smiled back, then asked him what his grandmother’s name was. He told me it was Rose Elizabeth Iverson, and I thought about that for a few moments before responding.
“For our first child…if it’s a boy, how about Daniel, for your grandfather, and if it’s a girl, how about Rose? I just think that might be a really nice way to honor one of them and kind of say a thank you for the role they played in our getting together.”
Alex said he thought that was a wonderful idea. “First, though, before we have any babies, I think I’d like to spend a year or two alone with my beautiful wife. Maybe even three years.”
It turned out that that wasn’t meant to be. Having apparently experienced some sort of a very unexpected birth control failure, I began experiencing frequent bouts of nausea just three months after our honeymoon. My breasts had also begun to hurt a little too. A trip to the doctor’s confirmed that I was pregnant, just one month along.
On the way home in the back of a government sedan with bulletproof glass, I asked Alex if he was really as happy about my pregnancy as he’d seemed in the doctor’s office. “You know you can tell me if you’re not, because I know you wanted to maybe wait a year or two before starting our family.”
Looking incredulous, he snorted, then gently took my face in his hands. “Kira, believe me when I say that I’m completely elated. Yes, my thinking was that maybe we’d wait a little while, but now…this is just the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life, other than you. I don’t care that we’re starting our family a little earlier than I’d planned. I think this is a miracle.”
A few months later, while I received an ultrasound, our “miracle” increased. Or, to be more precise, it doubled. We were having twins. With my pregnancy hormones in full force, I cried with joy, and Alex’s dark gray eyes became a little pink and shiny as well. This time, though, I didn’t later ask him if he was truly happy. I just knew in my heart that he was.
That March, on a sunny, unseasonably warm day, our twins were born, one boy and one girl. Like we’d planned, Alex and I used the family names, naming our son Daniel and our daughter Rose. Both over six pounds each, they were remarkably healthy for twins, having been born exactly at full term.
Holding them both on their first day in the world, one in each arm, Alex studied their faces briefly, smiling a little, then looked at me in the hospital bed. “I think looking at them is the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Smiling, I told him that looking at him holding our twins was mine.
A few months later, the twins really began to get their eye coloring, and it was clear that while Rose had “normal” dark gray eyes like her daddy, Daniel had inherited my heterochromia. Just like my own eyes, one of his was a very pale blue, and the other was a deep vivid green.
Anticipating all the annoying questions and comments I was sure he would receive one day, I told Alex that I was going to have to prepare him for all that before he started school. “Because that’s when I started getting all the questions and comments about my eyes. I remember that one little boy in my first-grade class even called me a ‘mutant’ and a ‘freak.’ It wasn’t really too good for my self-esteem; I can tell you that much.”
Pulling me into his strong arms, Alex gave me a little smile. “Well, that little boy was clearly a bully, and I hope that our son doesn’t encounter too many of those. Even if he does, though, I hope he’ll have enough confidence in himself that he won’t let those types of comments bother him too much. After all, we’ll tell him that his eyes are beautiful, just like his mommy’s. We’ll also tell him that sometimes, wonderful things can come from things that at first we might not really like.”
I cracked a smile. “Well, I can’t argue with that. I always wished that my eyes would just be ‘normal,’ but now, I’m so incredibly glad that they weren’t. Without them, I never would have met you. Then, I never would have had our twins.”
The mere thought made me suddenly emotional, and I looked into Alex’s eyes deeply for a moment before speaking again.
“I really just thank God for my eyes now. I’m grateful for them, and I can’t imagine my life without them.”
Alex brushed a brief, tender kiss against my lips. “You’ll never have to.”
Smiling, I nodded, with my heart feeling light as air.
* *
Hiiii
Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it. If you are a Shifter Romance fan and want to read more of my books then just check out my author page to see all of them!(Check out my GIFTED series!)
They are all listed on there for you to read right away
Amira x x
Otherwise, turn the page to enjoy a COMPLETE novel I included in your download as a way of saying thank you!
P.S It is one of my previous bestsellers! xx