Page 69 of The Alpha and the Baker

Castiel

“You almost ready, babe?” Felicia called from my bedroom.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, bumping my knee against the bathroom counter.

Get yourself together ! I chided myself as I looked into the mirror.

“I’m good,” I said, trying to sound like myself with mixed success. Well, I certainly hadn’t picked up any convincing acting in the year and a half since the reunion that had made me go into the city to get emergency baked goods.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Felicia asked, peeking her head around the doorway and nearly making me exit the mortal coil all over again. “You seem a bit... jumpy.”

“Me?” I asked, trying to play dumb. You’d think I’d be better at that given the puns I loved torturing Felicia with, but it sounded hollow to my ears. Quickly, I tried to think of a convincing cover. “Just excited for this new restaurant. It feels like we haven’t had time for a date in forever.”

“Sorry, graduation season has been killer. I’ve had more orders in these past two months than my entire first year of being open.”

I crossed to her, grateful for the distraction but also because I loved supporting my partner.

“Hey, you never have to apologize for your success,” I said, drawing her into my arms. “I know you’re making extra super-duper sure that you’re financially stable enough to bring on another employee full time. ”

“I just wanna make sure that if I’m hiring Auntie Letitia, I have enough to pay for her full hours and benefits.”

“And you have. But let’s leave the bakery and the pack behind for now and enjoy our date, shall we?”

She grinned up at me, looking like both an angel and a demon of temptation in her ruby-red dress, her hair done up in a bow with an intricate series of curls falling down the nape of her long, elegant neck.

She’d been so busy ever since kicking the fairies’ asses, she hadn’t had her hair cut once.

It was even longer than when I first met her.

I loved it. It gave me even more to grab in certain positions.

“Sounds like a good idea. All work and no play makes Felicia a dull girl.”

I kissed her hard and fiercely, hoping her lipstick would withstand the move. When I pulled back from her, she leaned forward, as if she was trying to follow me, a hazy expression on her face that never failed to get me going. “You could never be dull,” I rumbled.

“You know… we could always stay home,” Felicia murmured, pressing up against me.

It was tempting all right, but not tonight. I had worked myself up to this night for months. It was the perfect time now that things were calm again with the pack and the graduation season had ended, so we could truly have a night for just the two of us.

“Later,” I promised, kissing her forehead. “I promise.”

“ Fine . But only because I really want to see this restaurant too.”

“Fair enough.”

Hand in hand, we walked to my car. We were going to an upscale restaurant, and I hoped to God it would be a much better experience than our first date.

Then again, I cherished that night. Perfectly imperfect, I liked to call it. Which was entirely us.

The ride to the restaurant was uneventful, and I didn’t have to worry about parking because they had a valet service. Normally, I wouldn’t make use of it, but I was trying to focus on the moment, which was not easy what with the nerves and joy simmering under my skin.

I felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down the great precipice I was perched on. I wanted to freefall. I had been daydreaming about it for over six months, yet it was only natural for some apprehension to linger in my mind.

Apprehension I was planning to ignore entirely.

“Hello, I’ll be your server tonight. I’d love to start you off with our specials.”

Somehow, I managed to order something. I didn’t really know what I’d ordered, but I was sure it would be delicious.

Thankfully, talking with Felicia was always easy, and once the waiter brought us our drinks—sparkling water for her and a lager for me—I got lost in conversation with the woman I loved.

It had been a crazy eighteen months for the both of us, and really all Wild Folk in the city.

About a year after the bake-off, a representative of the fairies had shown up at every door over a five-week period, handing out missives that announced a complete change with how fairies ran things.

They still had their contracts, of course, but they could only be applied to individual people who wanted to enter a specific deal.

No packs. No whole families. And anyone who felt they were under an unfair contract from the previous century or earlier were allowed to file an appeal with a specific spell listed within the missive.

Yet again, Felicia had wildly changed the world for the better.

If anyone talked to her, they would think she was just a baker who’d gotten caught up in drama that wasn’t hers.

But I knew better. I knew she was a force of nature, a revelation, and the cutest, sweetest, cutie-sweetie pie that I’d ever had the joy of knowing.

Before meeting her, I’d thought I was happy. A bit lonely, sure, but happy. Boy, had I been wrong. Felicia had brought a joy into my life that I’d never known existed.

Our meals arrived much faster than I expected.

It turned out that I had ordered a Tomahawk steak with some very fancy sides, and a bone almost the length of my forearm.

Not bad. Felicia had ordered a complicated-sounding seafood dish, which I was more than happy to take a taste of.

In the time we had been dating, I learned that Malaysian culture and Irish culture shared a strong connection in believing that food shared was food that tasted better for it.

Whenever we went out, we always made sure to order different things so each of us could have a few bites of the other’s plate.

It was a little thing, of course, but it was one of the many ways we fit so perfectly together. I really was grateful for her.

“Are you all right?” Felicia asked when we were done with our meal. I’d become a little too caught up with the thoughts inside my head. “Your eyes look a little watery.”

I thought about denying it, but then I saw a wave from the entrance of the bistro as Chris, my mother, and Aunt Beverly walked in.

Perfect timing.

“I’m just so happy,” I said honestly before putting my napkin to the side and getting out of my chair. A moment later, I was down on one knee in front of her, pulling a small box out of my pocket. “Happier than I ever thought was physically possible.

“Oh my god, Cas, are you…”

“Felicia Nga, you truly are an amazing woman, more than my vocabulary could ever express.” I was aware that several of the people around us had stopped eating and were watching us intently, but I didn’t care.

The only things in the world was me and my beloved.

Just a shifter asking his baker girlfriend to spend the rest of her life with him.

“You’ve changed my life for the better in every way I could possibly ever think of and some that I never did.

I have become a better man, and a better alpha because of you.

” If anyone thought anything strange of my verbiage, I didn’t care.

Let them think I was one of those toxic dude-bros obsessed with being an alpha man.

That didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was Felicia’s answer.

“You are my heaven. My confidant. You are my best friend, and I could spend the rest of my life laughing with you. In fact, that is what I’m asking of you right now—to spend the rest of your life with me as my wife, and as my mate.”

“Oh, Cas. Yes, yes! ”

Felicia practically threw herself at me.

I happily caught her, cradling her to my body while she sobbed into the side of my neck.

It wasn’t often that I saw her so emotional, but I knew without a doubt that it was a completely genuine reaction.

How incredible that she could feel so intensely about me.

Tears pricked my eyes as we finally parted just enough for me to slide the ring on her finger. As soon as it was solidly in place, she was kissing me, and it seemed like the entire restaurant burst into cheers.

“I love you, Felica Nga,” I murmured when we broke the kiss yet again. She laughed through her tears before ever so gently joshing my arm.

“That’s Felicia McCallister to you.”

Hearing that name tumble from her lips made my heart thunder so hard I was sure it would burst. “Felicia McCallister, huh? It has a ring to it.”

“Yeah,” she shot back, never one to miss a beat. “The ring’s right here.” She flashed the jewelry to the room. It wasn’t a big thing, and there were no diamonds on it—Felicia had strong feelings about that industry—but it looked perfect where it sat on her finger.

“I can’t believe it,” she murmured, wiping her eyes before taking a deep breath, and a strange feeling that something else was going on crept up my spine. “But if you’re going to give me this ring, there’s something that you should know.”

Uh-oh.

That creeping feeling turned to outright dread, and suddenly thousands of thoughts flooded my mind. That she had cancer. That she really was a Wild Hunter. That the fairies had cursed her.

If they had, I swear I wouldn’t stop until I ripped each of their throats out. No one, and I mean no one, could hurt my mate and live to talk about it.

But her smile was still so sweet as she reached into her purse and pulled something out. She handed a sandwich baggie to me. It took a blink and a couple seconds to identify the white stick.

“What…”

But then it hit me.

A pregnancy test!

I stared at her, wide-eyed, not entirely believing it was true.

“Go on,” she murmured, her voice ever so vulnerable. “Look at the sign.”

Somehow, my brain got itself together enough to do so, and I looked down to see a pink plus sign.

Oh.

OH.

I couldn’t say anything. I could barely speak. I was suddenly so full of a dozen different emotions, and each one of them was trying to express itself at the same time. Joy. Shock. Total and complete elation. Realization that I was about to be a father.

We were having pups.

We were having pups!

“How?” Was all I could ask. Yes, we had an active sex life, and we both had a breeding kink—her implant should have protected her.

“Remember when I got sick really bad? Well, I took a bunch of supplements, and one of those was St. John’s Wort. It’s a really effective antiviral, but I didn’t know it could interfere with the implant. Apparently, it can. And it did. Lesson learned, I guess.”

“So…” I said slowly, taking her hands and knowing these words were ones we would remember for the rest of our lives. “You mean to tell me that you have a bun in the oven?”

“Cas!” she cried, the sharp bark of laughter punching out of her before she was in my arms again. “You’re terrible, you know that?”

“If you think the dad jokes are bad now, wait until I actually become a dad.”

“You’re not mad? It’s early enough that we have… options, ya know?”

I squeezed her that much tighter. “Felicia, I support whatever you want to do. But there is nothing that would make me happier than marrying you and raising pups together. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We kissed again, and more cheers sounded all around us. I barely heard them, though, because I only had eyes and ears for my future wife.

Our journey was just starting, I knew that much, but damn if we didn’t have the right recipe for it.

I couldn’t wait to see what else we cooked up.

The End

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