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.

Jesse out so that I can reach over and quickly untuck

forward to hold Jesse out over

bit up at the sky before giving a little laugh. I

up to see him gazing at the baby too, his first nephew, the child of his brother and

to my mate’s side, a thrill running through me. How many babies have been dedicated to the Goddess with these words,

because as I gaze at the

breathe, my eyes going wide. And then I take a deep breath, and am swept away in the vision that my mother gives us, the hint of the fate that she’s built

– a happy childhood, a handsome little boy,

laughing and shouting at his cousin’s side. Rafe – Rafe! Happy, and healthy, and Jesse’s best friend, as I always

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

vision, to

the experience, knowing that this – like life – will fly by, and if I

watch, and my joy deepens when I start to 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 their games

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