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My breath is ragged.

My fur is drenched in blood. His blood.

Slowly, painfully, I shift back, my bones snapping into place, my claws retracting and flesh reforming. My knees hit the ground as my human form returns, soaked and streaked with mud and blood.

“It’s over,” I rasp, more to me than to the woman sitting a few feet behind me. “He won’t hurt you again.”

He won’t ever take them away from me again

Footsteps pound through the trees behind me, and I’m ready to fight the next challenge, when Ethan bursts through the bush, his clothes stained crimson. Three of our warriors from the Delta unit appear behind him, all armed and bloodied but alive.

He takes one look at the scene, at me standing over Julian’s corpse, and exhales.

“Boss,” he says, chest heaving, “we took care of the guards.”

I nod once, my throat tight.

“Alaric?” Small, calming, and like a cool balm soothing my muddied soul, Lila’s voice beckons from behind me.

I should be happy to hear her voice when I thought I’d lost her to Julian, but the moment I turn around, I start to understand why Lila’s voice is more frightened than ever.

“Alaric…s–she’s not breathing. Lina is not breathing!”

Lina lies limp in her mother’s arms, pale, barely there. I open my mouth to say something, but Lila beats me to it.

“Save her. You…have to save our daughter, Alaric. She needs you. She is yours. Julian forged the paternity test, Lina is your daughter, so please…help me. We need you. She needs you.”

“Place your hands on her forehead”,the healer urges us with a smile, “Just like that, you are both doing great.”

My hand rests on Lila, and Lila’s hand rests on our daughter’s forehead.

Her dark curls sprawl over the pillow, her face showing more color than she had when we brought her in. Her tiny snores fill the room, and I would tell Lila that, but she gets upset every time I say our daughter snores like her.

“H–how is she?” Lila stirs in my lap, one of my hands cups her ass, careful not to let her fall on Lina’s small bed. I’m not complaining about touching her ass, though.

Learning my little princess is our daughter and having Lila sit on my lap for the last half hour has turned out to be a dream come true.

“The cure is working like it should in managing the illness. She’s lucky you both got her here just in time. The reason we need you both to touch her, is because the bond between you makes her feel safe. It makes her body heal faster, too. Excuse me. I'll leave you two to have a moment with your daughter.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor,” Lila almost sobs.

A minute later, we both watch as the healer walks out the door.

Then it's just me, my woman, and my kid. Lila sinks her face into my chest and cries, “I remember. I’m Irene. I’m the one…you’ve been looking for, for all those years. I wanted to tell you when I found out, but you were not home, and instead, what I found in your office were documents about your contract to marry Irene and get all the assets that belonged to my father’s pack.”

I grab her chin with my free hand. I move closer to her cheek, kissing away her salty tears. “I never gave a shit about the assets. Not after I met you, not after I fell for you, baby.”

“I–I know. I know that now. I just…for a moment I was confused. I thought the only reason you wanted me back in your life was because you knew I was Irene, and then the test results came in and Julian called to meet up and everything was all over the place so…I fell for his schemes.”

“You thought Julian could save our daughter, Lila. I would have done the same thing for Lina.”

“I betrayed you, though. I–I left you.”

I grin, kissing her nose. Her eyes might be swollen from crying but damn do they rile up some dirty thoughts inside my mind.

“And you are sitting in my lap right now with our daughter safe and sound. A win is a win, baby.”

She smiles, slapping my chest lightly, “I’m being serious right now, Alaric.”