Page 35 of Return to the Pack

“Hey,” Ethan protests.

Callan laughs. “Warrick and I just sat and waited for you to finish. Finally, Mom grabbed you by the neck and shook you to your senses.”

Warrick grins. “We didn’t catch anything that day, but we sure had fun.”

Ethan reins in his raucous laughter and wipes his eyes, looking at me. “See? If we three can find something pleasant in that shitstorm of an upbringing, you can too, pup.”

A sunbeam pokes its way through the branches and warms my head. I scratch at the dirt with my fingernails, thinking of the past. “I remember after a hurricane, when the waterways were filled with crap, people’s belongings and whatnot, Mama took me on a collecting trip. The goal was to find useful things for our house. We found a watersoaked loveseat floating in the swamp and dragged it out of the water and let it dry in the sun for a few days before hauling it home.” I wrinkle up my nose. “It always smelled funny, but it was a comfy place to sit and eat sometimes. We had fun that day.”

Callan smiles and squeezes me to him, rubbing his beard against my shoulder.

Another memory pops to the surface. “Oh! And there’s the time we chased dragonflies through the meadow. The dragonflies would land on my back or my head and hang tight. Mom would race over and snap at them, but they were too fast. They just flew into the air and took off. That was one of Mama’s good days. She didn’t have the moods that day.”

Sudden sadness drips over my fleeting good memories. “The good days were seldom. Mama was a mess inside. She often fell into nightmares, screaming and thrashing about how evil wolves were and crying to protect me from them. ‘You can’t take my Luna!’ she’d scream. ‘You can’t have her.’”

Callan strokes my back, now warm from the sunshine. “Maybe she got the mutant wolves all mixed up in her mind with the rest of the pack, and she was trying to protect you from them. Her mind must have warped over losing her True Mate.”

I glance over at Axel, whose face is stony though his eyes are deep with sadness. He and I—we went nuts when our True Mate bond was broken. I could have ended up like Mama. Maybe I would have if I hadn’t found these men to save me from that fate and love me back to life.

“Don’t you go there, you two,” Callan says, his gaze shifting between Axel and me. “You grew from that moment. We all did.” With a somber gaze, he lets his attention drift to his brothers and then to Axel. “We’re a family now. We’re a pack. No one’s letting Luna run off in the swamp with that pup in her belly.”

“Never?” I ask, my voice small.

He gives me such a warm gaze my chest fills with joy. “I love you, Luna. I love you like I’ve never loved before. I don’t think I’ve ever loved a woman before… Not even close. Not if I compare it with what I feel for you.”

Emotion clogs up my throat. “I love you, too.” I let my gaze linger on his beautiful eyes before turning to face Warrick. “And you…I love you, Warrick.”

Warrick clears his throat and nods.

“And, you, Ethan. My heart is full of love for you.”

Ethan blinks rapidly and nods. “I love you, too, Luna. You know that,” he says gruffly.

“And you, Axel,” I say. “You’re right. We’ve searched for one another through time. We just didn’t know we needed to find these guys, too.” My heart is bursting right now with all the love I feel for my mates.

“You’ll turn us into saps, girl,” Warrick says in his gravelly voice.

“Pups like you,” Ethan chokes out.

I laugh, unable to hold back my emotion. “Speaking of pups, I want our puppies—our kids—to grow up happy and free, without fear. Our children should be raised in the warmth of the pack with lots of playmates. Promise me, y’all. Promise me we’ll make that happen. Let’s not let what happened to me or to you three with your mean dad… Let’s not let that happen to our own children.”

Callan gets to his feet and places me on mine. The others rise, too.

Warrick pounds his fist against his palm. “We’ve got to hunt ourselves some motherfucking mutants and send them into the ground. Then, and only then, will I consider you and our pups safe, Luna.”

That’s when I realize where they all found me just now—running blindly, without reason, I made my way back home, to the swamp just outside the triplet’s house.

Chapter Fourteen

Axel

I need some space from our cramped living conditions, so I head to Creebay Preserve to meet with the vampires the following evening. For weeks now, I’ve been torn between my pack responsibilities and that of my heart. First, dealing with my own stupidity over severing my True Mate bond took its toll on me. Then, trying to atone for my mistakes and fix what I’d destroyed captured all of my attention. The hurricane distracted us all. And then, when Luna went into heat—well, I don’t need to mention what direction my drive went during that fan-fucking-tastic week.

These thoughts nearly send me back into the house for more of my Luna, but I think she’s busy with Callan right now, so I wrench my mind back on today’s task and climb into the truck.

It’s a beautiful day in Florida today, transforming into a perfect evening. The sun is dipping toward the horizon, painting rippling clouds in shades of red and fiery orange, and the temperature hangs in the mid-eighties. I hope to get back in time for a turn with Luna in the sultry still of the night.

With the window open wide and my arm resting on the frame, I accelerate and zip away from the triplet’s home, heading for pack land.