Mated to the Alpha and His Beta

Chapter 404

Zane

“They're all on the way. I was finally able to get your mother through our mate
link.” I paused, looking at my now-adult daughter. “Can you still hear us when we
talk through that?”

Stella had helped herself to some cut-up fruit from the fridge in the kitchenette.
She paused in pouring

herself some hot water for tea, then nodded.

“I can hear everyone's thoughts. All the time. Even when I don’t want to. But
yours and Abba’s and Daddy's and Mother's are indistinct when you're talking
through the bond. I can hear you, but I usually can’t decipher what you're saying.
Which, honestly, I prefer.”

Stella laughed, sounding a little embarrassed. She poured us both mugs of tea
and sat at the table. I took the chair across from hers and pulled my mug closer
to me, even though I really wanted something much

stronger than tea.

“That must be hard,” I told her. “Hearing thoughts all the time.”

She shrugged and frowned a little bit, and in that expression I saw very clearly
the little girl she'd been.

This was going to take me some time to get used to...

and I had to wonder how hard this was for her. One minute to be a child, the next
an adult in the span of

mere hours.

Could she hear what I was thinking just then?

“I try not to,” she said aloud. “Sometimes, like just now, what you were thinking
was so loud and so strong, and it was about me. I heard it before I could stop
myself But mostly, Papa, I try to be polite and not listen in.”

“Has it always been like that for you?”

She nodded after a moment and lifted the mug to her lips. She winced at the
heat, then pursed her lips and blew lightly. I could feel the cold breeze from all
the way across the table, and I let out a mutter of

surprise.

Again, my daughter looked embarrassed as she set down the mug. “I can make
things cold if I need them

to be. Or hot.”

“Stella...” I trailed off, not really even sure what I meant to say. “You are
extraordinary. I always knew that,

of course. That you're so special. But...”

“But now you can see it right in front of you, and you can't deny it or pretend it
away. I understand. I'm sorry it's such a shock to you, Papa. I didn’t mean for it to
be.” Stella paused, tilting her head as though she was listening. “They're almost
here. Then I'll be able to tell you everything. I'd like to do it when we're all

1/2

Chapter 404

together, if you can be patient enough for that.”

“Of course, I can. If that's what you need,” I told her.

Stella smiled, but tears gleamed in her eyes. “That's why I had them call you first,
Papa. Because I knew

you'd be able to wait without demanding everything from me right away. Daddy is
going to be a little more

difficult, I think.”

We both laughed at that, shaking our heads. She was right. Xander was going to
flip his lid when he saw her. That was why I hadn't simply told him what
happened through our mind link.

“He's got to see it for himself,” I told her. “But he'll be okay. He's your father,
Stella. He's going to love you,

no matter what. We all will. Were you worried about that?”

Her hesitation showed me that was true. She might be adult-sized with a
grownup’s maturity, but there was another glimpse of her childhood in that
expression. A little girl's fears that something she'd done would

take away her parents’ love.

“People don't like those who are different, Papa.”

“Oh, Stella.”

“The teachers at school didn't like me. They might have told you otherwise,” she
cut in with a sharp look at me. “But I could tell, even before I grew up, that they
really didn’t know what to make of me. I tried hard

never to show them what I could do, but it was hard.”

“We aren't people. We are your family. Your pack.

We'll stand by you no matter how big you get,” I told her fiercely. A sudden
thought slammed into me about supernaturals I'd heard about but hadn't yet met.
I had to assume they were real, though, since all the others turned out to be. “Are
you going to get any bigger?”

She burst into laughter. “Papa!”

“You could be part Giant, for all I know,” I teased, but there was a real question in
my voice.

Stella shook her head. “I promise not to outgrow you”

That hadn't answered my question about if she could get bigger or not, but I
accepted it. We both chuckled a little bit. Then her head tilted again, and her
eyes narrowed.

“They're here,” she said.

2/2

Visit Novelxo.org to read full content.

The content is on Novelxo.org!

Read the latest chapter there!

Visit Novelxo.org to read full content.

The content is on Novelxo.org!

Read the latest chapter there!

Visit Novelxo.org to read full content.

The content is on Novelxo.org!

Read the latest chapter there!