Page 84 of Plus-Size Sold Mate
“I hope she has Sera’s patience too,” I find myself saying, surprisingly lighthearted.
An almost imperceptible smile tugs at his lips. “She’ll need it.”
Silence hangs between us for just a moment, then Dad sighs quietly, and it feels like the closest thing to a concession as I’ve ever heard from him.
“I never gave you enough credit, Luke,” he says, allowing vulnerability to slip between the cracks of his stoicism. “But youhandled Dawson correctly. You chose your mate, your pack, and you didn’t need to separate the two. I’m proud of the man and Alpha you’ve become.”
The words come sweeping in so suddenly that I’m more stunned than I should be, and some part of me that had long given up on hoping to hear those exact words tightens now.
After chasing that praise for so long, I’m not desperate for more. Instead, I feel steady.
“I’m glad to hear it,” I say quietly, holding his gaze. “Thank you.”
Dad reaches out to clap a hand against my shoulder. It feels like a casual gesture at first, but as it lingers, I catch the depth within it, and all the words he can’t quite bring himself to say.
But from him, it’s more impactful than any long-winded speech could ever hope to be.
“Your mother would be proud, too.”
That almost knocks something completely loose in me, but I manage to keep it together somehow.
Then, he gives me a nod before stepping aside and allowing the others to approach.
It’s more than I ever expected to hear from him, and while one small exchange doesn’t fix years of resentment, it’s something, and I don’t plan to waste it.
***
Later, after the moon comes up and Fern starts to grow fussy, we gather back at the house, and it doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep against my chest.
Isaac lounges on one of the sofas nearby while he talks with the guys about something that happened recently on patrol. Eve watches the baby sleep while leaning against the arm like she might start cooing at any moment, and Sera stays tucked in against my side.
“She likes me best, I can already tell,” Eve muses.
“What, because she threw up on you earlier?” Isaac returns, grinning. “She already knows her uncle is the coolest.”
“She’s a few days old,” I say dryly, cocking a brow at them both. “She doesn’t know you from anyone else yet.”
“You’re wrong. She definitely knows us. She remembers all the smoothies I brought Sera in the last trimester,” Eve insists, though her tone is playfully teasing.
“Because that’s the standard for earning a baby’s loyalty,” Dominic pipes up as he appears behind Eve. “You know, as the pack’s precious gem, this might be your future soon. If you ever want to practice—”
Eve throws a glare at him over her shoulder, then she scoffs and pushes him back. “Shut up, or I’ll cast you into the ocean where nobody has to hear you.”
Dominic just grins, unrepentant. “You wound me, Evelyn.”
Her gaze only sharpens at the use of her full name. “I intend to.”
“If I weren’t holding the baby, I’d throw you in the ocean myself,” I say to Dominic, giving him a pointed look that very much saysstop flirting with my sister.
Isaac snorts from the other side of the couch. “Can you two not do this in front of the child?”
Dominic shrugs. “Ferny should learn early that this is what her aunt’s helpless pining looks like.”
Cheeks pink now, Eve growls under her breath as she gets up from her seat and charges after him, only making him laugh harder as he dodges her.
“You’re such an idiot!”
Hunter and Isaac laugh at the scene while Zane exhales like Dominic’s antics exhaust him, but he’s definitely used to it by now.
