جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 89

HopeLily stayed by my side while Dr. Traeliorn set up a sheet to keep me from being able to see what he’s doing.“Okay, here we go, Hope,” he says. “Qadira, I need you to refrain from healing Hope until I tell you.”“Yes, doctor,” she says.While I don’t feel pain, I feel the tugging as Dr. Traeliorn makes his incision. I can feel Qadira struggling to hold her healing back, wanting to heal me right away.“Okay, we have baby one. Here you go, Momma,” Dr. Traeliorn says, holding my son so I can see him.He’s obviously the bigger of the two.“Can I hold him?” I ask, desperate to feel his warm body and beating heart against mine.“We need to clean him up quickly and take his vitals, but yes.”“Is he …?” I can’t bring myself to ask if he’s deformed.“He looks perfectly normal,” Dr. Traeliorn says.I huff out a sob and watch as the nurse takes him across the room to clean his eyes, nose, and ears before rubbing him until he begins to cry.“He has a healthy pair of lungs,” the nurse says, wr

LeviI can’t stop staring at my son. My son. I have a son. Correction, I have two sons. Two sons who were born without me ever knowing they existed.Even Malcolm is hurt by Hope’s betrayal. I would never have expected her to keep something like this from me. Ever.“Levi, I need to nurse, LJ. Matthan will be waking up soon. He needs to nurse twice as often as LJ, and being small, he can’t wait when he’s hungry,” Hope says.She hasn’t moved from the doorway. I’ve noticed that LJ, Levi Jr., keeps opening his mouth and turning toward my body. He must be looking for Hope.I stand and carry him to her. “Did you name him Levi Jr. because he was more likely to survive than Matthan?” I ask, handing him to her.She shrugs and carries him to the rocking chair. In a move that’s obviously become second nature to her, she lifts her shift, unfastens her bra and puts her nipple in LJ’s mouth. He begins suckling immediately.“It was more that he was the first born. Matthan was behind him in the uterus.

LeviI’m exhausted after one night of being up with my pups. I have no idea how Hope has managed on her own. I get that she’s part bear and she likes the solitude, but all she had to do was call me, or her parents, and she wouldn’t have had to do all of this alone.Even when I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. I kept worrying that my sons might suffocate. Being unused to the noises they make, every sound jolted me awake. However, with Matthan, it was the lack of sound that drew my attention to where Hope was nursing him. That’s when I realized that she’d fallen asleep.Somehow, even in her sleep, she managed to hold him securely in her arms.I stood there, watching her holding my son, both of them sound asleep. No matter how angry I am at her, I still love her. I still want her. I don’t understand her choices. I don’t understand her need or desire to keep her pregnancy and my pups from me, but I can’t deny that she’s doing an amazing job at taking care of them.After hearing Orsa’s story, I

LeviI could tell the minute we passed out of Eventide. It was like the world around us suddenly turned up the volume. Of course, crossing the troll bridge was also a clear indication that we’d left Eventide.What surprised me was how social Hope was with the trolls and how much they seemed to like her. It’s another stark contrast to her quiet, reserved behavior in the packs.On the way, Matthan wakes. Hope changes him, wrapping the dirty diaper and tucking it into a bag before rewrapping our son so he can nurse while we walk. Once again, I’m in awe of her.“How did you do that carrying both boys and a bag?” I ask.“Very carefully,” she says, smiling at me.Goddess, I’ve missed that smile.When we get to Araphyra, it’s much the same. Hope seems to know everyone and, not surprisingly, the sprites come to say hello. Sprites have always been drawn to Hope. Her underlying kindness draws them in, and Qadira’s willingness to let them snuggle against her body and warmth, keeps them coming bac