Seduced by Darkness (17 page)

For she is with me

— William Shakespeare, Othello

"I'M PREGNANT."

Rose held my hand to her belly and smiled through tears. "You're going to be a father."

The room erupted in cheers and I stood stunned for a moment. When the reality sunk in, I reached around her waist and swung her around, kissing her neck. "I love you so much."

"I love you too."

Jasmine and Ocean smiled and hugged Rose once I let her go and Ryder walked up to me and offered his hand. "Congratulations, Dad."

I took his hand and shook. "Thank you."

Alaric joined Ryder and me as Rose was whisked around the room by well-wishers. She and I would have our celebration later. In private. I grinned in anticipation and then turned back to the men standing before me.

"Ryder, I need to apologize to you," I said. "I hope you can forgive me for—"

"Trying to kill me?" He smirked.

"Um, yeah, basically."

"I would have done the same in your shoes," he said.

I nodded. "What are your plans now?"

He shrugged. "I haven't thought it through."

I looked around at my new family, by blood and by choice, and a thought occurred to me. "Why don't you and Alaric make your home here? We need more leadership at Elysium. Professor Shaw, Brad and Ocean are leaving again. Luke and Lucy are no longer here, given their IPI commitments. Elysium could use you both."

Ryder looked at Alaric and then back at me. "Are you sure about that?"

I realized I was and nodded. "Yeah, I am. Besides, I have my own responsibilities now too."

I looked at Rose and then at my parents who were congratulating her.

I walked over to them, my heart fully settled on my own path for once in my life.

"Dad, mom, I've made a decision about the pack."

My dad looked up and Rose smiled. She knew. She'd always known. It just took me longer to catch up.

"I'm ready to take over the pack. I'm ready to accept full responsibility for my family. For this life."

Rose hugged me and kissed me. "You're going to be an excellent father and pack leader," she said.

"Only because of you," I said. "I am who I am because of you, Rose. We're a team."

"To the end," she said.

"To the end."

Thank you for joining us on this paranormal adventure of love, betrayal, mystery and friendship. We hope you enjoyed your time spent with this group of extraordinary people. If you'd like to learn more about the backstory of Sam, Drake, Ana and others at Elysium, check out The Forbidden Trilogy by our pen name Karpov Kinrade. In the meantime, we hope you keep reading Alex Lux books.

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Alex Lux is a USA TODAY bestselling multi-genre romance author who fancies herself British and living in a swanky flat in London where she and the Queen frequently have tea and crumpets. In reality, she's a native-born Californian who has a great fake accent and often compels her kids to get their fake British on as well. She does love tea, but drinks it with her Sexy Russian Prince (who's not really a prince, but he
is
Russian, and he
is
sexy). Together they write books with lots of sex and intrigue while raising three little girls who are entirely too smart for their parents' own good.

When not penning toe-curling sexiness, she writes fantasy and science fiction with her husband as Karpov Kinrade.

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