#Chapter 327 – Back to the Real World
Ella
I’m sitting anxiously by Rafe’s basinet, watching him sleep, while my mind wanders impatiently
elsewhere. It’s been twenty–four hours since we heard from Cora and Roger and I feel, just a tiny
little bit, that every passing minute is a knife in my heart.
Where is my sister? I wonder to myself, sighing as I look down at my baby and honestly barely
seeing him. 1
It’s okay, my wolf says to me, rubbing her body warmly against my poor aching heart, nuzzling
me with her snout. Roger will take care of her – I know it. He can’t not.
But what if he couldn’t, I think anxiously, my mind turning inevitably to that freak storm that
they hit – the storm which separated them from their guards, which seemed….just, too precise.
Too convenient. To perfect to be coincidence. What if the cult trapped them? And hurt them both?
I wail, inwardly, my wolf giving in a little and sitting back on her haunches to raise her nose to the
sky and howl a little along with me. She still believes, but she’s overwhelmed, a little, by my
despair, even though inwardly she keeps the faith.
“Ella!” I hear Sinclair shout from downstairs. I jump a little, turning towards the door, but I freeze,
not allowing myself to hope. If it was bad news – he wouldn’t be shouting from downstairs –
But something very urgent could be happening so he can’t come up –
“Ella!” he calls again. “Come down! There’s a car in the drive!”
I gasp, leaning down to quickly scoop Rafe up into my arms. He gives a little half–hearted cry of
protest and I know that I should leave him here to sleep more – but damn it, with the cult out
there looking for him, there’s no way I’m leaving him out of one of his parents‘ sight for an instant.
Not until I know he’s safe.
I dash out of the room and pound down the stairs, looking anxiously into my mate’s face as he
stands at the bottom, a hand raised to take mine. I slip my hand into his as I reach him, my eyes
not leaving his. “Is it “I gasp.
–
He doesn’t say anything and I realize that he doesn’t know he came to get me before he could
tell so, together, we both stride to the front door, which Sinclair throws open.
–
And I give a little moan of relief, sinking against Sinclair as my knees weaken, just a little, as I
door. And behind her – I can see Roger, turning towards her and saying a few words before they both open their doors and climb out.
“Cora!” I cry, tears filling my eyes as I dash towards her.
“Ella!” she laughs, giving me a big smile as I throw myself at her, tossing my arm around her neck. Cora takes too steadying steps backwards at the force of me, but wraps her arms around me nonetheless. “Easy, sis!” she says, still laughing a little. “Don’t crush the baby.”
—
“Screw the baby,” I mutter, angrily
the side as I hugged my sister, but well, in this moment, all I care about is that I have my sister back, safe. “Where were you?” I demand, stepping back and wiping at my eyes, shifting Rafe again so that he’s safely against my chest. “Why didn’t you call?”
– not meaning it at all, of course – I made sure to hold Rafe to
“Our phones died,” Cora says, shrugging at me. “We were in the storm for a long time –”
“And you didn’t have a charger?” I ask, exasperated.
“We didn’t plan to stay so long
“No charging cord in the car?”
“No, there wasn’t one –”
“Couldn’t have stopped,” I cry, “at a gas station to buy one?!”
“Ella,” Cora says, stepping forward and looking into my eyes with her own wide with shock. “I’m
sorry I didn’t know you were so worried. We were fine. – we are fine! We didn’t want to stop
anywhere on the way home, we just wanted to get here quickly. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it.”
–
“Well, you should have,” I say, sniffing a little and wiping my angry tears of relief away from my
eyes. “I can’t lose you, Cora. I was worried I did.”
“You didn’t,” she says, putting a warm arm around me. “I’m sorry, Ella,” she says, as Roger and
Sinclair come slowly over to us. “You’re right we should have called, or texted, or sent a smoke
–
signal. It’s our fault. We were…” she hesitates here, but Roger finishes for her.
“Distracted,” he says, smirking smugly at me and sinking his hands into his pockets.
“What?” I ask, confused, looking between the two of them. “Distracted by what?”
Cora blushes –
Blushes?!
My mouth drops open.
And then Cora, a little chagrined but smiling a little at Roger, explains. “The storm was bad – we stopped…at a little motel. Just to weather it out.” She doesn’t say anything else but the big smile that creeps across her face then says everything I need to know.
“Oh, ew!” I shout, shoving her a little. “I’m sitting here, for hours, worried to death, and you’re out there having motel sex!?”
“You should try it sometime, Ella,” Roger quips, and when I turn to him I see that he’s smirking at me again. “There’s nothing ‘ew‘ about it.”
“Oh my god,” I say, suddenly realizing the implications of this. “Oh my god,” I repeat, taking a step forward to shove Roger for his comment for good measure and then turning to Cora. “Does this mean – are you two –” I’m unable to finish my sentence, my mouth hanging open in hope and
awe.
“We’re together,” Roger says smoothly, ignoring my little shove and closing the distance between
him and Cora to take her hand.
I stare at them, frozen in shock, for so long that Cora’s smile falters on her face and she looks at
me with new worry in my eyes. “Ella,” she starts, “are you –”
“Yes!” I shriek, tossing my head back and shouting the word to the sky. “YES! FINALLY!” I pump a fist into the air and then start to dance in a little happy circle, laughing with my glee. “Codger
exists! Codger forever!”
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