Twice Tempted: Between Two Alphas (Mia and Cameron) novel Chapter 83

Chapter Eighty-Three

It seems that these Seers are taking the whole wedding celebration seriously. Once the main meal was laid out and they ate their fill–I’m talking about each wolf making multiple trips to the buffet over the course of a few hours–they moved the chairs out of the way and turned up the music.

It is all so surreal.

Modern hits and classic hip hop. These women are out on the dancefloor and partying like no one’s watching. A couple of Seers approach me and try to drag me onto the dancefloor. I appreciate that they want to include me. But I’m not up to it.

I watch for a few minutes. Any time you see seventy-something year-old women twerking…you’re gonna watch. It’s like a car crash–you can’t look away.

When the music shifts to the “Cha Cha Slide,” I slip out of the tent and walk to the edge of the hilltop. There is a bench and I sit. I stare out at the ocean.

The dancing was enough to shock me senseless, but what really has me numb…

I’m pregnant.

Valaria had cheered about ‘the first dreamwalker to be born in a century’ which I’m not even clear on what that means, but her confirming that I’m pregnant–and that it indeed happened in that ‘other plane’…that I’m going to be a mother again.

This changes everything.

I sit for several minutes, watching the waves batter the shore and feeling as beat up as that beach below.

Eric comes over and drops onto the bench beside me.

“I bet you're thinking we should’ve stayed in bed today,” I tell him.

He barks a laugh. He rubs his eyes as if he thinks he’s dreaming. Or stuck in a nightmare. “I got mated.”

“I saw. I think I may have been a bridesmaid.”

We’re both silent for a long time.

I rest my hand on top of his. He threads our fingers together.

The connection steadies both of us.

“Are you okay?” I whisper after a while.

He doesn’t reply.

“The threats that are coming…” He looks at me and his eyes are haunted. “I always thought I would be the one to stop the violence. To unify our species and prevent calamity. But to hear these Seers tell it, the war begins with me.”

That is a heavy burden to bear.

I don’t agree or disagree because words have too much power.

These ‘visions’ and prophecies… the fates of entire nations are guided by Seer words. Like it or not, I am among them now.

I must choose my words carefully.

“I don’t think I can forgive her,” Eric says after another quiet stretch. “It feels too much like a betrayal of my sister.” He glances at me. “Corinne liked you, you know. She told me once, she wished you two had met under different circumstances.”

“She was really special, Eric.” My voice is thick.

He leans forwards and lets go of my hand. He rests his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I’ve never seen him like this before.

Vulnerable.

It breaks me to see this powerful man cut off at the knees.

I rest my hand on his back, letting him know I’m here. He’s not alone.