I sat up straighter. “Yes.”
“It was after that, that you built this commune here?” she asked.
“Not before I went to my grandfather in Colorado. Father’s death left me as the alpha of the Nightwolf pack, and I didn’t feel ready to be their alpha yet. I needed his help. So, I went to him to ask for help. But he was angry. He blamed my father for the death of his daughter and, by extension, me.”
“That wasn’t your fault, though.”
“It didn’t matter.” I shook my head. “My grandfather, nor his Colorado pack, saw it that way. We were guilty by association.”
Reese sat up. “Wait, what about Christophe? You never mentioned him. Where was he during all of this?”
“Christophe is our adopted brother. His birth parents died years before my own. They were part of our pack and died during one of our past conflicts. Christophe was a pup when it happened. As alpha of our pack, my father took him in, adopted him, as you humans would say. He grew up with Chance and me, but he’s never been a fighter. His birth father was the gamma of our pack. Christophe took his place.”
Reese nodded. “But he lost two sets of parents,” she said sadly.
My heart squeezed in my chest because I’d never considered that. I supposed I should’ve. Briefly, I wondered if that had to do with why Christophe kept to himself so often.
Reese covered her mouth as she yawned. “Tell me more,” she encouraged.
I scooped her in my arms and stood to stroll back to the bed. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know after you take a nap.”
“I’m not tired,” she insisted before another yawn broke free of her mouth. “Maybe a little,” she mumbled while settling into the bed.
I lay beside her, pulling her back against my chest.
“You’re so warm,” she moaned. “It must be the wolf thing.”
I chuckled. “We tend to run warm.”
“Perfect because I run cold.” She snuggled deeper into my hold, pressing her ass against my groin.
Perfection.
CHAPTER23
Reese
Two days later, Chael finally let me up for air. I wanted to check on Sera to see how she was doing and apologize to her.
“Slow down, buddy,” I told Henry and laughed as we walked from the house to the commune’s clinic. He’d healed beautifully from his surgery and was practically running circles around me. The progress he’d made over the past month at the commune was astounding.
He whimpered and backtracked, circling me as if to saykeep up, Mom! I didn’t even use a leash whenever we walked around the commune, which was freeing.
The bell above the door sounded when I entered the office. The receptionist, who I found out, doubled as Dr. Drake’s nurse and assistant shaman, looked up and smiled.
“Alpha Queen,” she greeted.
I still wasn’t quite used to that title. “Reese. Remember?”
A frown touched her lips.
“Please. I won’t get mad if you call me by my name.” I bit my tongue to keep from saying that I wasn’t their alpha queen. I still hadn’t fully come to terms with what I was to any of them just yet. And while Chael said and did all of the right things, there was a nagging in my mind that I couldn’t let go.
He’d brought me to tears when he talked about the first time he saw my smile. I hadn’t known how to respond to all of that. Chael sounded earnest and sincere when he spoke about us. My heart tripped over itself whenever I thought about him. But I still didn’t understand it all. Was I in love with him?
Probably.
But he never explained what it meant to befully mated,as he said. I was grateful he wouldn’t have to suck my blood like a vampire, but what did it all mean?
