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
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
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
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
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
The way she tried to parrot our words was beyond adorable. She spoke gibberish now, but she’d say her first word in no time, and Bryn was convinced it would be some variation of “daddy.” I hoped every day that she was right.After we hung up, Bryn and I shifted and went out to run. I’d always suspected that Bryn was faster than me if she really sprinted, and I was right. She raced me to the hot springs. Her sleek body darted between the trees with so much grace and speed, she was just a streak of darkness yards ahead of me. It took so much energy just to keep her in sight, and I was content just to watch her.Of course, she reached the springs ahead of me. We were both panting, though I was more out of breath. “I thought you were tired,” I said.“I was.” She wore a wolfish smile. “But I had to leave you in the dust just for fun.”I shifted and pushed my hair out of my face. “‘Fun,’ she says,” I grumbled.She laughed and also shifted to her human form. The sight of her took my breath a
That annoyance turned into a different kind of frustration now that we were in the dark. It was just the two of us in our bedroom on this chilly night, and the hot spring water still glistened on her skin. Once she lit the candle, I got a better view of the droplets plunging between her breasts and over her stomach until it was lost between the inner curves of her thighs. She moved her hair over her shoulder as she turned to put the candle on the nightstand, giving me a full view of another drop tracking down her spine.I moved behind her so quickly, I heard her breath catch. I caught the drop with my lips, then drew my tongue up to collect the droplets that glistened along her spine.“Oh.” She shivered. “Night.”My hands slipped over her hips as I covered the back of her neck with hungry kisses. The water was made even sweeter because it was warmed by her skin. She moaned and turned in my arms. Her hard nipples brushed across my chest as she stood on the tips of her toes and wrapped
Chapter 32BrynFive years had passed since Night killed Troy and we rescued the feral boys. Since then, I had performed the memory ritual on each of them and was now counseling those who wanted help with their recovery. Many of those kids still lived as a group on Panacea, in the cabins we’d built for them.I’d had my son, Remus, four years ago. He was a beautiful little boy with thick auburn hair and eyes as emerald as his father’s. Already, he was the timid opposite of his sister, who lived up to her fiery name. He clung to my dress when he went out with me and was very sensitive. Whenever Night gave him a stern look, the waterworks started. He stayed strong in front of his son, but privately, I knew it devastated my poor mate whenever he made our son cry. According to Lance, that was how Night had acted when he was Remy’s age. Maybe that explained where Remy had gotten it from.Tavi and Dom had a baby boy who was nine months younger than Ember. They named him Lucian after the fath