#Chapter 409 – Assembling the Team
Cora
When I wake up the next morning the dawn sun is already streaming through the windows, and I am absolutely – hands down – the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m curled up against my mate’s side, my hand still on his chest where I placed it when I fell asleep, and when I look up into his face? I see him already smiling down at me.
My mouth bursts into a smile.
“Well,” he says, turning fully towards me now and nudging my nose with his. “That was an incredible dream, wasn’t it?”
“Do you think it was real?” I whisper, desperately, desperately hoping that it was.
“I do,” he replies, nodding. “I don’t think…well, the things that you made up the beach, the landscape…they were all pretty static, no?”
I gasp a little, offended – “It was not static! It was intricate and there was a breeze I could smell the salt -”
“No, Cora,” he says, laughing, “I mean like, unchanging. The things that changed – you, me, the feeling the baby passed to us, and the wolves? Those all seemed very real.”
“Yeah,” I say, relaxing again and snuggling close, tucking my head beneath Roger’s chin. “I think it was real too.”
“He’s a really cute pup,” Roger murmurs, sleepily kissing my hair. ” Way cuter than Rafe.”
“I know, right?” I mumble, yawning. But we don’t have to tell Ella and Dominic that.”
“No way,” he replies. “No need to hurt their feelings. They’ll find out soon enough. We’re quiet for a moment before I ask my next question. “Did that go…how you thought it would?” I ask, hesitant.
“No,” Roger says instantly, laughing. “Honestly, Cora, I thought we were going to have way more sex -”
And then I burst into laughter too, because that’s what I had expected as well. I don’t know what Sinclair told his brother, but from everything Ella has said? It sounds like the dream state has been a place for them to really explore their relationship in a very physical way – after all, they had sex there first, before they ever did with their real bodies.
And while I can certainly see Roger and I using the dream state for that kind of exploration in the future? A part of me is really, really glad that mine and Roger’s experience brought us closer in a different way.
Because right now, I feel so much more like a family than I did before we went to sleep. And it’s not that we weren’t a family before – but now that we’ve…we’ve felt him? Met him, just a little bit?
The baby is so real to me now, so vividly himself, already, that I can’t help but think of him as my son, and me as his mom, and Roger as his dad, and us – all of us – as a very real family.
“I know,” Roger says, placing a finger under my chin and turning my face up to his. “I feel exactly the same way.”
I laugh then, curious. “Wait, how do you know what I’m feeling?”
“You’re passing it down the bond,” he murmurs. “Are you not trying to?”
“Not intentionally,” I say. “But…I was thinking about you. And the baby. So maybe it just…went.” He nods, agreeing, understanding.
Then, curious, I reach out and take Roger’s hand, giving it a little squeeze and passing a curious little pulse down our mating bond to him, seeing if I can do it intentionally. I’m still not used to this wolf stuff, and I don’t know how good I am at it. “Did you feel that?” I ask.
“I did,” he murmurs, pleased. ” You’re curious.”
“Yes,” I reply, smiling happily. And then I close my eyes and concentrate, still keeping one touch on the bond between me and Roger but also giving a little tap on the bond that I now feel so much more powerfully between me and the baby than I did yesterday. I give it just a little nudge.
And to my shocked pleasure, the baby responds, nudging us back.
My eyes flash open and before I can even ask, I see on Roger’s thrilled face that he felt it too.
And then I laugh, and look down at myself, and send another little nudge, this time with a question attached.
…Happy? I ask.
It takes a moment, but then the reply comes and I feel it ring through me like a bell. Happy! My boy sends back, and I laugh, and feel myself start to cry again. Happy, happy.
And then he curls away again, content.
“He’s happy,” Roger says, choked up, taking my face in his hands and kissing me again. “And I don’t think I’ve ever once been happier, not in my whole life.”
“Same,” I reply, laughing at how stupid it sounds, to say it so simply like that. “Roger, I feel exactly the same.”
Ella
When the car turns into Cora’s driveway, she’s already standing outside her door with a to-go mug of tea in her hands, a big smile on her face. Rafe gives a little squeal of anticipation when the car stops and Cora starts to walk towards it.
I look down at my baby, strapped into his car seat, in surprise. “Can you tell when your auntie is near?” I ask, curious. But, obviously, he doesn’t reply.
“Well, you’re very bright and chipper today,” I say when Cora opens the door and peers into the car, blinking a bit in surprise at the two extra men in the row of seats behind me, and then at the guard sitting beside Conner in the passenger seat.
“I am indeed,” Cora says, climbing into her seat and closing her door behind her. “Um, what’s all this?” she asks, a little hesitant before murmuring a hello to Rafe and leaning down to kiss him on the head.
“Sinclair wanted us to have extra guards,” I say, giving a chagrined little shrug. “Do you mind? I told him he could.”
“Yeah,” she says, after smiling around at everyone and saying her hellos as Conner pulls away from the house. “Actually,” she continues, ” Roger had the same idea. Did they coordinate this morning?”
“Probably,” I say, rolling my eyes and making my sister laugh. I shake my head, thinking that our two wolf mates sometimes really do have the same mind, even if they’re such different people.
“So!” I continue, leaning forward and grinning at Cora. “Why are you so happy this morning?”
“I’ll tell you later,” she says, waving a hand at me while she glances around at the four men in the car.
Sensing that Cora wants to keep her reason for her happiness private, my grin deepens. “Oh!” I say, leaning forward, “so you and Roger were…”
And then I lean forward, trying to scent her over Rafe, to see if I can prove my suspicions correct –
“Ew, Ella!” Cora gasps, leaning forward to smack me in the arm. “Stop doing that it’s none of your business!” And then she blushes terribly as I burst into laughter. Cora glances around at all of the men who are pretending, quite studiously, that they can’t hear us at all.
But I just laugh and turns away from my sister to look out the window. ” Fine, fine,” I say. “But I’ll get all your secrets out of you soon enough.
It’s a cheerful ride to the Human Camp – – Cora is clearly riding high, and I am feeling good myself. But things start to change as we approach and we’re able to see a little bit of what we’re going to be working with through the fence before us.
“Oh geeze,” Cora says, leaning forward to peer through the chain-link. “This looks…Ella, this looks worse than what Isabel showed us yesterday.”
“She said I would be,” I reply, grimacing as well. But even a glance tells me that Cora is right – that Isabel may have been underselling the difference between these two refugee camps.
When we pull into the spot and begin to climb out of the car, Conner and the guard in front – Anthony, who was likewise with us at the bunker 1 step out first, looking around to ensure that all is well. When Rafe is safely strapped to my chest, Cora and I step out next, the extra two guards following. A big smile breaks out onto my face as I see Dr. Hank standing awkwardly at the entrance to the camp, Isabel at his side.
“Hank!” I call, waving to him as I hurry over, Cora following slowly behind. I turn to see a little frown on her face, but I ignore it as I give Hank a hug and smile at Isabel. “So, you two have already met?”
“Yessss,” she says, turning to raise an eyebrow at me. “Though I wish you’d have told me he was coming.”
“I was asked to come,” Hank insists, frowning at Isabel in turn.
“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Isabel says, looking at him cooly. I hesitate now, looking between them. What was…what’s wrong?
“May I have a word, Ella?” Hank asks, nodding over his shoulder to an empty space behind him where we can speak alone.
“Sure,” I say, stepping aside with him. But he sighs when Conner and another guard step forward as well.
“It’s all right,” I say, putting up a hand to stop them. Both hesitate, but they let me go when Hank and I step a few feet away. Hank has, after all, been cleared as a trustworthy person and certainly not a threat. “What’s – what’s wrong, Hank?”
“You’re underestimating this, Ella,” he says, frowning at me and glancing over at Cora, Isabel, and all of the other men. “Going in like this? It’s never going to work.”
