“Forget our fight,” Mason muttered. “And come the hell back home, Jackson. Brothers fight, don’t they?”
“Brothers, don’t call you the things I did that day we fought.”
“These two do,” Mason laughed. “Jackson, you’re my closest guy here. My pack isn’t my pack without you, got it?We’re bound.” He shrugged. “Get your ass back out there, and pay your damn respects with the rest of them. Cassie’s initiated into the pack. She’s more than just your niece now, okay?”
“Yes,” he said quickly, glancing at Cassie in the bed. He looked ready to say more, maybe to insist he stay there with her, but he only turned and headed outside, where I could feel the energy of the pack waiting to pay their respects to Cassie’s healing.
But as soon as Jackson left, Theo entered, and I immediately adjusted my stance, putting myself between Theo and Cassie. It meant little that we had fought together the night before.
“Bryce,” he called out. “I owe you an apology.”
“Damn right you do,” Mason growled.
“Mason, can I speak with her alone? All of us do. The whole pack.”
Mason turned to me, lifting a brow. “Is that okay with you?”
“Do you trust them?” I countered.
Mason nodded without hesitation. “They’re my pack. As much as I’ve changed, so have they.”
“Then I’ll trust your trust,” I whispered. They had already accepted Cassie. Was it so far a stretch to accept me as well? Slowly, cautiously, I walked out with Theo, finding the pack grouped together, all of them watching the tent. To come under their scrutiny felt like tiny pinpricks all over my skin.
Until each of them stepped forward, bowing their heads to me, as they had to Cassie the night before.
“Bryce,” Theo said. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for the years I bullied you, and I’m sorry for every awful thing I said back then, and recently. You never deserved any of it, and I was stupid and proud, thinking I was tough because I could bring you down.” He stepped towards me and bowed his head. “Mason loves you. We get that now. And whoever he loves is accepted by us. If you agree, you have a place within this pack, and we swear wewillprotect you. You and Cassandra, to every and any end.”
“Are you serious?” I whispered. “Theo, you put me through hell, and I… I want to belong. I want to be a part of this pack more than anything. I want to be home, and know that home is not a place of prejudice or hatred from the brothers I should have in the pack. Can you promise that?”
“I can promise that,” he swore. “I didn’t before when I should have, and I’m sorry. We’re all sorry, and I can only hope we can keep finding ways to prove it to you. I’ve been an asshole—”
“Yeah,” I huffed. “You have.”
“But I’m ready to be different,” he finished. “Starting now. Starting by inviting you and Cassie to a pack dinner tonight, if you’ll join us. I’m actually cooking it, and it’ll be at the museum. Just… give us a chance.”
“Dinner,” I said slowly, laughing. “You’re sure you want to have dinner with the freak show?”
Theo shrugged, smirking. “You can say some shitty things to me if you want to in return. Call me a thousand cruel things. I’d deserve them all.”
“It doesn’t exactly have an effect when you’re asking to be bullied,” I snorted. “But if you’re willing to actually show me you’re changing, then I’ll give you one chance. Literally, one chance, Theo, and mostly because I’m tired of the anxiety andthe feeling of not being enough. I want to belong, and I want Cassie to belong as well. I want this to be her proper home. I want you all protecting her—and me.”
“And we will,” he said quickly. “You have a dozen protectors here. The pack welcomes you back, Bryce.”
And it was strange: I had wanted to hear those words for years, craved that acceptance, only to now hear them and feel a sort of slow satisfaction rather than the overwhelming joy I had thought. I realized it was the knowledge of knowing I was worthy of my place with the other shifters.
Of my place in the town entirely.
And I was starting to believe that place was right next to the alpha of the Honeycreek pack.
Chapter 24 - Mason
I woke up to the feel of a body next to mine. For a second, I couldn’t place why—until I heard a soft sigh coming from the person next to me.
Cracking open my eyes, I turned to look at the spill of dark hair splayed over the pillow next to me, the closed eyelids that still held a touch of exhausted purple beneath, and, without thinking, I reached out to brush my knuckles over her cheek.
“Bryce,” I murmured, my heart beating strongly, as if my body knew it was next to its mate before my own head did. Maybe it had always known. It’s as if the fight against the ifrit with the rest of the pack, and Theo’s apology, as well as the rest of the pack swearing fealty both to her and Cassie, had solidified something in her.
As that had always been the missing piece to her life. That need to belong.
