Epilogue

Eight years later

Araminta Cleghorn had ten utterly perfect little fingers and ten equally perfect adorable toes. Lucien would know. He'd counted and kissed every single one of them, twice.

"She's perfect, isn't she?" he murmured, lifting his gaze to his mate.

Aksel watched him with a small smile. "She is," he said, without even glancing at their daughter.

Lucien frowned. "You didn't even look at her! You're just humoring me."

Aksel flickered his gaze to their newborn. "She isn't much to look at right now, to be honest."

"Aksel!" Lucien said, mock outraged. All right, his outrage was pretty real. Their baby was perfect!

Aksel laughed. "I'm sure she'll grow into her face. How can she not with her genes? And you aren't half bad to look at, either."

Rolling his eyes, Lucien laughed."Right," he said with a wry smile. But it's not like he could argue with that. Their daughter was blessed with a father who was so mouthwateringly handsome he still took Lucien's breath away after years of marriage. It was already obvious that she was going to be a carbon copy of Aksel. Lucien couldn't see even a slight resemblance to himself.

"It's unfair that she looks so much like you when I did all the hard work!" He was joking. In truth, Lucien couldn't be more delighted that their daughter looked like the man he loved the most in the world. Though, to be absolutely honest, Lucien didn't really care what she looked like.

He was delighted that they had her at all.

For a long time, Lucien had thought they would never have children. He'd been so hopeful in the first few years of their marriage—hoping against hope that his doctor was wrong and he'd be able to give Aksel children—but both of his two pregnancies were chemical, ending mere days after conception. His doctor hadn't been optimistic after examining him. His chemical pregnancies had confirmed her thoughts that Lucien's body wasn't capable of producing the pregnancy hormones necessary for the embryo to keep developing. She'd come up with an experimental hormone supplementation program, but Lucien had been unable to conceive again to try it.

After a few years of crushed hopes and negative pregnancy tests, Lucien had come to accept that he and Aksel would never have children. It wasn't as though they'd been unhappy without children. They hadn't been. Lucien was grateful for what he had. The seven years since they'd gotten married had been blissful for the most part. There had been ugly parts too, of course—Vagrippa hadn't spoken to him for years after their marriage, and society's reaction to their marriage had been... as bad as one might expect, but Lucien had found that it was rather easy not to care about the opinions of other people when he was so in love and loved back. He wouldn't go as far as to claim that he didn't care about people's opinions at all—that would be a lie—but it was hard to be angry or upset about it when one look into Aksel's intense, adoring eyes made him feel so warm and heady with happiness. So beloved and precious.

They had been happy. So damn happy. Lucien hadn't known it was possible to be so happy.

But he couldn't deny that a small part of him had yearned for a baby, yearned to know what it was like to carry Aksel's child under his heart, yearned for a big family. His heart had ached every time he saw Aksel playing with his nephews and nieces, seeing what a wonderful dad Aksel would have been. In his weakest moments, when it had become too much, he'd even considered hiring a surrogate for them or growing a baby in the genetic centers of the Inner Core planets, a practice that was considered abhorrent on Eila, but he couldn't go ahead with it, couldn't deprive their child of pack bonds. It would be selfish.Artificially created Eilan children often ended up on permanent anti-depressants.

So he had pushed the thoughts of a baby to the back of his mind and focused on making his mate happy.It wasn't difficult to focus on Aksel. He'd always been the center of Lucien's world. As long as they had each other, they had everything they needed.

When he felt nauseated in the morning of his forty-third birthday, he'd thought nothing of it. It was Aksel who told him to do a pregnancy test, his nostrils flaring as he looked at Lucien with an odd sort of intensity. Lucien had laughed, telling him not to be silly.

"Just do it," Aksel had said, and Lucien relented.

When he saw the result of the test, he had stared at it for a long time before whispering Aksel's name. Aksel was at his side immediately.

God, he had been so scared. Scared to be happy. The chances of him being able to carry to term were extremely slim, even with hormone supplements. He hadn't wanted to get Aksel's hopes up and then crush them again. He hadn't wanted people's pity. But he'd wanted this baby so much. So damn much.

And to his utter relief and elation, they had made it.

It hadn't been an easy pregnancy, with the near-constant supervision of doctors and an inordinate amounts of hormone supplements, but God, it had been all so worth it.

Their baby girl was worth it.

Lucien smiled softly at their daughter, admiring her long dark eyelashes and an adorable dimple on her chin. "I can't believe we made her," he whispered.

Aksel moved to sit down next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Their scents mixing, they gazed down at the baby cradled against Lucien's chest.

Aksel's strong knuckles brushed against their daughter's smooth cheek, his hand looking gigantic compared to the baby's face, and Lucien's heart swelled with love—for both of them. His mate. Their baby.

Turning his head, he looked at Aksel and found him already looking at him, his expression soft.

"I'm probably going to spoil her rotten," he said. "Because I'll always be grateful to her for putting this look in your eyes."

"What look?" Lucien said with a laugh. "And don't you blame me for spoiling her! I know how badly you secretly wanted kids, too."

Aksel shook his head. "I did want kids, but it has never been a priority for me. Having you as my mate was more than enough. I've come to want kids so much because I knew how much you wanted them. I wanted you to be happy."

"I was happy," Lucien said with a frown. "You made me very happy. Beyond happy."

Aksel smiled. "I know," he said, stealing a quick, greedy kiss. "But I've wanted to give you everything you wanted. Because you deserved it. Your deserve everything. And I have finally given it to you." His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, his scent tinging with arousal. "Put a baby in you. It makes me all..."

"Aksel," Lucien said, flushing, throwing an uncomfortable look at their daughter. He squirmed, glaring at his mate half-heartedly but his lips were tugging into a smile. "You're awful!"

"But you love it," Aksel said with an infuriatingly knowing smile that had no right to be so attractive. He took the sleeping baby and gently set her down in her crib before turning to Lucien with a predatory look in his eyes. "What do you think about starting to work on a second one?"

His cock twitching, Lucien laughed. "Lightning doesn't strike twice. Besides, that's way too soon—"

Aksel's mouth covered his, and Lucien stopped thinking. He wrapped his arms around his husband, his heart singing with love and giddiness as he kissed him back.

Thank you , he sent the universe.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The End.