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.

baby,” Sinclair murmurs, holding Jesse out so

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

at the sky before giving a little laugh. I can’t keep myself from laughing a little bit too, smiling down at my spunky little nephew, loving him

the child of his brother and best friend. “His parents, Cora and Roger, have asked us to bring him here to dedicate him to you. We do so in their

me. How many babies have been dedicated to the Goddess with these words, been welcomed into wolf

these questions, because as I gaze at the baby something begins

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

by – a happy childhood,

taller, always laughing and

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

vision, to study them each independently, to get the details

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

my joy deepens when I start to realize that next to Jesse and Rafe,

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

vision 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