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The packhouse settled into its usual rhythm again after breakfast: the clatter of dishes, the hum of voices, Cassia already plotting baby shower themes in the
next room.
I retreated to the balcony off my room, desperate for quiet, curling into one of the wicker chairs. My hands rested on my stomach almost unconsciously. Still
flat. Still unbelievable.
The door creaked. Caius slipped out, leaning against the railing with lazy grace, a mug of coffee in hand. His sharp gray eyes-so much like Alpha Darius’s -glinted in the early light.
“Don’t worry,” he said, sipping. “I come without glitter notebooks.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Thank the Goddess.”
He studied me for a moment, silent, as if weighing whether to push. Finally, he asked, “You okay?”
The question was simple. Too simple. It cracked something in me I hadn’t realized was straining. “I… don’t know.” My throat tightened. “Everything feels so big, Caius. I’m only three weeks in and already-“I gestured vaguely. “Cassia’s announcing world domination, Uncle Darius is sharpening his sarcasm, Mom’s staring through me like she knows every thought I’ve ever had, and I…”
I trailed off. My hands pressed harder against my stomach. “I don’t even know if I’m strong enough.”
Caius didn’t interrupt. He just sipped his coffee, then finally crouched in front
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of me, balancing on his heels. His smirk softened into something steadier.
“You’re stronger than you think, El.”
My eyes stung. “You don’t know that.”
“Sure I do.” His voice was calm, certain. “You survived losing your dad. You survived leaving Montana. You survived Cassia dragging you through three countries and a flamenco bar.” A faint smile tugged at his mouth. “And if you can handle Cass, you can handle anything.”
Despite myself, a small laugh broke free. “That’s… fair.”
He set his coffee aside and reached out, covering one of my hands with his. “Listen. You’re not alone. Not in this. You’ve got us. Uncle, Mom, Luna Lyanna… even Cass, chaos and all. And me.”
The sincerity in his tone startled me. Caius was usually all teasing and lazy arrogance. But right then, he sounded exactly like his father-like an Alpha.
My chest eased a little. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He gave my hand a squeeze before leaning back on his heels, smirk returning. “Also, for the record, if this kid ends up with Cassia’s fashion sense, I’m staging an intervention.”
A startled laugh burst from me, wet with tears. “Noted.”
“Good.” He stood, stretching, mug in hand again. “Rest while you can, cousin. Once the pack finds out, this place is going to buzz like a beehive.”
And with that, he sauntered back inside, leaving me on the balcony with the rising sun and a heart that felt-just for a moment-steady.
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By midmorning, the Valemont Packhouse buzzed louder than a festival day. Word traveled fast here too fast. I wasn’t naïve enough to think Cassia’s banshee shriek in the bathroom stayed within four walls. Pack walls had ears, and ears had big mouths.
By the time I came downstairs, every set of eyes in the main hall seemed to flick toward me. Some curious. Some warm. Some calculating. And at least one wolf I didn’t know well muttered, “Paris glow,” under his breath as I passed.
I wanted to sink into the floor.
Cassia, naturally, was in her element. She strutted into the dining hall with a scarf knotted dramatically around her head like some old-timey midwife, clutching her glitter-covered notebook.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she announced to the entirely unprepared room, “it is my great honor to officially begin Operation Baby Wolf 2022.”
Groans erupted from the warriors’ table. Someone muttered, “Not again.”
“Shut up, that was one incident with the karaoke machine,” Cassia shot back before spinning on her heel. “Elara, darling, sit down. You need rest, hydration, and probably foot rubs. Caius, fetch grapes. Father, approve budget.”
Alpha Darius looked up from his seat at the head of the long oak table, gray eyes sharp and cutting through the noise like a blade. He didn’t move for grapes. He didn’t blink at Cassia’s theatrics. He simply lifted a brow.
“Budget for what, exactly?”
“Baby supplies,” Cassia said with total confidence. “Cribs. Toys. Tiny leather jackets. A stroller with off-road tires because, hello, wolves.”
The corner of Alpha Darius’s mouth twitched. “You’re assuming Elara is carrying a whole litter.”
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Cassia gasped, scandalized. “Don’t joke about that! One baby is plenty for me to spoil rotten.”
Caius sauntered in then, coffee in hand, and dropped into a chair beside his father with a lazy grin. “Don’t worry, Father. Cassia’s planning will burn out in a week, tops. By then she’ll be designing a wedding for the baby instead.”
Cassia smacked his arm. “Rude! And visionary.”
I tried to slide into the seat beside my mother, hoping to vanish into her calm presence. Seraphina reached for my hand under the table, squeezing lightly. The gesture steadied me, but her silence was weighty, knowing.
Luna Lyanna sat across from us, serene as always, sipping her tea with the grace of a queen. Her eyes-warm, but sharp-watched the table’s chaos unfold without once losing her composure.
“Cassia,” she said finally, her voice calm as flowing water. “Perhaps we let Elara breathe before crowning her in baby shower garlands?”
“But Mom-” Cassia started, only to wither under Luna Lyanna’s steady look. “Fine. Breathing first. Planning second.” She sank into her chair with a dramatic huff, but her notebook stayed open.
Alpha Darius set down his fork with deliberate care. “Elara.” His voice was quieter now, but it cut through every whisper in the hall. “Whatever happens, you’re not alone in this. This pack stands with you.”
Heat prickled at my eyes. The truth of it hit me harder than Cassia’s shrieking ever could. This wasn’t just my secret anymore. This was my family-loud, chaotic, protective-and now, my pack.
“Thank you,” I managed, my voice barely above a whisper.
Caius clapped me lightly on the back. “You’ll need it. Because if Cassia
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actually gets that off-road stroller, you’re going to have to move out of her way
fast.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Cassia shot back, flipping her scarf dramatically.
Laughter broke out around the table. Fear still curled deep inside me, but here -in this house, in this pack-I wasn’t carrying it alone.
米米米
Four months went by faster than I thought possible. One minute I was staring at two faint pink lines, the next I was waddling through the Valemont gardens with a belly so round Cassia kept calling me her “moon goddess cousin.”
“Don’t pout,” she said, adjusting a blanket over my lap like I was made of glass. “You’re radiant. Glow-y. Ethereal. Honestly, you should thank me for documenting this. Operation Baby Wolf 2022 needs a pregnancy chapter.”
“I swear, if you try to publish those drawings of me eating pickles dipped in honey-”
“I already did,” she interrupted sweetly, flipping open her notebook. “Page twelve: Cravings and Chaos.”
Caius snorted from his spot leaning against the porch rail. “Careful, Elara. Cassia’s making a whole prophecy out of your cravings. Yesterday she said if you want ice cream with hot sauce, the pup will come out breathing fire.”
I threw a cushion at him. Missed, of course.
Alpha Darius appeared then, his presence shifting the air as always. He studied me with sharp gray eyes, assessing as if I were one of his warriors preparing for battle. “How far along?” he asked quietly, though I knew he kept
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“Almost four months,” I said, resting my hands on the swell of my belly. The words made my throat tighten. Almost here.
He nodded once, firm. “The healers are ready. You’ll have every protection. No one touches this pup.”
Behind him, my mother stepped into the sunlight, her healer’s kit slung over her arm. She smiled softly, though the worry never left her eyes. “You should be resting, Elara.”
“I’m always resting,” I muttered. “If I rest any more, I’ll fuse to the bed.”
Luna Lyanna’s laugh floated from the doorway, gentle and melodic. “Then we’ll chisel you out when it’s time, dear.”
For a moment, with all of them surrounding me, the fear eased. Still, when I laid a hand over the curve of my belly, the ache returned. The pup shifted under my palm, a flutter that made my heart both soar and break.
Because no matter how much Cassia teased, or Caius hovered, or Alpha Darius promised protection-one truth lingered in my chest like a thorn.
The father wasn’t here.
And I had no idea if he ever would be.
By the time the first pains struck, the storm was already battering the packhouse like a living thing. Windows rattled, shutters groaned, and snow swirled in thick sheets that turned the world beyond into a white void.
And inside? Chaos.
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“She’s in labor!” Cassia shrieked, bursting down the hall like a banshee, her scarf trailing behind her like a battle standard. “The baby’s coming, the baby’s coming-”
“I can see that,” Caius growled, sprinting after her, boots pounding against the wooden floor. “Stop yelling like it’s the apocalypse.”
“It IS the apocalypse! She’s screaming like her insides are being rearranged!”
“That’s how birth works, genius.”
Alpha Darius’s voice cut through the panic like a whip. “Everyone out of the way. Move.”
The twins skidded aside as their father strode through, shoulders squared, eyes hard as flint. Behind him, Luna Lyanna’s presence followed like calm after thunder, her robe trailing like moonlight on snow.
And then Seraphina was at my side, her healer’s hands already firm on my arm. “Breathe, Elara. Focus on me. Ignore them.”
“I can’t,” I gasped, doubling over as another contraction clawed through me. My vision blurred, spots dancing at the edges. “I can’t do this-”
“Yes, you can.” Mother’s voice was steady, grounding, even as the walls rattled with the storm’s fury. “You’re strong. Stronger than you know. Look at
me.”
I clung to her hand, knuckles white. “It hurts-”
“I know. And you’ll get through it.”
Cassia bobbed around uselessly at the foot of the bed. “Do I boil water? Get towels? Do I light a candle? Someone tell me what to do before I combust!”
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Caius groaned, dragging her back by the scarf. “You’re combusting already.”
“You’re heartless! My cousin’s in pain and I’m helping”
“You’re in the way.”
Alpha Darius’s sharp gray eyes flicked toward them once, silencing them both. “Stay. Quiet. Unless your sister asks.”
The next hours blurred into agony and determination. My wolf clawed at the surface, restless, lending me its strength when mine faltered. Sweat slicked my skin, my body trembling, but through it all my mother’s voice anchored me.
And when the moment came, when the last push tore through me like fire, the world cracked wide open.
A cry split the storm.
Not mine.
His.
Strong. Fierce. Alive.
Seraphina lifted him high, his tiny chest heaving, golden-flecked eyes blinking open. My pup. My son.
When she placed him against me, all the pain and fear dissolved into something so vast it left me shaking. He was small, warm, and perfect, his cry softening into little whimpers as my scent wrapped around him.
Cassia sobbed uncontrollably, her hands flapping in the air. “He’s here! He’s perfect! He’s-oh Goddess, I’m crying in an ugly way-”
Caius smirked, though his eyes softened as he leaned in. “He’s going to be
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trouble. I can already tell.”
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Alpha Darius’s face was carved in stone, but when he looked down at the bundle in my arms, something cracked. Reverence, sharp and quiet. “The pack welcomes him. He is Valemont. He is family.”
Luna Lyanna touched his forehead gently, blessing him with moonlit calm.
And as the baby cries filled the room, the storm outside seemed to break- not ending, but bending. As if the world itself bowed to his arrival.
1
The storm outside still howled like a wild beast, rattling shutters and piling snow against the packhouse walls, but inside… inside was a different storm.
My storm. My son.
He slept now, swaddled tight in a blanket Cassia had yanked out of a cedar chest like she was raiding treasure, his tiny chest rising and falling with fierce, determined breaths. He was so small, and yet he filled the room like sunlight- gold-flecked eyes had already peeked open, staring with unsettling sharpness for a newborn, before drifting shut again.
I was bone-weary, every part of me trembling from the storm that had wracked my body, but I couldn’t stop looking at him. My fingers brushed his cheek, soft as down, and the tears kept threatening even though I’d sworn I was done crying.
“Move, move, mother and child bonding moment,” Cassia said, elbowing Caius away from the bassinet. “Go stand somewhere tall and decorative, let me do my job.”
“Your job?” Caius arched a brow, lounging in the doorway. “Which one is that? Acting like the pup’s personal paparazzi?”
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Cassia whipped out her phone, snapping a dozen pictures at once. “Aunt Cassia duties start immediately. He’s going to have the most chaotic baby album in the pack archives.”
“You’re going to blind him,” Caius muttered, but his lips twitched. “Give it here before you drop the poor thing trying to pose him like a model.”
They bickered over the bassinet like two pups fighting for the best chew toy.
Across the room, Alpha Darius stood with his arms folded, gray eyes sharp but softer than I’d ever seen them. The lines of command and battle in his face eased just enough as he looked at the baby. My son. His great-nephew.
“You’ll need more than one set of eyes on him,” Alpha Darius said at last, his voice rumbling low. “That pup carries both your fire and your father’s blood. He’ll make trouble before he can walk.”
Cassia gasped, dramatic as ever. “Trouble? Never. Look at him-he’s angelic.”
The baby let out a squawk so loud everyone jumped.
Caius grinned. “Case closed.”
Cassia swatted him. “You hush. He’s perfect.” Then, turning to me, her eyes glittered with mischief. “Sooo… what are we calling him? Because I have suggestions. Wolfgang. Thunder. Blizzard Junior. Or-oh!-Fang.”
I groaned, sinking deeper into the pillows. “Cassia-”
“Fine, fine, no fangs. What about Snowball? I mean, he was born in a blizzard, it fits.”
“Cassia.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, unrepentant, “but I’m telling you, Aunt Cassia will get a
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Lady Lyanna appeared then, serene as always, carrying a tray with broth and tea. “The naming will be Elara’s choice,” she said firmly, setting the tray on my bedside table. Her eyes, wise and steady, caught mine for a lingering moment.
“And it should not be rushed.”
Cassia deflated theatrically. “Fine. Spoilsport.”
Seraphina came next, silent as a shadow, settling herself at my side. Her hand brushed my hair back, smoothing it like she used to when I was a child. “Rest now. Names can wait.”
I wanted to argue, to joke, to deflect-but my body betrayed me. Exhaustion swept in like the snowstorm outside, heavy and inevitable. My eyes slid shut even as I fought them, one last glance landing on my son’s tiny fists curled tight against his chest.
Mine, my wolf whispered, fierce and tender all at once.
As I drifted, Cassia’s voice rang through the room, bright and chaotic as ever: “Fine. Don’t tell me. But I’m still putting Blizzard Junior on the family tree until further notice.”
Caius’s laugh followed. Alpha Darius’s low hum of amusement, even Seraphina’s faint sigh.
The storm raged on outside, but here, in this room, surrounded by family, the warmth of something unshakable settled over me.
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