by Aria Cole
“Where’s the bag? Jesus, I forgot where we put the bag…”
“Nolan, let me down. I need clothes.”
“Should I call an ambulance?”
“What? No, we discussed this remember? The midwife is on speed dial. Just hit number one, and she’ll be here in two minutes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to have our first baby in a hospital?”
I paused, dripping wet onto the floor, and caught his frantic face in my hands. “Calm down, husband. You're acting like you’re about to have a baby or something.”
His grin split then, and my heart tightened with the sweetness.
“We’re finally going to have our baby, beautiful.” He cradled my face in his palms and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.
“Finally.” I swallowed back the emotion welling in my eyes. The knowledge that we’d been trying for four long years to start a family of our own was more than I could bear some days, but now here we were. It’d all worked out. We’d had faith and love, and somehow together, we’d made it through the other side of some of the saddest years of our lives.
“Honey?” I asked against his lips.
“Yeah, baby?” he uttered back.
“Did you call the midwife yet? This baby is coming quickly.”
My husband fumbled for his phone, pressing the speed dial before I heard the midwife pick up on the other side.
“The baby is coming” was all Nolan said before he hung up and went digging through the closet to find me something to wear.
“Well, I hope she knows which baby,” I teased.
He whipped around, frantic look lacing his worried irises. “Shit, I forgot to tell her which baby!”
I laughed loudly then, the adrenaline pummeling my system eased for a moment by the sweet confusion on my husband's face.
“I think she has a pretty good idea. You’ve been calling her every day to report updates.”
Nolan’s smile ticked until he crossed the distance between us, hands outstretched to cradle my huge belly. “I can’t wait to meet our little guy.”
“Or girl,” I whispered.
Nolan pressed his lips to mine in a kiss before the next contraction racked my form with so much pain I nearly fell to my knees. Luckily, Nolan was there to support me, lifting me again in his arms to settle me in our bed. He piled mountains of pillows behind my back and more under my knees just as the midwife had demonstrated a few weeks ago.
“What can I get you? Water? Ice? Water with ice?” He was still busy fluffing pillows.
“Stop, stop, baby. Just stop,” I gasped between breaths, the contractions taking my tummy over fully and the need to push unbearable. “I think the baby is coming—”
“She’ll be here any minute. Just hold on for the midwife—”
“I can’t. I can’t hold on, Nolan. Oh my God, it hurts so much—”
“Gwen, my sweet Gwen… I-I—” my husband’s eyes were wild and riveted between my knees. “I think, maybe, you should push.”
On instinct, I did, and it was only a minute later that my husband was cradling our newborn in his heavy hands.
And tears were streaming from his eyes.
“Pat the bottom. The baby needs to cry,” I gasped just as Nolan tapped the first lungsful of air into our daughter’s lungs.
With a violent shriek of terror, our little girl rocketed into this world and right into her daddy’s waiting arms.
“She’s a daddy’s girl already,” I whispered as Nolan brought her to me. She snuggled against my chest instantly, lips already rooting for milk to fill her tummy.
“She’s perfect, just like you,” he whispered, stroking my hair and looking down at both of us, pure love shining in his eyes.
He swiped at stray tears. My proud husband had been brought to tears by the birth of his firstborn daughter. I would never forget this day, not after so many years of wondering if this wouldn't happen for us at all.
“All of our dreams have finally come true.” I breathed in her newborn scent.
“Baby, all of my dreams came true the day I met you.” He wrapped us both in a protective hug. “I didn’t think life could get any better, and then it surprised me.” He ran one large palm over the precious dusting of hair on her head. “What about the name Nevaeh? A special gift from Heaven?”
Fresh tears soaked my own eyelids just as the midwife burst through the door.
“Nevaeh couldn’t be more perfect,” I uttered before Nolan slipped his lips against mine.
“I love you, my beautiful Gwen and Nevaeh.”
Second Epilogue
Gwen –Ten Years Later
“Daddy!” Nevaeh squealed as Nolan swung her easily on her ice skates. They spun together, laughter flying in the air around them. My father watched on from his cozy place perched on a custom bench, his body bent and gnarled with age but his smile still bright and laugher still strong.
He said often that the best years of his life were here with the pride, raising his grandbabies. I smiled as I watched him now, snuggling our youngest girl into the mountains of blankets in his lap, as our twin boys flung snowballs at each other only a few feet from the ice rink.
I shook my head, laughter always on the tip of my tongue with this crew. Deciding to move to the base of Bare Mountain was the best thing I’d ever done—I couldn't have imagined the happiness that was waiting for me with Nolan at my side.
“Hey, beautiful.” My husband skated up to me then, wrapping an arm around my waist and swooping me into his arms.
“You’ll drop me, you lunatic!” I laughed, knowing he wouldn’t. He never did. If anything, that night he’d first shown me his lion, I’d known then that no part of him could ever do harm to me—he’d had every chance to right then, and he was as tender and loving as he always was.
“I fell for you before I even laid eyes on you. No chance in hell am I dropping you, baby.” That cocky grin I loved so much spread his lips and filled my heart with more love than I knew it could carry.
“Can’t wait for the cubs to head over to Grandpa’s to help decorate that tree. This lion needs a little alone time with his pussy.”
“You’re an animal, Nolan.” I swatted at his shoulder with a laugh.
“And you wouldn’t have me any other way, beautiful.”
And then he pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that reminded me just how we’d gotten here: ten years and four cubs later.
“I love you, my big, beautiful lion of a man.”
He uttered his reply against my lips. “You have all of my love forever, my beauty.”
Chapter One
Liza
Two days had passed since my pack abandoned me in the middle of nowhere. One minute I was excited to go out with my father for a hunting expedition, and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by miles of white, powdery snow with my pack nowhere to be seen. I was alone without any help in sight, and I believed that it was the end of me.
In my wolf pack, I was shunned as the only wolf born in over a century who couldn’t shift. On top of that, I had these defective heterochromatic eyes, one sapphire blue and one emerald green. My eye color labeled me different from the moment I was born, and my nonexistent wolf was the last nail in my coffin. They didn’t want me, plain and simple. My own family had agreed to cast me out like trash.
I’d given up, was ready for the darkness to take me, when I heard him. As soon as he spoke to me, I knew he was my salvation, and I would be his everything too. I knew about mates, how the initial call was so strong that the animal in you instinctively knew you belonged, but I had been alone and lost for so long that I didn’t believe I would ever find my own. Yet, when he scooped me up, I knew without a doubt he was my mate. I didn’t even know his name, but in his arms I felt safe for the first time in my life. I was home and finally understood what that word really meant—I was where I belonged.
His arms surrounded me with so much warmth that the snow disappeared and it was a hot summer day—my bo
dy basking in the glory of the heated embrace. I couldn’t help nuzzling against his chest, taking in the woodsy scent of him.
He watched me with a heated gaze, and I could see the golden glow of his bear eyes hiding just behind the man. He bent and placed his lips to my ear.
“Time to go home, sweet one.” The warmth of his breath tickled my ear and filled me with hope. In that moment, I knew I would always be safe in his arms, no matter what. I’d found my other half.
I was home.
BUY HERE
Mila Crawford
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Aria Cole
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