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That’s not to say that little Ember didn’t love me. When she noticed I was standing in the doorway, she squealed with delight and reached her pudgy hands for me. And when Night looked my way, his face lit up with so much love, my heart swelled.

“Come here, love,” he said. “Let us hold you.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I went to my family and took our bundle of joy into my arms while Night held us against his chest. I buried my nose into Ember’s soft, curly hair and took a deep whiff of her sweet smell. She was ours, and everything about her, from her raven-black hair to her bright aquamarine eyes, said as much.

Eight months had passed in a blink. Ember was already trying to walk and talk. It seemed like it had just been the other day that Night and I were bickering about the stress of moving our things into our new cabin. We moved within hours of my being discharged from the hospital because I refused to let my baby sleep under the alpha cabin’s roof. Thankfully, everything in th