The entire world seemed to hold its breath … not even the trees moved. We all just stood, watching the rise and fall of previously-dead Julian’s chest with the wolf on top.
“What about his wolf?” Justice asked. “What if you just brought Julian back? Or—”
“Shhh.” I covered my ears to Justice’s pestering comments, too stressed to handle any more.
“Holy crap!” Kaja lurched backward and away from Julian-Honor as his wolf…
Oh Mage.
His wolf had … started to disappear. Like, one second, it was there, and the next, it was …melting? Into his body. A blue hazy light glowed around the wolf’s form, and we all watched, dumbfounded.
“Holy mage,” Justice gasped as the wolf fully sucked into the body.
Julian-Honor sat bolt upright, grasping his chest with wide-open hazel eyes. Honor’s eyes!
His head snapped toward me, and I grinned.
“Honor?” I asked, wanting that last bit of confirmation.
“Definitely Honor,” he said, wincing.
As the crowd surrounding him burst into cheers, I held out the bottle of healing elixir. Relief flooded me as he guzzled it down.
All of it.
And then he hiccupped.
“I think I’m just fine,” he said, slurring his words.
Noble and Justice dropped to his side, and Rage offered me a cheeky grin. “You brought him back as a lush?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know how much to give him.”
After the brothers had embraced, the Harvest girls knelt near Honor’s new body and tended to him. Rage walked over to me with a grin, shaking his head.
“What?” I asked as he pulled me into his arms.
“You’re amazing, my queen.” He brushed his lips over mine.
“Oh, I do like the sound of that,” I purred, nuzzling his neck.
Rage captured my mouth in a kiss then and spoke through our bond.‘Now, we can have our happily ever after.’
Chapter Twenty-One
One YearLater
I was soexhausted it felt like my limbs were actually melting into the bed of the healing ward. Twenty-four hours of labor was 110.9% no joke, but the result was completely worth it. I smiled at Rage and then glanced at our four newborns before settling all of my attention on my mate.
“When you said you wanted to try for a baby, I didn’t think this was even an option.” I gestured to the Quads—our quads.
A couple of months after the blood mage attack, when Rage said, “Hey, Nai, let’s have a baby,” I thought,Sure.That sounds like fun!Fun … until the doctor said I was carrying four.
I guess the fated-mate multiples gene was dominant—even if I wasn’t fully a wolf-shifter. But all the months of waddling to and from Alpha Island and High Mage Island, the back pains and nausea and exhaustion … in this moment, it was all worth it. All I felt was love—so much love, for my mate and my children and my friends—everyone.
Rage grinned, looking at the four swaddled girls all tucked in like little pink burritos. “I don’t mind having multiples, but I wasn’t really expecting …this.”
He sat on the bed as I nuzzled up to him and raked my fingers through his hair. I grinned at his declaration. “Bythis, do you mean being a girl dad?”
