Ella had figured it out. Alex refused to believe her until her stomach began to expand, and the baby began to do the mambo.
“Impossible might be a good name,” Alex murmured, keeping her hand on top of Julian’s on top of her stomach. “It’s your child, after all.”
“But I can’t—We can’t—”
“You obviously can, and we did.”
“How?”
His face was gaunt. He broke her heart. She wanted to kiss him, to touch him and pull him close. But that would only make what she had to do so much harder.
“You healed a silver bullet, Julian. Is there anything you can’t do if you put your mind to it?”
His forehead creased. “A boy with my gold hair. A girl with your green eyes.”
She stared at him for several seconds. “Did you hit your head?”
“I thought that once, when we were…” He sat up, but he didn’t remove his hand from her stomach.
“Oh!” Suddenly everything became clear. Julian was magic, and when he thought of things, they happened. “We were having sex and you thought of kids?”
“I didn’t mean to. I was thinking about—” He looked away.
“Alana.” That he’d been thinking of his wife while he was doing Alex was kind of…yuck. Then again, had she really believed he’d been thinking of her?
“You were angry?” she asked.
“Back then, every time I looked at you I was angry.” Julian twitched his shoulders, more of a wince than a shrug. “Green eyes. That was you. So I guess I wasn’t really thinking of her at all.”
But he always would be. Alex knew that now.
Julian sighed. “She died because I couldn’t give her a child, but it seems that I could. I never considered—”
Alex squeezed his fingers, and he looked into her face. “I don’t think you could have given her one. This mate bond seems to be the cause of a whole lot of—” She floundered for a word.
“Weirdness,” Julian supplied.
“Yeah. Besides, would you ever have been able to work up enough fury at her to change the course of lycanthropy?”
His lips quirked. “Probably not.”
Alex didn’t say what else she was thinking. That Alana had taken the easy way out; that if Alana had truly loved Julian, she’d have chosen the hard way. As Alex had.
She lifted her hand from his and got up. He scrambled to follow, and she stepped away. She couldn’t be near him and not want him.
“A life for a life,” she said. “It’s only fair.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I took Alana, but I can give you this.” Her palm skated over the fullness. “Once I have the baby, I’ll leave him or her with you. I’ll go to Edward. He’ll have to do something to make this connection between us go away. If he wants me to be able to work for him without puking all day.”
“Work for him,” Julian repeated.
“There are still werewolves out there that need to be killed. But now I know that there are some who don’t. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
“That’s—” Julian appeared to be searching for his words. Maybe he had hit his head. “The stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in all of my lifetimes.”
Alex blinked. “I’m sorry?”