Chapter One
Almost one and a half years later…
“Are you ready?” Wendy bounced on her toes. Her long hair shining in the curls that we painstakingly styled this morning. She looked gorgeous in her pale pink dress. The black grad gown hung open around her shoulders as she finished her makeup. I looked around at everyone in my living room and I couldn’t stop smiling.
“You guys look amazing.” And they did. Micca’s red hair was braided over her shoulder, her graduation dress a dark canvas to her stunning beauty. Hanna’s black textured bob was such a drastic change since our first year. She had let it grow out these two years, and then showed up this morning like this. “Hanna, your hair is stunning.”
“I liked the long hair, but this feels like me.” She smiled and ruffled her hair. She slipped her graduation gown over her white sundress. “Can you believe it’s been almost three years? They said they would fast track us, but I didn’t actually think they would.”
Toya came out of my room with her stunning gold dress clinging to her curves and her grad gown in her arms. “Why?” She smiled a little sadly. “With all the attacks that we’ve been dealing with, fast tracking us back to our families is still the best thing to do.” I nodded as I walked over to her and grabbed the grad dress. Toya pouted before pulling her braids over her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have to graduate with this oversized garbage sack of a grad dress covering my body. Not after you spent the last two years torturing me into shape.” I threw my head back and laughed as I helped her into the grad gown.
“Dramatic.” I shook my head as she turned.
“She isn’t lying.” Micca walked over to the long mirror I had propped up against my living room wall. “Before meeting you, my father called me rolly poly because no matter what I did, I was always fat in his eyes.”
I gasped. “You were never fat.”
Micca gave me a small smile. “You guys never made me feel like I was. But in my pack, they did. My dad actually sent me to school because my sister was getting married and she didn’t want her new pack to know that she had a fat sister.”
“Micca…” Wendy walked over to her and hugged her. Micca tried to smile again, but she shook her head as a tear fell. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?”
“Because you never made me feel fat or bad about myself. At first, to be honest, I was terrified that if I pointed it out, you guys would look at me differently. But then I realized you would never do that. I put it past me. And I wasn’t that person anymore.” Sheunzipped the black gown and twirled in a tight black dress that showcased her body perfectly.
“You have always been stunning. Your body had nothing to do with it.” She stopped spinning as I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her and I stared into her eyes. “You have been gorgeous, inside and out, from the day I met you. This body, if it makes you happy, then we are happy. But I need you to listen to me when I say this.” I waited until she nodded. “Your worth is not now or ever, based on your weight or your looks. The worth of a person is based on their personality and their achievements. I need that to sink in before you go back to your pack and allow them to make you feel anything else.”
Micca nodded and cried in earnest. She hugged me. “It’s stupid, I know, but my father called me. They are traveling here for the graduation, and he told me not to embarrass him.”
Wendy snorted. “He knows you’re top of your class, right?”
Micca shook her head. “Today was the first time they talked to me since I started school.”
I pulled her back and kissed her forehead. “If you have any issues today, and I mean anything. You call me. I’ll handle your father and your pack.”
“You can’t do that, Amy.” Micca laughed and shook her head.
“Of course I can.” I bumped my hip into hers and then turned to face everyone. “You’re all from different packs, and you’re different ranks, but my wolves have claimed you. No matter where you go, how far you roam, you are our pack, our family.” I watched as those words sank in. “No matter how long we go in between seeing each other, or who you mate with, or which rank you settle into.” I looked at my unranked girls, who I knew for a fact held a rank now. Hanna and Wendy looked at each other and smiled. “You are now and forever ours. Ours to love and ours to protect. Whether it is from asshole parents, angry pack members, or Goddess forbid abusive mates. I will show up, noquestions asked.” As soon as I finished, everyone came over and we hugged.
Family, whether blood, bond, or chosen, were what mattered.
We walked out of my apartment together, and I glanced next door. Rowan had disappeared after my heat, and I left him be. We both had things to focus on and I think we both realized that we were just distracting each other from what was important.
Toya caught my eye, glanced at his door, and then looked back at me with sad eyes. “Do you regret it?”
I snapped to her and lifted my brow. “Regret what?”
Toya bobbed her head to the sides. “Rowan…the bullshit…”
“Staying an extra year just to graduate with us.” Wendy cut in and Toya pointed to her.
“That too.”
I shook my head. “No.” I waved my hands and gave a tiny chuckle. “I didn’t have time for the bullshit, and Rowan and I…well, we both had more important things to focus on.”
“You could have graduated early.” Hanna pointed out. “But you stayed.”
“We are supposed to graduate together, plus the extra courses were amazing.” I smiled and put my arm around her. “How could I leave you all alone?”
Micca laughed. “You’re not our mom.”
