Chapter 15 15
Aurélie POV
“Wake up!”
My eyes snap open just as the bed jolts beneath me, bouncing with the force of two tiny bodies pouncing around. A laugh slips out of me before I can stop it.
“Come here, you little rascals,” I growl playfully, reaching under the duvet as my two children shriek and scramble to hide from my tickling hands.
The Claw their absolute favorite game.
Even before I touch them, they’re giggling uncontrollably, anticipation winding them up tighter than a spring. Delphine especially; sometimes all she needed was the sight of my hand curling into the shape of the Claw to burst into hysterical laughter. She loved the buildup more than the tickling.
“No, Mummy, no!” Dominique gasps between peals of laughter as I dig my fingers gently along his ribs.
“Run, Delphine! I’ll protect you!” he declares heroically in between fits, his voice high and breathless.
Delphine squeals and tries to escape off the bed, but I snag her around the waist and drag her back into the chaos, all of us tangled together in the sheets and laughter.
We stay like that until an unmistakable growl comes from Dominique’s stomach loud, feral, demanding.
“Dominique, are you hungry?” I tease.
“I’m always hungry, Mum.”
And it’s true. If I didn’t take food away from him, he’d eat until there was nothing left in the house.
His wolf was already stirring inside him early for a child his age, but knowing his bloodline, I’m not surprised. Goddess help me when he becomes a teenager.
Delphine, on the other hand, was made of soft light and fairy dust. She spent most of her days in some costume or another, flitting between pretend worlds as if reality was too dull for her. In her eyes, life was simple and beautiful and endlessly bright.
But Dominique he already sensed the shadows. He understood that the world wasn’t always kind. That choices could be hard.
“Come on, kids, I’ll make some pancakes!” Fabrice calls from the hallway.
“Coming, Daddy!” Delphine shouts, leaping off the bed and sprinting toward him.
In her rush to beat her brother, she trips of course she does and falls face-first on the wooden floor.
My sweet, clumsy child. She throws herself into everything without thought, and it only makes her more endearing.
A quiet sob escapes her as she stands, rubbing her knee. I move to get up, but Fabrice is already there, lifting her into his arms with practiced tenderness.
“What happened, little one?” he asks gently.
“I… fell… over… Daddy.” Each word is broken by thick, hiccuping sobs made worse by the attention she’s receiving.
“Oh, did my princess hurt her knee?” he murmurs, kissing the top of her head. “Come on, let’s get you some strawberries for your pancakes.”
He looks back at me with a soft smile before carrying her to the kitchen to soothe her tears.
Dominique scoffs under his breath, dropping down from the bed with exaggerated annoyance as he starts dragging his feet toward the door. His stomach might win, but his pride is fighting hard.
“What’s wrong, darling?” I reach out, sweeping his long blond hair away from his eyes as he passes.
“I don’t like her calling him Daddy,” he mutters, sulking as he walks out.
Later that morning, back on pack grounds, Miss Lambert helps me unpack from our lake house stay.
“Mum, can I go ride my bike around the pack grounds?” Dominique asks, already tugging his trainers back on even though he’d taken them off barely two minutes ago.
This boy never stops moving.
“How far out?”
“I was thinking the field overlooking the woods.” He shrugs, casual. Too casual.
“That’s too far on your own,” I tell him immediately. The field borders the woods. Natural cover. Poor visibility. Not somewhere a child should be alone. “You’ll need to take someone with you.”
“I’ll take you,” Fabrice offers from behind his laptop. He barely crossed the pack border before wanting to check emails, making sure nothing urgent awaited us.
The moment Fabrice speaks, Dominique’s shoulders tighten, his whole body shifting with discomfort. Lately, I’ve noticed it more and more. He’s polite, respectful, but distant with Fabrice. And no matter how many times I remind them that Fabrice is their uncle, Delphine simply sees him as her father.
“Actually,” I say carefully, “I wanted you in the pack meeting today, Fabrice.”
Dominique exhales long and relieved the tension draining from his shoulders.
“Miss Lambert,” I turn to her, “would you mind taking the children to the fields? Just for an hour or two while I’m in the meeting. I’ll have some of the guards keep an eye on your group.”
“Of course, Alpha.”
“Have fun, kiddo,” Fabrice says cheerfully as he heads toward the office. He doesn’t notice the look on Dominique’s face, or the quiet storm brewing inside him.
But I do. I always do.