The Alpha's Curse (Wolf Shifter Pregnancy Romance) Read online

  “And so we will,” he whispered. “And so we will.”

  12

  Avery walked through the open barn doors and down the aisle between the chairs lined with guests. Lilies and daffodils were bunched and clustered at the head of each row. She’d chosen to walk herself down the aisle, and clutched her bouquet of flowers in her hands.

  All her friends and family were there. Valerie and the interns from the farm, her classmates at school. Her family had all turned out, smiling like they meant it as she passed in her lovely white spring dress with the tulle skirt and lacy bodice.

  When she came to the end of the aisle, she let herself look at Lucien. The golden light streaming around him through the barn window above had been too bright to see him clearly. Now, it cast a halo around his head and made his blue eyes glow.

  He took her hand and helped her step forward, his expression full of adoration and love. The lines around his eyes deepened with his full bodied smile.

  Margaret stood in her pastor’s robes, ready to marry them. She was the only one who knew about them. It only seemed right that she be the one to bind them in this human ceremony.

  Avery heard their child giggle, full and ripe with humor. She turned to him, their little Dylan, and waved to her baby. When she looked back to her husband, Margaret began the ceremony. The healer conducted the wedding in her own way, a little shaman, a little priest. In the end, Avery and Lucien exchanged rings and had their hands tied together by a silver cord.

  They kissed.

  The kiss was so deep and pure that the darkness and light stopped their eternal battle for one instant in that union of utter bliss. Mated. Fated. Together at last. Over the long centuries of waiting to fit somewhere. To be whole and perfect again. They found each other and met each other’s hearts completely. So ready and open to each other, they could each feel the energy of the room expanding.

  The crowd cheered for them as they turned to walk back down the aisle. Just then, a band of men and women piled through the open barn doors. The spring sunlight seemed to bend around them. Lucien growled. Avery gasped as he pushed her behind him. But Avery broke away and went to grab her baby from her mother’s lap.

  Lucien strode forward. People were beginning to act worried.

  “What is it?” her mother asked in a whisper.

  “His family,” Avery whispered back.

  “Father. You’re late,” Lucien said.

  His father lifted his hand, and everyone in the room went still. Utterly, completely still. Avery stood with her child, unaffected by the magic.

  “So that is my grandson,” the older man said.

  “Why are you here?” Lucien asked.

  “I was sent an invitation,” he said.

  “Why are you really here?”

  “I wanted to see it for myself. Your fated baby. You. This girl.”

  “You’ve seen us. Now you can leave.”

  “Not so fast.”

  Lucien growled and clenched his fists, ready to fight. Avery knew he had his own Alpha magic. She’d seen him use it on the farm, but only for good. She hated to think what he might do. Or what might be done to him, or any of them. She clutched the baby to her chest and moved away.

  “I wanted to tell you I’ve missed you, son.”

  Lucien stopped moving forward and Avery stopped skirting back.

  “What?”

  “When you didn’t impregnate the first woman you came across to produce an heir, I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake. If you were willing to spend so many years in wolf form, waiting for your fated mate, then maybe we all would have been better off if I’d let you wait as my son.”

  “I’m honestly surprised to hear you say that,” Lucien said, stopping to think. Avery moved forward, taking Lucien’s hand.

  “Now we can be honest with both our families. Now they realize we were better off following our own paths, our own instincts, our own fates,” Avery said with genuine awe.

  “This is truly good, dearest mate,” Lucien said.

  Lucien moved forward to embrace his father, and the guests suddenly broke from their statue-like state. He slapped his dad on the back several times as he pulled away.

  “Let’s eat!” Lucien bellowed, holding Avery’s hand. He smiled down at her and ushered them out into the garden, finally ready to start the rest of their lives.

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