#Chapter 421- Bath Time
Ella
“Cora,” I scold, frowning, “you know I don’t’ feel that way – ”
“Well I know you’d never say it,” she protests, sighing. “But I do get that this union between a wolf and a human that, symbolically, it’s important. And even if you’re not disappointed that it could be…disappointing.”
“I want you to have the mating ceremony you want, Cora,” I reply, steady in my truth here. “Especially in the case of something as important as this.” I give her hand a little squeeze before pulling mine away. “But if you’d like to consider a middle path…maybe you could let me show you what I was thinking?”
She turns her head to look up at me, surprised. “You’ve been…planning?”
“Just a little,” I say, unable to keep the eagerness out of my voice. “Just late at night when Sinclair is asleep and I can’t sleep, or I get up to feed Rafe – ”
“You’ve been loosing sleep over this!?”
“No!” I protest, but then I hesitate. ” Well, not much.”
“Ella!”
“Just – can I show you what I was thinking!?” I plead, “sister to sister!? And then, if you hate it, you can say no.” A wide grin comes to my face then. “But I think you’re going to like it.”
Cora gives a big sigh, leaning back into her seat and closing her eyes. ” Fine, Ella,” she says. “But this is not a yes.”
“I didn’t think it was!” I say, newly excited. Because honestly…it’s gorgeous, and I can’t wait to show her my plans.
When I come sighing into our rooms that evening, Sinclair immediately looks up at me from his casual position on the bed – looking down at his tablet, still doing work, as usual – and immediately laughs.
“What?” I ask, frowning, my baby strapped sleeping to my chest. I put my hands on my hips. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” he says, gracefully unfolding his gigantic self and standing up from the bed. Then he slips his hands into his pockets and smirks as he looks me up and down. “I just didn’t realize I was mated to someone who spends their days toiling in the mines, is all.”
“What?” I ask again, confused, and Sinclair, laughing, nods towards the bathroom. Both irritated and interested at once, I hurry in and gasp when I see myself in the mirror. “Oh my god,” I murmur, leaning in to get a good look at the very real layer of dusty dark brown grime that’s covering me from head to foot. “Honestly, why did they let me into the palace looking like this!?”
Sinclair, still laughing, comes to stand behind me. I groan when I see our contrast in the mirror – him the perfect Alpha King, clean-shaved and pressed – and me, a messy ball of dirt with crazy hair –
And then I gasp when my eyes light on little Rafe, who is likewise covered in a light layer of brown dust. “Oh my god!” I exclaim again, immediately beginning to ruffle his hair and moaning as a little puff of dust explodes into the air. “Ohhh, little baby! Mommy’s sorry!”
“A little dirt won’t hurt him,” Sinclair chuckles, reaching out to unstrap the baby from me. “Dirty in those camps, is it?”
“It’s bad, Dominic,” I murmur, helping him take the baby from my arms. “Honestly, if this is what we look like after just an afternoon, imagine how those people are living…”
“Well, we’ve diverted a lot of attention to it,” he replies, holding the baby away from him a little as he carries him over to his little baby bath. “Hopefully all of the people will be out of those terrible camps and in better situation in a month’s time, though of course some cases will take more.”
Rafe, waking a little now that he’s away from the warmth of my body, starts to cry a little in protest.
“Oh,” I say, my heart going out to him. I hesitate, wondering if I should just take him and let him sleep dirty honestly, I can’t stand to hear him cry like that –
“Keep going, Ella,” Sinclair murmurs, smirking at me and laying the baby down in his bath. “Let him cry a little for once he’s the happiest baby in the world, it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.” Then, as I begin to strip out of my clothes, Sinclair takes off Rafe’s little outfit as well, tossing it into the hamper.
“You know,” I sigh, watching the little pieces of baby clothing disappear into the basket, “he’ll probably be too big to wear those by the time they’re clean. He grows like crazy.”
“Damn straight he does,” Sinclair says, tickling Rafe’s naked belly, proud, as he turns on the warm water and prepares to start bathing him. Rafe still fusses unhappily but reaches for his father’s finger, wanting to hold it.
My heart breaks with how damn cute it is, seeing them together, before I turn and start the water in the shower for myself. I continue talking to Sinclair as I climb into the hot stream, relishing the feel of it against my tired muscles.
“I talked to Cora about the wedding,” I call over my shoulder, starting to shampoo my hair. “I don’t think she’s into it, Dominic. I’m sorry.”
“That’s disappointing,” he replies. ” But yeah, Roger told me pretty much the same thing.”
“Are you mad?” I ask, turning to see his reaction, and Sinclair shoots me a little look of disbelief.
“Of course I’m not mad, Ella – ”
I laugh a little, shaking my head and turning away to rinse the shampoo from my hair. “That’s not what I mean I know that you’d never be mad at them for wanting a different kind of mating ceremony. But…does it mess up your plans at all? For the coronation, and the coronation weekend?”
“It does a little,” he calls to me. As I soap my body, I smile to see him taking a washcloth and using it to gently clean the baby, making soft, warm noises to little Rafe as he does. Rafe, tired, lets his father know his protest, but my heart swells with the patience I see in my mate as he washes his baby, explaining softly to him that he’s sorry he has to take a bath so late at night, but mommy got him all filthy doing her humanitarian projects –
I laugh when I hear Sinclair’s commentary and flick a little water from the shower at him, which makes Sinclair turn to me with a grin.
“Will you be able to fill the time at the coronation?” I ask, soaping up my loofah and beginning to clean my body. “With some other activity, that might convince the humans and the wolves that we’re united?”
“Probably,” Sinclair says to me, giving Rafe a final rinse. “But…let’s see if she can’t be persuaded, Ella,” he says, reaching for a towel and then lifting the baby out of his tiny tub and wrapping him up and turning to me. “I have a feeling that when Cora sees what you’ve got planned for her, she’s going to be swept away.”
I grin at him as I, too, rinse myself off and warp a towel around my body. ” How do you know what I’ve got planned?”
“You’re not the only one up late at night,” he murmurs, carrying my warm, clean baby over to me. ” Sometimes I see what you do.”
“And sometimes,” I say, grinning up at him as I take Rafe from him, wanting him close again. Rafe immediately quiets when he’s in my arms again, which pleases me to no end. ”
Sometimes you just snore endlessly, keeping Rafe and I up for hours – ”
“Lies,” he snaps, smiling a little as he takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger and turns my face up to him.
“You like it when I snore. Reminds you that a strong, powerful Alpha is sleeping next to you, ready to rip your enemies to shreds – ”
I bite my lip a little, grinning up at him because…well, honestly, I do like that. I like that quite a bit.
“I’m not sure I need the snoring to remind me of that,” I murmur, stepping closer to him, feeling a little heat build in my core as I stare up into his beautiful, rugged face.
“And what would remind you of that,” he murmurs, his eyes flashing with hunger.
“Oh,” I whisper. “I have an idea. Or two. Or ten.”
