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The driveway stopped and Dante pulled the car right next to the mansion’s double doors. Zephyr jumped out without waiting for anyone to open her door, taking all of it in.
Wow.
A member of the staff ran to them, and Dante directed him to get their luggage to the guest wing. They had a wing for guests. Bougie shit.
An older woman with graying hair came out with a tiny bundle wrapped in a green blanket in her arms, and Zephyr watched in awe as Dante took the baby from the woman, cradled her against his broad chest, uncaring for the drool he got on his suit, cooing to her. “You missed daddy, didn’t you, princess?”
Then the fluffiest cat she'd seen walked out and rubbed against Dante's legs, getting fur over his pants.
Zephyr’s ovaries melted. What was it about a big man with babies and kittens? It was like catnip, pun intended.
Dante finally turned to his guests, his smile huge.
“Alpha, Zephyr, I’d like you to meet my princess, Tempest. Tempest, this is your uncle and aunt.”
Aunt.
She was that little baby’s aunt. Holy shit, she’d never been an aunt before.
She looked at Alpha and saw that it had affected him too. Dead heart, my ass.
Knowing what she did about his family, she couldn’t imagine what being an uncle must be doing to him. Quietly, she took his large hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, and though he didn’t squeeze it back, he didn’t let go either.
“Oh my god, she absolutely scrumptious!” Zephyr stepped forward since Alpha seemed frozen in place, and touched Tempest’s soft cheek.
The baby yawned, her eyes like emeralds opening wide, her mouth opening in a wet, gummy smile at seeing her father. She made those happy baby noises and flapped her arms before her eyes went to the larger, scarier-looking man.
Zephyr took Alpha's hand she was holding and brought it up, making his fingers touch Tempest's soft skin, praying that the baby didn’t cry.
She didn’t. Little Tempest Maroni gurgled and drooled and gave Alpha the same gummy smile, and she saw her husband get wrapped around her minuscule pinkie.
Oh yeah, it affected him alright. He didn’t even try to hide it on his face.
“You came,” a husky tone of surprise made Zephyr look up at the entrance, and her jaw dropped. A stunning, and she meant stunning, goddess of a woman walked toward them with the grace of a swan gliding through the water, a gentle smile on her perfect face, tall and classy and oozing poise, her glinting green eyes popping against her tan skin, her dark hair voluminous with natural waves and curls. That was some good hair. She didn’t think women like this could exist outside of mythologies.
The woman, clearly Tempest’s mother and Dante’s bride, took in the man beside her.
Zephyr looked up at him and saw him watching her with a look she knew.
Chemistry.
He’d liked her liked her.
Zephyr had never really been jealous, especially never of other women. Her family had beautiful women, she saw absolute knockouts at work every day, and she loved making women feel good about themselves on a daily basis. Jealousy was an entirely antithetical emotion to that. But standing there, at the side of the man she had loved once and wanted to love again, a man who had just moments ago reduced her attempt at making their future into something lesser, a man who clearly didn’t remember her but remembered the goddess in front of her, something ugly took root in the pit of her stomach. Not anything against the goddess, who was clearly in love with Dante and happy with her family, or even against Alpha for admiring something even she admitted was admirable.
No. The ugly was old insecurity, one she’d fought off for years and thought had laid to rest, an insecurity that maybe she wasn’t enough. Maybe, she’d never be enough. Maybe, anything she did wouldn’t make a difference. She loved too much, trusted too easily, got hurt too often, and maybe she needed to harden herself. But she would lose the essence of who she was if she did, and so she never did. Feeling hurt was more acceptable than feeling dead. The ugly in her head got awful.
‘Almost thirty and no boyfriend? There must be something wrong with you.’
‘Such a nice girl, how has no man fallen in love with you?’
‘Flings and flings, and your one long-term relationship? He cheated.’
‘The one man you truly loved left you. He doesn’t even remember you. You were that inconsequential.’
'Your husband doesn’t want you.’
Zephyr blinked the burn away and withdrew her hand, pasting a smile on her face as introductions were made. Dante put a hand around Amara’s waist and Zephyr hoped her husband would touch her, maybe hold her shoulder, do anything to indicate she was with him. He didn’t. Dante asked Alpha for a quiet word.
