Page 60 of Bonded Ever After

TWENTY-FOUR

Ten months later…

Elora

I wake to the sound of crying and jolt upright. At my side, Callum rises sleepily. My gaze sweeps over our massive room, past the fire crackling in the fireplace, to the little bassinet against the wall.

Time to feed the baby.

I pull back the blanket, but Callum stops me, saying, “I’ve got her.”

He climbs out of bed groggily and goes to the bassinet. He scoops our daughter up into his arms and carries her to the bed. I instantly take her and begin nursing her, and she quiets, happy. Her little hand is in a fist at my breast.

“She has her dad’s hunger,” he jokes.

I smile, looking down at her blonde hair, mismatched eyes, and chubby cheeks. “The child does love to eat.Allthe time. I just wish she noticed when it was light and dark outside.” Although, technically it’s light out. The early morning rays are already coming through our open balcony doors.

I nurse her for a time, and Callum sits beside me, staring down at her. From the moment she was born, all he’s wanted to do is watch her. Every little thing she does seems to fascinate him. I don’t blame him though. She’s absolutely perfect.

She finishes nursing, and I cover up once more. Callum takes her and puts her over his shoulder to burp her until she gives him a couple that he seems super proud of. Then he lowers her and stares at her. Happiness illuminates his face as she smiles up at him.

“Best burper in the kingdom,” he says. “Our little princess.”

And she is.

She plays with his hand, making little noises, then her little hands focus on the gold band on his finger. I have a similar ring, only it has a rainbow of stones on it. Callum had it made for me before officially proposing, and we’d married in front of the whole town just a short time later.

There’s a knock at our bedroom door. I know who it is before Callum tells them to come. Archer and Victor are there, smiling, looking happy as clams, probably because they’d already been fishing this morning.

“We heard her crying through the wall and thought we could take her out for a little walk,” my dad says, not even trying to hide his love for our daughter.

I laugh and look at Callum. He nods, a smile playing on his lips.

It’s like the entire kingdom is obsessed with our daughter. Every person in the street would throw themselves in front of a knife for her, and that most certainly includes our fathers, who seem to be eager to take her, day or night.

My dad comes to Callum’s side of the bed and takes our happy baby, scooping her up into his arms. “All fed and happy for a couple hours, huh, Princess?”

Archer goes and gets her blanket and says, “I wouldn’t count on it. She’ll be here eating again before we know it, getting big and strong, just the way she should.”

At first, Callum was reluctant to let Archer spend time with our baby, but his dad had been patient at every turn, letting Callum set the pace with their relationship. And every time he had a chance to show he’d changed, Archer had proved himself to be a better man than the one who had mistreated Callum for all those years. Their relationship wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a lot better.

I think it’s partly because Callum understands what it does to a person to not be able to be with the person they love. He seems to never be able to forget how cruel he was to me when he thought I’d betrayed him with Ferone. Not that I held it against him any longer.

Time heals all wounds.

I look at my dad, who’s smiling between his partner and his granddaughter, and my heart gives a little squeeze. After my mom died, he’d been so broken. He hadn’t been happy when he’d been forced to marry my stepmom. His only joy came from me.

He finally has someone else to make him happy, and that means the world to me.

“Get some sleep,” my dad says as they head for the door.

“Thanks,” I say, and mean it.

Except when they leave, I’m not tired any longer. “Want to get a little air?” I ask.

Callum nods and we head for the balcony. He wraps his arm around me, and we stare out at a kingdom that will one day be ours. It’s a kind of paradise we never imagined could be in any realm. A place where we are happy to raise our daughter.

I wish everyone I love can live like this.

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