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Ruling The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 3) 82
I gasped. “You did?” Night and I asked at the same time.Violet hopped to her feet. She hadn’t looked so vibrant since Troy had given her the alpha wound, the marks of which had faded a lot in the last few weeks. “Come on, you two! Let’s show you all the changes we’ve made.”A few minutes later, our new home came into sight, and I was already amazed to see all the work that had been done. It’d been weeks since I’d last stopped by, and it had undergone a complete makeover. The outside was painted a gorgeous sea green. The door and windows were trimmed with white. Inside, there were vibrant rugs and knitted tapestries, and the kitchen was a deeper jungle-green shade with brass finishings on the drawers and cabinets. The banisters and floor had been polished to a shine, and the place was filled with natural light.Upstairs, the nursery had been painted a soft, eggshell white with stars painted in various hues across the walls. The rug was plush and white, like soft fur under our feet. Th
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Murmurs erupted throughout the crowd. Many of the families of the feral children were already emotional. Some had even left while we were talking to get their bearings.“Who killed Troy?” Theodore asked.“I did,” Night said. “But it was a team effort. I can’t take credit for the kill alone.”“Can’t you, as an alpha, force the feral wolves to shift?” Council Member Dana asked.“I could try to compel them to do that, Dana, but to be honest with everyone here, I’m not sure what that would do to their minds. I’m not willing to hurt them more than they’ve already been hurt.”“What did you do to remind them of who they were?”“I told them their names,” I replied.Another moment of silence followed, broken only by the occasional sniffling of the children’s families. Another contraction hooked around my abdomen, making my breath hitch. Night glanced at me, but it wasn’t the best time to ask me if I was okay.“Has this ordeal established a relationship with these other packs?” Council Member J
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The sound of Bryn’s sharp gasp had my head snapping toward the door so fast, the hallway spun. I rushed for the door, but Dom got in my way.“Oh no, you don’t!” he said, hands flat on my chest. “You’re not about to barrel in there and bring things to a halt, Night.”I growled at him, gripping his shoulder and pushing him out of the way. Dom was great at grappling, so all he did was wrap his arms around my waist and pull me back. Bryn gasped again, and I fought against my beta, but just as I was about to be free, Lance tackled us both to the ground. We wrestled until they somehow got hold of some rope.“Fuck both of you.” I seethed as they forced my hands behind my back and tied them. The rope was a measure for fathers like me who were too rowdy to restrain themselves. No one came out to check on what was going on because this was pretty par for the course.The two of them hauled me to my feet and forced me into a chair. They sat on either side of me, breathing even harder than me. I w
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I don’t want to be the sort of father he was—a man who abandoned one of his sons and drove the other one insane. I wouldn’t be capable of that today, obviously, but there was a time when Gregor wasn’t capable of being what he became, either.“When you loved him, he was good. But then he changed and threw everyone who loved him away. What if I go down the same path? Am I even capable of being a good father when I have Redwolf blood in me?”“Of course. You are more than capable.” Her answer came so quickly and decisively that I almost believed her. “You’ve done what even I thought was impossible: merge two packs with decades of hate and tragedy between them without a war. You chose to rehabilitate those feral children rather than kill them, even though killing them would be easier. You have lived your life making tough choices that anyone else would have crumbled in the face of.”“But not all of those decisions were right.”“That’s okay. No one is perfect, baby.”She squeezed my shoulde
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Bryn had given birth to a girl. I had a daughter.She looked at me, a tired smile on her face. “Night, come and see her.”For all my eagerness to get in here, now that it was over and it was time for me to meet my daughter face to face, my legs moved like they were weighed down with steel. When I made it to the bed, Bryn moved the blanket so I could see her face.I’d seen brand-new babies before—when I was a teenager, I helped my mom midwife for pregnant mothers in the infirmary. Back then, I’d thought the newborns were so small as to be alien, but the moment I set eyes on my baby girl, all I could think about was how perfect, how lovely she was. Her skin was so delicate, and she seemed to be crafted from pink parchment. Her tufts of soft, black hair shone in the room, and her itty bitty mouth revealed an itty bitty tongue when she gave a tiny yawn. I fell in love with her immediately.“Isn’t she beautiful?” Bryn asked in a whisper.“Yes,” I replied, my voice cracking.“You want to ho
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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
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Pax and I did two laps around Panacea. There had been a lot of changes since the boys started relearning their humanity. With the help of Lance, myself, Mom, the builders, and the gardeners, they were learning the skills they needed to make the space their own. Inside the cabins, those who were further along with their recovery were able to paint their rooms.Samuel had helped them with that. He was a completely different person. No longer agoraphobic, he’d blossomed into a social butterfly. I think part of him wanted to atone for escaping without them—something he viewed as a betrayal—but more than that, he’d missed his friends.I referred to the feral kids as “kids” and “boys,” but the oldest of them were only a little younger than me. They were close to adulthood but knew nothing about how to function in a real pack. There was a special school to teach them the basics of pack life and to continue—in some cases, re-teach them—their education. Tanya and a few other women ran it. I’d
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Dom snickered. I know my oldest brother wasn’t that married to his choice of color. He lived to mess with his mate, and he loved when Tavi gave it right back to him. She was at her sharpest and most vibrant when they bickered lovingly. They were a perfect match.“Lilac is more flattering for a baby, but whatever. Anyway, we’re hoping to get this settled before the end of the month. I would hate for us to wait for renovations with a little one.”Night and I chuckled. “I think we can relate,” I said. “I thought I’d never get out of the alpha cabin.”Violet was making sure that the cabin became a preserved piece of history. Alphas, betas, and notable wolves from both packs were honored there, and I couldn’t imagine a better use for it. Besides being a respectful monument to our history, it was also a massive “fuck you” to Gregor and Troy’s memory. If they were out in the ether somewhere, I sincerely hoped they were existing with their regrets.A timer went off in the kitchen, and Dom hop
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