Read Online Mates: Werewolf BBW Romance (Running With Alphas Book 8) by Viola Rivard - Free Book Online

other.
    “Fang is stupid,” she said, for what felt like the thousandth time. “And you can’t name a white wolf shadow. It doesn’t make any sense.”
    Alder interrupted them both. “Can I hold her?”
    He passed Henry back to Taylor. The pup quickly and efficiently found his way to her nipple and latched on. Reluctantly, Hale approached them, carefully settling Fawn into his brother’s hold.
    “Henry doesn’t even mean anything,” Hale said, though his voice had softened.
    “At least it isn’t a dog’s name,” she hissed back. “Besides, I let you name Fawn. Fair is fair.”
    “Yeah, but you liked the name Fawn. It’s not fair at all.”
    “Oh my God,” Alder said, staring down at Fawn with reverence. “She’s even smaller than Snow was. Is she really going to be okay?”
    Taylor gave him a reassuring nod. It had been almost a week since the traumatic birth of her pups. Henry was positively thriving and Cammie was confident that given another week or two, he’d be almost indistinguishable from a full term baby. Fawn still had a long way to go, but just as Hale had promised, she had made it through the first night and was continuing to show progress. Up until today, they’d been painstakingly feeding her expressed breast milk with a small sponge, but she was finally starting to show interest in breastfeeding. Taylor suspected she was mirroring her brother and hoped to be able to get her to latch within the next few days.
    “It was a little touch and go at first,” Taylor said. “But she’s doing great now.”
    Even thinking back to that first night, Taylor found herself a bit choked up. Fawn had, in glorious fashion, taught her the first lesson of motherhood: from the moment you bring a child into the world, you’re forever forced to live with your heart outside of your body.
    Fawn’s little green eyes cracked open. She took one look at Alder and began to cry. Alder did his best to placate her, but Hale briskly extracted his daughter from Alder’s arm.
    “Fine, call him Henry if you want,” Hale said, putting the pup against his chest. Her cries quickly tapered off. “He’s Alder’s pup anyway.”
    Taylor hid her grin in the crook of Alder’s neck. “You can’t possibly know that.”
    “He’s whiny. Alder was always the whiny one,” Hale said. “Besides, Fawn looks more like me.”
    Taylor gave a snort of laughter. “You’re identical twins.”
    For all his bluster, she knew that Hale cared about Henry. He was definitely bonding more with Fawn, but she’d seen firsthand how protective he was of his son. The day before, Lark had been holding Henry. As usual, he’d been crying and she was trying to calm him down with a bouncing that was a little too intense for his age. Taylor had gently asked her to be a little less rough, inadvertently garnering Hale’s attention. The alpha had snatched the baby from Lark, yelling at her loud enough to make Taylor jump. Lark had fled the room, and although Taylor had later made Hale apologize to her, she had yet to work up the nerve to come back.
    Alder kissed the side of her head. “They’re beautiful, Taylor. You’re amazing.”
    Warmth spread through her chest. “I love you.”
    As she said the words, she couldn’t help but cast a furtive look towards Hale. He had put some distance between them again, and appeared to be wiping something from Fawn’s face. He spared Taylor the briefest of glances, and in his eyes, she saw acceptance.
    Taylor leaned into Alder’s embrace, careful not to squish Henry. Her eyes filled with tears. “I missed you so much.”
    Maybe it was just the euphoria of having Alder back, but in that moment, she really wasn’t sure which of the two brothers she loved more. She also realized that it didn’t matter. She loved and needed them both. They would both always be there for her, loving, supporting, and protecting her for the rest of their lives. They were her mates, and she was theirs.

Epilogue
    August,