“I’ll take the first one,” I said, scooting forward to take her hands in mine. “Sylvia, you are not only enough, you are everything to us. Everyone has an idea of what they want in a mate but you…you blew all those fantasies away in the best way possible. You are it for us and we feel like we’re not enough for you.”
She pursed her lips.You three are amazing alphas. You take such good care of me.
I nodded. “We haven’t even gotten started. I swear that you will always be our priority. Always.”
Talon cleared his throat. “My turn. What do you mean change our minds? Are you kidding me? Look around you, omega mine.”
Her cheeks reddened. She killed me when she blushed.
“When the three of us decide something, we don’t change our minds. When Archer and Dax met long ago, they decided they were bond brothers and started this pack. Then I joined and we bought this property and started a life together. We aren’t mind-changers, omega. We are committers and we have committed our life to loving you. Now, if you change your mind about us, then we will let you go. We wouldn’t like it, but we’ll never take your autonomy from you.”
I won’t change my mind. I promise.
Dax chuckled and brought over some of Talon’s fudge. That shit could cure anything. “And I’m pretty sure I showed you last night that I’m real.” He winked at her. She swatted at him and shook her head, embarrassed. She looked good in love, and I thanked the Goddess my heart belonged to her.
We sat with her a few minutes as she took a square of Talon’s double dark chocolate fudge. When she reached for her phone, my stomach dropped.
Maybe she wanted to go home.
Maybe we weren’t enough for her.
Maybe she was the one who changed her mind.
I want to shift again, with all of you and I want to spend the night. Is that okay?
I almost cried with relief.
“You can stay as long as you want to, Sylvia. This is your home.”
This is your home.
“No, this is your home. Our home is you now. No matter where you are or where we live, you are our home.”
Tears streamed down her face and I looked to Dax. He smiled. “Good tears. She’s feeling love and cared for and adored. Safe. Secure. Welcome. No worries. Our omega knows we love her.”
No shock about him saying that. We all loved Sylvia.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sylvia
Shifting with my alphas quickly became my favorite activity. A time when we could freely communicate but also when we could run around and play and have fun.
Last time, we shifted on my brother’s pack lands. This time, we were on theirs, and I was excited to get the grand tour.
Normally, when I shifted with another, we communicated in the way of our beasts. We ran, we jumped, we played. Sure, we’d run a perimeter, but it was based on instinct and understanding what was happening around us, not words.
But while the four of us walked the perimeter, they managed to tell me everything about the land. Talon pointed out his favorite tree. Archer showed me where they thought they might plant some rose bushes. Dax showed me the best spot to hunt if I liked rabbit,although he admitted that hunting was not something he was good at.
I wasn’t sure I was either. Those who held me captive didn’t exactly let their unwilling labor go out and have fun. Most of my shifts had been in my windowless room over those years. After I went to my brother’s, hunting took second place to basking in the sun.
I’d been right that Dax’s and my backgrounds were similar in a way. We’d both lost our parents early on—me through my father’s rejection and my mother’s passing. Him, he didn’t fully know how. He had flashes from dreams that may or may not have been memories, but since he was a toddler, they were gone, and into the human foster care system he went.
His foster family meant well, but they didn’t understand his shifter side. They didn’t even realize there was one. Instead, they tried to treat him talking to his wolf, the way all young wolves do, as a mental illness. They were doing the best they could in the most harmful way possible.
We’d both been on our own for far too long.
He said the two weren’t comparable, that he’d never been captured. But really, they were. And I hated that for him. I didn’t want anybody to go through the kind of things I did.
