by SM Reine
Elise frowned at the baby in her hands. His face flexed in sleep, nose wrinkling, lips twisting.
“You can take time to think about it,” Rylie added.
“Yeah, sure,” Elise said. “Godparents. Fine.”
The Alpha giggled. “You sound so enthusiastic.”
“I planned on keeping an eye on him anyway. Might as well attach a name to it.”
Rylie immediately stopped laughing. “You’re keeping an eye on him? Are you worried about him? Why? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Elise said. “You have a very healthy baby. He’ll grow up fine. I guess you could say I have strong feelings about duty, just like you do about gratitude.” She held him out. “You want him back?”
“In a second.” Rylie crawled back into bed and shifted her millions of pillows around. James helped fluff the ones behind her head. “Are you guys staying for very long? I have so many questions about what’s changed and why.” She looked embarrassed. “Secretary Friederling has been calling me.”
Amusement twisted James’s lips. “Has he, now?”
“The OPA is starting this new council. They want to write a new treaty between angels, demons, humans, and I guess gaeans. Since werewolves are the biggest gaean species, and I’m the Alpha…” Rylie rolled her eyes. “Well, you know. I’m supposed to get involved.”
“You could do well at politics,” James said.
Elise nodded. “Better you than me.”
“But you’re the one who knows everything,” Rylie said, almost desperately. “I mean, you set it all up.”
“The fewer people who know that, the better. Besides, I’m not gaean. James and I are both human now. Normal people. They’ll need someone special like you to help.” Rylie looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but Elise cut her off. The baby was starting to squirm. “Can you take him back now? I’m done holding him.”
Mischief sparked in Rylie’s eyes. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“Can you talk to Secretary Friederling? Just, like, give him an anonymous phone call and answer a few questions?”
Elise lifted her eyebrows at Rylie. Was the Alpha actually using Elise’s discomfort with babies to try to talk her into dealing with the OPA?
“Please, ladies. Infants aren’t methods of advanced interrogation.” James took him from Elise, settling the baby easily into the crook of one arm. “Rylie, we’ve decided that we prefer to lay low for now. We’d appreciate your respect in this matter.”
She sighed and sagged against the pillows. “Yeah, okay. I wouldn’t mind a little more information, though. Maybe just a bullet point list of the ‘nudges’ you gave the universe when it was remade?”
Elise sighed, stepping to the window. A yellow moon was cresting over the trees. “I’m not sure what I did. I don’t remember everything.”
“Really?”
“I can tell you that there are no more gods. No higher power watching over everyone. Nobody to go crazy and take it out on the entire universe, and no more geneses. This is it.” Elise turned from the window. “The less intervention, the better.”
Rylie considered this for a moment. She nodded slowly. “That’s actually kind of a relief.” After a beat, she added, “And don’t worry, I won’t give Secretary Friederling your phone number. Assuming you even have one.” The unspoken question hung between them.
They seemed to have lost James in the conversation. He was swaying, watching the baby sleeping in his arms. “We do have an answering machine.” Elise plucked a business card out of James’s shirt pocket. It was plain white with black numbers stamped in the center. “If you need me, just leave a message.”
Rylie took it. “Thank you.” She set it on the side table then tilted her head to the side to give Elise a long look. “You know, I think I liked you better with the black hair.”
Elise touched the thick braid hanging over her shoulder reflexively. She kept forgetting that she looked human again. Even after so many months walking around in her old skin, she was still shocked every time she looked in the mirror. “You’re probably the only one who thinks that. But thanks. I miss it.” She swallowed hard. “I miss a lot of things.”
Judging by Rylie’s expression, she understood completely.
“Just so you know, I’m happy for you,” Rylie said. “Really, really happy. You deserve a break.”
“You do too.” Elise sat down on the bed and rested her hand on Rylie’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t turn you human when I brought you back. I could have, but it didn’t seem right.”
“I’m not sure I would have been all that grateful about it anyway.” Rylie smiled tremulously. “Someone needs to keep the pack in line, right?”
“And all the other shifters to come,” Elise said.
Before Rylie could ask what she meant, the door opened. Abel stepped inside. He was still wearing his tuxedo, but the jacket was gone and his tie was undone. Considering that Seth and Anthony had been trying to drain an entire keg into him, he looked pretty well put together.
Elise tensed, but Abel’s usual temper was nowhere in sight. He didn’t seem surprised or bothered to see them visiting with Rylie.
“Hey,” he grunted. “You done yet? Rylie needs to rest.”
“I think so,” Elise said, stepping back to let James pass the baby over to Abel.
Rylie looked like she wasn’t done at all. Elise could practically see all the questions caught on her tongue, and those questions were only going to multiply in the coming years. Why did you do everything you did? What’s going to happen? What am I supposed to do with all this responsibility?
“The wedding was lovely,” James said. “Thank you for having us.”
Another grunt from Abel. Once he was holding his baby, it was like nobody else in the room existed.
Together, Rylie and Abel seemed to glow.
Elise headed for the exit. She didn’t need to see them together like this. It was a private moment, a family thing, and she didn’t belong in the room.
James lingered a few steps behind her, slightly more reluctant to leave. “By the way—what did you name your new son?”
Elise kept walking. She didn’t need to wait for the answer because she already knew it.
James knew his name, too, but he just couldn’t resist asking.
Rylie’s soft response drifted through the doorway as Elise headed out of the cottage.
“We named him Benjamin.”
The reception didn’t end so much as spread out through the sanctuary. Judging by the werewolves’ good moods, Seth thought it was probably going to be days before the pack stopped celebrating.
Summer and Nash had gotten married. The Alphas had a new baby. The world still existed.
All things considered, it was a pretty decent week.
Seth hung out in the pavilion long after everyone else had moved on to enjoy the party elsewhere. Voices were raised in song throughout the sanctuary, the surrounding valley, the whole damn forest. It was a warm night. The waxing moon was bright, only two nights from full. He nursed another beer and watched the band continue to play for the few remaining couples on the dance floor.
“Well, today was some major fairytale stuff,” Brianna said, dropping into the chair next to him. “Water breaking at the altar. Babies and marriage and happily ever after. Almost enough to make me throw up.” She actually did look a little sickly. She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Maybe that’s the beer.”
“Probably the beer,” Seth agreed.
Anthony staggered over. He hadn’t had nearly as much to drink as most of the other wedding guests, but he also didn’t have a werewolf metabolism. He pulled his suit jacket over his face and slumped in the chair. “Wake me up when I’ve already gotten through the hangover.”
“Nice try,” Seth said. “You’re still doing at least a quarter of the driving back to Vegas tomorrow.” They were taking Abram back with them, so they’d have four people to rotate out behind the wheel of the Chevelle. No
t as bad, but still a long goddamn trip.
A responding groan rumbled from underneath the jacket.
“Let’s just stay a few more days,” Brianna said. “Are you in a rush to get back? I’m not in a rush to get back. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m not in a hurry to take a cross-country trip back to hundred-degree weather.”
Seth took a long, slow sip of his beer. They hadn’t been planning to stick around for long. There had already been a few messages from prospective clients in the Hunting Club’s new email—mostly from police departments needing consultations. Considering how new their business was, they should have been working hard, not taking days off before they’d started.
He did have a new nephew. It surprised him how little it hurt to see Abel and Rylie together now, especially since Abram had told Seth the truth of his parentage.
Seth had briefly considered making trouble over it, but the emotion just wasn’t there. He wasn’t bitter at all anymore. He didn’t want to fight over Rylie with Abel ever again. That was the past, and Seth wanted to look forward to the future.
So a few extra days hanging out at the sanctuary, drinking with the pack, putting off work? “Yeah, sure,” Seth said. “I’m easy. We can wait a little longer.”
“I love you, Brianna,” Anthony said, still under his jacket.
She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.” But she was definitely blushing as she stood up. She smoothed her dress down, rearranged her hair. “Even if we don’t have an early morning, I think it’s time to sleep. Can you help me drag Anthony back to the cottage?”
“No problem,” Seth said. He was in such a good mood that he would have agreed to virtually anything, even a late-night swim in the snowmelt-flooded lake.
Together, they dragged Anthony to his feet and pulled his arms over their shoulders. They staggered down the path in a clumsy, drunken, six-legged race, although Seth was pleasantly surprised to find that he wasn’t nearly as inebriated as he had expected.
He helped Brianna dump Anthony in bed. They were all staying in the same cottage, so Seth’s bed wasn’t far away. He’d planned to sleep, too. But he felt too good to end the night yet.
Seth left them to sleep, returning to the forest outside.
He closed his eyes, tipped his head back, inhaled the scents of the sanctuary. He didn’t need a werewolf’s nose to pick up all the familiar odors drifting over the air. Pine and cooked beef and damp soil.
Although he’d moved to Las Vegas to help Anthony with the new Hunting Club and enroll in UNLV’s medical program, the sanctuary was still home.
Nothing would ever change that.
It was getting quieter out as the hours grew later, but the band was still playing at the pavilion. Seth wandered back that way in pursuit of more beer. The lights appeared through the trees, as inviting as the warm glow of the moon.
Before he reached them, the band stopped playing a song halfway through and started something new—a slow version of “Für Elise.”
Seth pushed a branch aside to find that there was only one couple left on the dance floor.
James and Elise were swaying in time to the song with the practiced grace of professional dancers. Seth hadn’t had any idea they were at the wedding. He’d never bought into Rylie’s fear that they were dead, but his niece’s reception was still the last place he’d expected to stumble across them.
He froze among the trees, watching them dance in stunned silence.
They both looked young, healthy, happy. The fact that they were alone didn’t seem to be a problem, even though they easily could have danced for an audience.
James led Elise in a turn, and her gaze cut across the pavilion, through the trees, and landed on Seth.
Even at that distance, Elise’s eyes flashed with a distant light that reflected universes, swirling galaxies, vast fields of stars. For an instant there was no iris or sclera or pupil—only infinity. Seth felt like he could fall into her gaze and never land.
She turned in James’s arms again, and that glimpse was gone.
The dance slowed. He folded her in his arms, resting his chin on top of her head. They swayed in place.
Elise pulled James down to kiss him like they were the only people in the world.
Seth broke free of his reverie and strode toward them.
“Hey!” he began, not quite sure where he was going to go from there. There was too much to be said, too much to ask. He didn’t even know where to start.
“What?” That response came from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Trevin lingering at the edge of the gazebo.
When Seth turned back, the dance floor was empty. The band wasn’t even playing. They were packing up their instruments and looked like they had been for several minutes. All the cables had already been unplugged, the cello packed into its case, the microphone stands collapsed.
The only sound was the distant roaring of a waterfall, the laughter of werewolves in the trees, and a quiet breeze.
“You okay, man?” Trevin asked, easily hefting a keg with one arm.
Seth stared hard at the place Elise and James had been a few moments earlier.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine.”
He was pretty sure that Elise and James were fine, too. Better than fine. But wherever they had gone, he doubted anyone would be seeing either for a very long time.
Dear reader,
Although this is the end of The Ascension Series, it’s not the end of books in this universe! You may be interested in reading the Preternatural Affairs series next, which shares the Union’s side of the story.
I’m also going to start at least one new series in this universe in 2015. Which characters would you like to see get books of their own? Seth? Anthony and Brianna? The werewolves? Visit my Facebook page and chime in with your opinion!
In the meantime, if you’d like to know the instant my new books come out, visit my website to sign up for my new release email alerts. I hope you’ll also leave a review with your thoughts on the site where you bought this. It helps other readers find the series, and it would mean a lot to me!
Thanks so much for your ongoing support. Happy reading!
Sara (SM Reine)
http://authorsmreine.com/
http://facebook.com/authorsmreine
