Page 42 of Alpha's Secret Baby
“Well, Nuu-Chah has told me it’s time for us to return to Starsmoon Pack, where your mom and I come from. We’re all going to fly back to Seattle in a few days, and you’ll get to meet your grandparents. We’re going to move there and be part of a big family. You see, we’re not banshees, Fern, but we are shifters. We have wolf forms given to us by Nuu-Chah that you’ll have one day when you’re older, too.”
Fern’s dark eyes, so like mine, skittered to Cherry. My heart twinged for the nervousness I saw marking my mate’s face.
“Is Bert a wolf too? Will he live with us at Starsmoon?” Fern asked.
The tension ebbed from Cherry’s face, and she smiled. “He is, and he will.”
My daughter’s eyes found me again. “I want to go be part of the Starsmoon Pack with you, daddy.”
I hugged her, my joy soaring that I’d been right in how much Fern intuitively knew and felt.
Chapter 27 Cherry
“That’s the last of it,” I said as I taped up the final box in my store.
Kendra sighed from where she was sitting on the ledge of the wide storefront, now empty of displays. “Yep, that’s really everything.”
Nina asked, “Who did you say was taking over the lease?” Her tone endeavored to inject some brightness into the space that was feeling barren now.
I shrugged. “Desmond’s, a shoemaker.”
My gaze swept around the blank walls and floor space. Other than the many boxes in the middle of the room, only dust mites swirled through the sunshine falling through the glass storefront.
My two sales assistants had spent the weekend helping me pack up the last of the clothes from the railings. Well, Nina had packed with me. Kendra was now so close to her due date that I’d insisted she do nothing but entertain us with her chat. Officially, she was on maternity leave, but she’d been adamant that she come in before the store closed and to see me off.
I’d managed to get both Nina and Kendra jobs with another designer I was friends with. Conveniently, her store was located a few streets away. Her clothes were equally high-end, and my two assistants, although they’d been sad at the news I was closing up, had been pleased and touched when I’d recommended them to Irene. My designer friend had gotten on well with my assistants, and Irene had happily taken them both on. Nina would be starting next week with hardly any disruption to her work routine.
Maisy’s clipped heels sounded on the stairs, and she appeared in a whirl of wavy red hair and a floaty black dress. “That’s the final bits boxed up in the studio, Cherry. I’ve left the fall range boxes in a group separately with instructions to the movers to pack them last. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get those out first on the other side, and they can go straight onto the rails for opening day.”
“That’s perfect, Maisy.” I smiled at my assistant designer. Much to my amazement, when I’d told her I was relocating and opening up shop in Seattle, instead of accepting the stellar recommendation and job offer with my designer friend, Irene, Maisy had asked if she could come with me. She’d said that she loved working for me and was learning so much that if I could offer her a relocation package, cover the cost for a flight and a month’s rent in Seattle, she’d gladly come with me. She’d offered to manage the opening of the new store with me and continue as my assistant in the new studio once we hired staff for the store. I’d snapped her up at the offer, of course.
A flutter of relief coursed through me again at the thought of my devoted assistant being with me to help manage the launch of the new store. It would be especially important, given how much I’d likely be needed at Starsmoon, too, when Dylan first reintroduced me to his parents and the whole pack. When heofficiallyannounced to everyone that I was his mate and their new Luna.
Anxiety stole through me as I worried about the frosty reception Dylan’s parents would give us. I remembered how Lucy had blamed me for stealing Dylan away. What if the old Luna and Alpha judged me similarly?
Yet, soon, as Maisy, Nina, Kendra, and I stood in the empty storefront, hugging, there was only room for nostalgia. I’d been through so much with these women. They’d been vital to my success over the last year and become true friends.
I tried to put into words how much they meant to me. Staring into Nina’s green eyes, I said, “If youeverget tired of Berlin, bring some of your European elegance to Seattle, okay?”
Nina was the most stylish woman I’d ever met. These days, whenever I design something, I picture her in my outfits. The models I drew always sported her slim, angular frame and her elegant black bobbed hair.
She grinned. “Seattle will be my first city break next year.”
As I turned to Kendra, I blinked her in equally fondly. She was the mother earth type. She had a natural, wholesome beauty about her. She didn’t wear makeup, and her long brown hair flowed to her waist. “You’re going to make the best mom ever. I want pictures as soon as that little one’s here.”
She blinked, nodding fiercely as she choked up.
I left my employees,ex-employees behind. They watched me from the doorway of the store while Maisy waited for the movers to arrive and ensure that all our stock got picked up and taken to the airport.
As I walked past the modern buildings, some brutal in style, their cold designs seemed to reflect my sorrow. Soon, I’d no longer be a part of this city. This place which had been my home for seven years would never be so again.
When I reached my road, everything had become blurry as my eyes misted with emotion. Dylan must have spied me from the window. He hurried down the steps of his townhouse. Enveloping me in his arms, he said, “Whenever we have any time in the future, I promise we’ll visit.” He drew up my chin, and my lip quivered. “It'll be our city, our place to get away to. After all,” he added with a warm smile, “it’s the place we finally came together. Berlin is the way others feel about Paris, agreed?” Amused danced in his dark eyes as he added, “Besides, I have to come back for schnitzel.”
I laughed, nodded and felt a hundred times lighter. Dylan wiped the tears from my cheeks, and then his lips continued to comfort me with kisses. I believed wholeheartedly everything that he promised. Wewouldreturn here and have dozens of other kisses on this street and throughout the city that had captured our hearts.
The next day, our family of three returned to Seattle. It had been Fern’s first time on a plane, and it had been difficult to get her to sleep. She’d been so hyper with excitement none of us had slept much. But when we finally got into a cab outside Tacoma’s International Airport, Fern fell asleep.
Dylan cradled Fern in his arms, protecting her from the jolts of the cab’s movements as it lurched up the dirt tracks through Lord Hills. My heart felt full to bursting as we trundled through the pack lands. I was returning home with my Alpha mate and my child. I looked out at the shorn fields that marked the landscape and felt the sense of certainty wash over me that we were meant to be here.Iwas meant to be here.