“She’s really sweet. I talked to her a couple of times. I could tell she felt bad for me, or at least I think she did.”
“Cristie doesn’t lie. She’s actually an Alpha, like her father, but she’s very, very kind. If you got the sense she was sorry, she is.”
Bailey sat down quietly, tears pooling in her eyes as her emotions overwhelmed her.
“Remi is fighting against an instinct. If he denies Cristie and stays with you, he will always feel a sense of loss. It will dim over time and he’ll learn to ignore it, but if he ever sees her again, it’ll start all over again. If he leaves you and goes to Cristie, he leaves behind a love that developed innocently, and a woman that he adores. He can’t win.”
“And do I want to take a chance to build a life and family with him just to risk it every time her name comes up?”
“Some people do it successfully. But you’re missing a huge part of what I said, Bailey.”
Bailey looked at Tempest expectantly.
“If you marry Remi, you cannot have children with him. If you try, it will kill you. You can adopt. You can foster. You can use IVF, just not with his sperm. You cannot ever carry his children under any circumstance.”
Bailey seemed to deflate a little, finally absorbing the reality of life with Remi.
“If you don’t want kids, fine. No problem. You just have to move to a state far away and carefully time visits so that Cristie isn’t here while you and Remi are.”
“But then, even if we do IVF and I do get to carry a child, it won’t be Remi’s. And if Remi chooses me, he’ll never have his own children. At least not with me being their mother.”
“Fate’s a bitch sometimes,” Tempest said.
“Couldn’t you just…” Bailey started, looking hopefully at Tempest before she stopped speaking and shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“It’s not that I can’t, it’s that I shouldn’t. Fate usually has its reasons. Sometimes they suck, but if you try to circumvent fate, it very often triggers issues you can’t even imagine further down the line. If it’s what you really want, I can make sure you survive a pregnancy. But that’s only one piece of a huge web of issues. Maybe you’re not supposed to end up with Remi. Maybe that’s not what’s supposed to happen. Maybe Remi isn’t your fated mate. Humans usually don’t get a mate; not like we do anyway. But they can sometimes feel inexplicably pulled toward someone. Sometimes that person is their mate, and sometimes that person is just from a paranormal lineage. Every human is attracted to those of us that aren’t human. But we’re not talking about every human. We’re talking about you, and none of this is my choice. It’s yours. It’s a lot to consider.”
They sat quietly for a while together. Then Bailey sat back and sighed. “I’m glad you told me about all this instead of Remi.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when we first became friends.”
“You couldn’t. You didn’t know if you could trust me. Well, you probably did, or you wouldn’t have allowed us to become friends, but you know what I mean.”
“I try to keep everything blocked. It’s not fair to the good ones. The bad ones, I sense even if I try not to.”
Bailey nodded and they both sat quietly for a little longer. “You know, you were talking about your grandmother. My grandmother used to say everything happens for a reason,” Bailey said softly. “And she also said every path is different. You have no right to judge anyone else’s path if you’re not willing to honestly walk your own.”
“Sounds like a smart lady,” Tempest said.
Chapter 19
Two vehicles pulled up in the street in front of Hellen’s house and most of their occupants got out shaking hands and patting each other on the back before walking toward their own vehicles. Two of them didn’t speak at all; Lucien, who walked right up the driveway of Hellen’s home, and Remi, who silently walked toward his car parked about half a block from Hellen’s driveway.
“Lucien!” Havoc yelled.
Lucien stopped and turned in Havoc’s direction.
“You good?”
Lucien nodded slowly. “I appreciate all of you helping tonight.”
“It’s what family does, man. No problem,” Havoc said.
“He’s right,” Brandt added.
“Sure is,” Kaid said.
Lucien lifted an arm to wave at everybody, then disappeared into the house.
