Page 23 of Match (Damselverse #1)

Chapter twenty-three

Halle

O nce the ducklings are old enough, I start taking them on short outings.

They even accompany me to Penn’s bookstore as we decide to spend the day with the Alpha.

After all, he is their daddy duck, and it just so happens that they want to spend time with him, too.

They told me so themselves, as they cheep for his attention.

Soon, their adult feathers will grow in, and we will be able to tell whether they are a boy or a girl.

Penn reads a book on wildfowl as he stands behind the cash register at his bookstore, reading me the whole passage.

“It says that by two weeks old, the males will have a low, raspy quack and the females a long, continuous quack.”

The ducklings cheep in response to the Alpha’s voice. It will be a while yet before they all start quacking.

I approach their box, and they cheep up at me now, flapping their little featherless wings as they demand attention.

They really are cute. All brown and yellow fluff as I take one out of the box, lifting it up for Penn to see.

“This one I am going to call Penn, Junior.”

The Alpha smiles, putting the book down. “Maybe you should wait until you hear its quack first. Then you can decide on names.”

I shake my head. “No, this one is a Penn. Even if he does end up being a girl duck.”

He raises a brow. “So, Penn the duck? Is there a Dane the duck in there, too?”

“You bet! I would say this one because he’s the biggest.” I grab another duckling, and they both perch inside my palms now.

Penn chuckles, putting the book away. “Is there a Halle duckling, perchance?”

I gaze back, picking up the smallest duckling, and now I hold three baby ducks. Little Dane even crawls up my arm to perch on my shoulder, chirping away.

That duck is definitely going places.

Penn steps closer to take the ducklings from me, and they look so big in his Alpha hands.

“They are cute,” he remarks, and I snort.

“Did I hear right? The serious Penn calling a duckling cute?”

He gripes .“Hey, I am not that serious!”

I tease him further, pulling my tongue at him, and his eyes soften as he watches me play with my babies.

One day, we will have to let them all go, but I guess they will never be truly wild now, having been raised by humans.

They can always live on our duck pond. We will ensure they are safe.

Our duck pond. I can’t believe I have a duck pond now with my very own ducks.

I did always used to love feeding the ducks with Grandma.

“So, I guess that last one is Aiden, Junior?” Penn asks, and a heaviness falls over me.

I suppose Aiden is officially their daddy duck, too.

But we have yet to bond.

The Alpha still keeps his distance from me, even after I apologized for lying about my past.

I point at the last little duckling, and he’s the quietest of the bunch. “That he is.”

Penn gazes down at the duck, nodding silently. “I see.”

That’s when he casts his gaze over at me again and sighs. “He will come around, Halle. I’m sure. No one could resist you for long. After all, I couldn’t.”

I smile, placing all the ducklings back in their little box as I face him. Aiden is kind to me, but I won’t deny that I want something more with him.

Mere friendship just won’t cut it. Not when his pack brothers pleasure me most nights.

My gaze finds the portrait of the gentleman behind Penn’s front desk next. “Is that your grandfather?”

He follows my gaze. “Yes. Thank God I had the spare portrait. The other got destroyed in the fire.”

There’s no missing the heartache in his voice, and now he busies himself with shelving more books.

Now I think back to the night of the fire. I almost died, and I swear I saw my grandmother for a moment. It has got me thinking.

Did she truly leave? I think I heard her speaking to me at one point, but I had been so out of it that night, it’s hard to recall.

But I do like to believe, though. A part of me wonders if my grandma and Penn’s grandfather planned our meeting.

I have to believe they are in a better place.

“Penn, do you believe in life after death?”

The question is random, but it’s been running through my mind a lot lately.

Penn pauses, his hand halfway to the bookshelf as he stops to think for a moment. “Maybe. Sometimes, I sense things.”

Now that gets my attention. “Such as what?”

He shakes his head. “In the corner of my eye…I just feel him there watching over me. And sometimes when I lose something, it ends up on my desk.”

Penn points at his front desk, and I think it over, comparing it to my own experience. “I haven’t told anyone this, but the night of the fire…I saw my grandmother.”

The Alpha freezes, staring at me silently.

I go on, shrugging. “She told me it wasn’t my time yet.”

Something flashes through his eyes, and then he comes closer, wrapping a hand around my cheek. “Thank God. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it, Halle. As far as I’m concerned, I owe Dane a great debt. We all do.”

I grab his hand, placing a soft kiss on the inside of his palm. “I couldn’t imagine my life without you, either, Penn. You, Dane, and even Aiden.”

It's true. I feel a connection with all three Alphas.

My heart skips a beat when the Alpha gives me one of his rare smiles, and there are his dimples.

Sometimes, I just want to squeeze them with my thumbs, but I settle for pressing my fingertip against his right dimple.

Then, I lean forward and kiss him on the lips. No tongues.

He purrs, then says, “I love you, Halle.”

The words take me by surprise, and then I place my hands over his cheeks and whisper against his lips, “I love you, too.”

And just like that, my world bursts with color, and I finally allow myself to believe that maybe I can find true happiness.

Maybe my Omega can have the pack she always dreamed of.

Just like the night of the fire, because it wasn’t just my grandmother who came to me, but my pack, too.

Pack Hope specifically.

It seems those visions had been a premonition after all.