Alpha Dom and His Human Surrogate

The pool we approach is wide and expansive – more of a large pond, or even a lake, really, shining below the opensky. I tilt my head curiously at I look at it, remembering Cora describing the pool as small and well tucked away in the forest. This one…

Well. Maybe it’s different every time, for every child, every pair of godparents. I look up at the moon and smile, thinking fondly of my mother and all the blessings she’s given us. And also how she can sometimes be…a little bit tricky.

“Ready?” Sinclair murmurs.

“Almost,” I quip, stepping close to him and lifting myself up on my toes, tilting my chin up for a kiss. He smiles and bends his head, pressing his mouth briefly to mine.

“Ready now,” I say, grinning at him.

Sinclair takes a moment to look at me in the moonlight, running a hand over the length of my lose hair, and then we step forward to the edge of the pool.

“Goddess,” he murmurs, not bothering to raise his voice – he knows she can hear him. “We bring to you, tonight, this child our nephew Jesse. So that he may begin to know you.”

“We wish to show him your light,” I say, repeating the words that Henry taught me as part of the ritual, a little shiver running down my spine as I do. ” And in doing so, let you see him and bring him into the spirit of your grace.”

I smile as the light reflecting off the pool grows brighter, insubstantially at first but bolder as the moments pass.

Mom – she’s here, and she’s ready to meet Jesse.

out so that I can reach over

I step forward to hold Jesse out over the pool, basking in the

for a moment, frowning a bit up at the sky before giving a little

a little choked. I glance up to see him gazing at the baby too, his first nephew, the child of his brother and best friend. “His parents, Cora and Roger, have asked us to

have been dedicated to the Goddess with these words, been welcomed into wolf culture? How many more will we, my little family, get

no time to ponder these questions, because as I gaze at the baby something begins to stir

take a deep breath, and am swept away in the vision that my mother

images fly by – a happy childhood, a handsome little boy, full

always laughing and shouting at his cousin’s side. Rafe – Rafe! Happy,

out and seize each of the moments as they fly past a camping trip, gathered around the fire with Roger and Sinclair, slightly older but so happy

each moment of the vision, to study

as I give in to the experience, knowing that this – like life – will fly by, and if I spend my time trying to hold onto the

realize that next to Jesse and Rafe, in every

girl with a heart-shaped face and rose gold hair – between her brother and her cousin at all times, laughing with them, fully engaged with

comes of the three of them, draped over the pillows of a couch, fully exhausted with their arms and legs thrown over each other like exhausted puppies, sleeping wherever