The Alpha Won't Be Denied (14 page)

                Dear God. This was a miracle greater than Virginia could have hoped for. Now that they were back to normal, they remembered nothing of their terrible previous ten years. All that fear and misery and desperation…gone.

                “Yes, you are. Me and my boy Kyle. You haven’t met him yet, but he’ll be the best big brother in the world,” Marsh said, sobbing so hard he could barely speak.

Twenty years later…

                Snow flurries swirled outside, but inside the lodge it was warm and toasty.  The flames in the fireplace leaped and cracked. Half a dozen shifter couples were gathered around it, toasting marshmallows on sticks and playing “Something my spouse doesn’t know about me is…”

                Carver had insisted that the whole family gather at the lodge today, but he hadn’t told them why. They sat in leather couches near the fire, waiting expectantly to see what Carver was fetching from the kitchen.

“Dad’s up to something,” Penelope said to Virginia.  Her younger brothers Carver Junior and Mark nodded their agreement.

Virginia glanced at her eighteen-year-old daughter with amusement. “Isn’t he always?” she said. “And are you going to keep that purple streak in your hair?”

Penelope rolled her eyes at her mother. One green eye, one blue eye. She was a healer, a very powerful one, although she was just beginning her training.

“Hudson likes it,” she said.

“I’m not sure I like Hudson.” Virginia frowned.

“Oh, please. I bet when you were a teenager, Grandpa and Grandma didn’t like all of the boys that you liked.”

Virginia looked her daughter straight in the eye. “In fact, they did. I was a very sensible teenager, and I never gave them any trouble, so they trusted my good judgement and had no problems with anyone I dated. Because I dated only nice guys.”

Carver, who’d walked up behind them, hooted with laughter so loudly that everyone turned around to look at him.  He was carrying something wrapped in foil; it looked like a cake.

“Say what, now?” he guffawed.

Virginia fixed him with a threatening glare. “Carver. Tread lightly. Very, very lightly. I am not a wolf to be trifled with.”

Her sons were snickering behind their hands. “I’m going to call Gramps and ask him,” Junior said to Mark with a devilish grin. It was a grin so similar to Carver’s that it frequently made Virginia’s heart catch in her throat.

“You all. I am the Alpha’s wife and I have the power. I can make your life very, very difficult.” She tried to sound threatening, but from their continued snickers, it appeared she was failing.

“Forget that. Dad, what’s this about? Why are we here?” Mark asked.

“One minute. I just wanted to say, Penelope, honey, that before you go out on your first date with Hudson, I will meet him. And I will talk to him.” The gleam in Carver’s eye promised that this would not be a comfortable meeting for Hudson, and Hudson, in fact, would be well advised to bring a change of underpants.

“But Daaaaaad…fine,” Penelope muttered, pouting. Carver didn’t even notice. He was pout-proof when it came to Penelope’s safety.

“Now, my darling wife. You know how I can never resist a chance to say I told you so?”

“Never,” Virginia agreed. “Literally never.”

“Oh look,” Mark interrupted. “There’s Uncle Edward and Aunt Sally.”

The two of them hurried across the lounge, followed by their cubs. All eleven of them, ranging in age from nineteen to two. Sally’s stomach bulged out, indicating that her newest cub was due soon.  The two of them had decided to move to Honeymoon Mountain after their wedding, and now they helped run the Honeymoon Lodge.

Penelope hugged Sally and made room on her lap for Sally’s youngest cub Minerva, then they all formed a circle, looking expectantly at Carver.

“I bet you’re wondering why I gathered you all here today,” Carver said.

“Oh, a mystery!” Edward said excitedly.

“He sure knows how to milk it,” Virginia whispered to her daughter, who giggled.

“Twenty years ago today,” Carver announced loudly, “we sat here in this lounge, and we looked at an older couple who were still madly, passionately in love with each other, and I told you that would be us in twenty years. And you said, in your dreams. And I said, you’ll be eating those words.”

He dramatically ripped the foil off the cake. It was a home-baked cake, and across the top of the cake, he’d written, “In Your Dreams”.

Next to the cake was a knife and a fork. He handed them to her and said triumphantly, “Start eating, darling. All of it.”

Virginia spluttered in shock, and realized that tears were running down her cheeks.

“Is that because Dad’s a bad cook?” Mark whispered. Penelope punched him in the arm. “No, stupid, it’s because she’s happy.”

“Carver Lawrence, I love you, and I have never been happier to eat my words,” Virginia said, and she dove into the cake, to the applause of all her friends and family.

THE END

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