Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 225

“You never needed me to make sense,” I said. “You saw me, all of me, and stayed. You didn’t flinch when I broke things open. You held my hand through the blood and through the fear. You made space for me to be loud, to be sharp, to be whole. I will walk beside you through whatever comes next, not because l’have to, but because I want to. I want to wake up beside you every day we’re lucky enough to get. I want our child to know what it looks like to be chosen.”

The officiant stepped forward, but before she could speak, the air shifted. People leaned closer. Some clasped hands.

Others tilted their heads, caught in the same feeling.

There was no sound, no flash of magic, but something passed between us all.

That sensation lingered well into the reception. Wolves and vampires ate beside one another without being told where to sit. Emma danced with elders she hated yesterday. A vampire and a wolf argued over a slice of cake until someone offered them a new one. Nothing was forced. It just unfolded.

Later, a guard came to our table. He leaned in.

“There’s a group out front,” he said. “Small. Loud. No weapons.”

Richard started to stand, but I stopped him.

“I’m coming too.”Outside, they were exactly what the guard had described, scattered, uncoordinated, unarmed. The signs were thrown together, and their chanting had already lost momentum. Fear sat behind their eyes, thinly covered by noise.

“You’ve broken tradition!” someone yelled.

“Then tradition wasn’t strong enough to protect the right people,” I said. “It’s not sacred just because it’s old.”

One man’s sign read abomination in thick, dripping paint.

I stepped toward him.

“Ive heard that word before. You don’t get to give it to my child. That ends here.”

No one had anything to say after that. They didn’t argue.

They just drifted away.

Inside, the music had gone softer. I led Richard to the balcony. The tity stretched out below us, sparkling, steady, and wide. We stood shoulder to shoulder, looking out at it like we could carry it together.

“I liked when Emma tried to adjust your boutonnière for the fifth time,” I said.

He smiled. “I liked when the elder threatened to bite the chef if she didn’t get another slice of cake.”

“I liked the way your voice didn’t shake.””I liked what it sounded like when you said my name.”

1 kissed him. Then I turned, braced myself on the railing, and looked over my shoulder.

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