Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 220

“You’re sure?” I asked, too full of everything to say anything else.

She didn’t even hesitate. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

I swallowed hard and wiped my thumb under her eye, catching the dirt and moisture there.

“You’re doing great,” she told Simon, like she wasn’t the one lying in the grass.

Simon didn’t even glance up. “Talk less. Heal faster.”

“I’m not talking,” she said, and that crooked smile didn’t fade.

I laughed, brushing her hair back from her forehead, and let my hand linger.

“I don’t think./’ve ever loved you more than I do right now.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You say that every time I almost die.”

“And you keep giving me new reasons.”

“Next time,” she said, voice rough but certain, “we do this with dinner. And wine. And maybe a bed.”

“There isn’t going to be a next time like this,” I said, cupping her face gently in both hands. “You’re mine. I’m not letting you go again.”

Her fingers curled around mine, tighter than before.

I leaned in and kissed her forehead, then the curve of her cheek, and hovered just above her lips, not quite kissing her, but close enough to feel the rise of her next breath. “I want to be there when you wake up. I want to figure out * how to do this right, even if we mess it up a hundred times. I want our kid to grow up knowing what it looks like when two people fight for each other. I want you in my life because it’s you, not because of anything else. Just you.”

She looked at me, tears in her eyes now, but not from fear.

“You’re the only place I’ve ever felt like I belonged,” she whispered.

“And you’re the only person who’s ever made me want to stay.”

The weight of Simon’s words landed in my chest again.

She was still here. And she was carrying our child.

Behind us, Nathan finally spoke, a quiet exhale with the weight of strategy in it. He didn’t need to say anything. I could already see him rerouting the future around her survival.

Simon pressed two fingers to her pulse. “She’s holding steady. But she’s not going anywhere until we get the right team in.”

“Then bring them,” I said, rising slightly. “Transport,coverage, whatever you need. She doesn’t leave my side.”

Simon looked at me, but didn’t argue. “And you need to sit down before your legs give out.”

“I’ll stand,” | said, louder this time. “Until she can.”

Her eyes were closed again, but she hadn’t let go. Her fingers stayed wrapped around the box. Her other hand stayed wrapped in mine. Her breathing had deepened, still uneven, but stronger than before. The warmth in her palm told me she wasn’t slipping. She was resting. She was here.

She had said yes.

It hadn’t been planned the way I pictured it. It hadn’t been slow or careful or quiet. But it belonged to her, and it belonged to us, and it came from the raw center of everything we had survived together. After everything we’d clawed our way through, everything we’d lost and risked and fought for, this moment didn’t need to be perfect. It just needed to be true. And it was.

The sky behind us had begun to lighten with the pale glow of morning. The rotors in the distance picked up speed, sharper now, cutting through the early hush with growing urgency. Around us, people moved again. The camp breathed. Wolves regrouped. Medics reloaded gear.

Soldiers gave their reports. The world resumed its motion.

But I stayed exactly where I was. I didn’t look away. I didn’t ease my grip.I held her hand, and I didn’t let go.

The war was over.

And our life had just begun.

Amelia

I woke slowly, with a strange calm pressing in around me.

The light was soft and tow, the kind that told me it was either early morning or someone had dimmed the room on purpose. The sheets beneath me were stiff and tucked** too precisely to belong to a normal bed, and the sterile smell of antiseptic clung to the air. I was in the infirmary.

The ache in my body stretched deep and steady, dulled to the edges but unmistakably there. My limbs felt heavy, as though everything inside me had been drained and packed back in wrong. My thoughts moved sluggishly, but the chaos that had consumed my head for weeks had gone quiet.

The signal was gone. The pressure that had coiled behind my eyes and twisted through every step of the field was no longer with me. The only thing I could hear was the slow, repetitive beep of a monitor keeping time with something I hadn’t yet named.

Richard was beside me.

His hand was wrapped around mine, like he didn’t trust himself to let go. His shirt was wrinkled and half unbuttoned, the collar darkened with blood and sweat, and his belt still fastened like he’d never left this chair.

His hair looked like he’d run his fingers through it too many times, and there were shadows under his eyes that made him look older, or maybe just wrecked.His eyes opened as soon as i shifted.

“You’re awake,” he said, his voice catching as he leaned forward and brushed his fingers along my cheek.

I blinked at him, and it all started rushing back. The resonance field. The way the Dominion collapsed. The bond, the pain, the overload. And the last thing I heard, his voice, pulling me back through all of it.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify