The Hunter's Alpha

Epilogue Surprise

Devon Mature

Months passed, and I sat on the back porch of the pack house after a long day of work. Everyone had cleared off when we came out, but I didn't try to stop them because I liked having her to myself. My beautiful mate was resting her head on my lap holding a book above her face as she worked her way through it. She was becoming a more adept reader as time went on, and I was proud of her determination. Had I ever thought she was not equal to the challenges ahead of her? What a fool I had been. An idiot and a fool, and I was lucky to somehow still have her.

She set the book down on her stomach and looked up at me. "Devon?"

"Amber?" She hadn't changed her name to Raleigh, because she wasn't sure and didn't want to steal someone's identity without definitive proof. She also still feared the idea of going to Glenshadow to find out more. I wasn't quite sure if she feared that she truly was or was not who Kain had suggested she might be. I would take her when she was ready.

But for now, she had admitted with blushes in whispers that she had come to enjoy hearing me call her 'Amber' in my 'deep voice' which had been more than enough of an excellent argument to convince me.

"I've been thinking."

"Mmhmm?"

"I think I'm ready to try out that whole baby thing."

I just blinked at her, afraid I had not understood her correctly. "What baby thing?"

"Having yours? At least, I thought you wanted to—"

"Oh, I want. Want to start right now?"

"This probably isn't the place." She smiled mischievously.

"Hey, no one's around."

I was kidding, and it was a good thing, because right at that moment my sister and brother came up, leading the little werewolf Dan had rescued. We had managed to find the identities of the two young fairies easily since their father had been among the unconscious prisoners we rescued, and the older werewolf kids had known their names and the names of their packs, but we hadn't been able to find who the little werewolf girl belonged to. She didn't know who she was, not even her own name. No inquiries had brought in a clue of who she was. Amber had insisted that we keep her, indefinitely, unless her family appeared to claim her, and I'd had no objections.

Amber had named her Hope, and had taken the little one under her wing. I'd had no doubts she would be an excellent mother, but Hope was helping give me a nice preview of coming parental attractions. She was also giving me a nice preview of the way having children could really put a damper on alone time with one's mate, not that I begrudged the two time together.

Amber sat up in time to catch the little girl as she hurtled herself into my mate's arms. I got up to greet my siblings. Silvia had gained back some of her weight, but she always had a mournful expression, even when she smiled. She had apparently tried to explain to Sarah that her wolf was acting like Arthur had died, even when she was in the same room as him, or touching him. I couldn't imagine the pain of grieving a living mate.

I wished I could fix my little sister's problems, but I was helpless and none of the experts we had consulted had been able to shed any light on the issue.

After bidding farewell to my siblings, I followed Amber and Hope inside. We guessed she was about three, but we had no way to be certain. Amber had declared her birthday to be the day she had been rescued and insisted we have a small celebration every month rather than year.

Amber gave our little wolf a bath, and put her to bed, singing to her a familiar lullaby she'd memorized off the internet after Oliver had told her our mother used to sing it to the three of us. Her voice was far from perfect, but it was damn sweet and it melted my heart every night.