“He transferred to another pack, Knox. He literally moved across the country to get away from you.”
Hunt snickered from his spot by the door. “Remember that time he smiled at the council meeting and three people thought he was having a medical emergency?”
“Someone actually called the pack doctor,” Noah confirmed. “They thought he was having a stroke.”
“I smile plenty,” Knox said defensively.
“You didn’t. Not before Lina.” Noah grinned at me. “Now he walks around grinning at nothing and humming in the hallways. It’s honestly disturbing. Maybe I prefer the growling.”
“The humming is new,” Hunt agreed. “And unsettling. He doesn’t even know he’s doing it.”
“I don’t hum.”
“You were humming this morning,” Noah said. “In the changing after training. I could hear it through two walls.”
“It was a good training session.”
“It was terrifying. I thought someone had broken in and was torturing a cat.”
I found myself laughing despite everything, despite Isabella’s glaring presence and the tension that had been building all day. This was my family. These ridiculous men who made me feel welcome and loved even when everything else felt like it was falling apart.
Knox’s arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me back against his chest. He buried his face in my neck and inhaled deeply, making that rumbling purr sound that had become so familiar.
“You smell amazing,” he murmured against my skin, ignoring Hunt and Noah.
I rolled my eyes. He was never going to stop mentioning it, for fuck’s sake.
Hunt made a gagging sound. “Can you two please be normal for five minutes? Some of us are single and suffering.”
“Find a mate,” Knox suggested without lifting his head from my neck.
“Working on it. The ladies of Ravenshollow are proving difficult to impress.”
“Maybe try showering more than once a week,” Noah offered.
“I shower plenty. I’m just selective about which day.”
Isabella was fuming. I could see it in the rigid set of her shoulders, the way her jaw had tightened, the barely contained fury behind her pretty blue eyes. Good. Let her be furious. Let her see exactly where she stood in this pack and in this family.
We moved to the dining room where the rest of the family was already gathering. The twins had claimed seats next to their grandparents, chattering away about their day while Serena and Marcus listened with indulgent smiles. William and Margaret Crane sat across from them, watching the chaos with expressions that suggested they weren’t used to children being quite so... energetic.
I settled into my usual seat with Knox on one side and Hunt on the other. Isabella somehow ended up directly across from me, her blue eyes fixed on my face with an intensity that made me want to throw something at her.
Dinner was tense despite everyone’s best efforts to make small talk. The Cranes asked polite questions about pack business. Serena and Marcus talked about their travels. Hunt kept the twins entertained with increasingly ridiculous faces across the table.
I was just starting to relax, just starting to think maybe this dinner wouldn’t be terrible, when Isabella dropped her bomb.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said, her voice carrying across the table, “about staying here for a while. A few months, maybe. To reconnect with old friends and see how the pack has changed.”
The table went quiet.
My eyes snapped to Isabella, who was already staring back at me with a challenge in her gaze. She knew exactly what she was doing. She knew how this would land.
A few months. She wanted to stay here for a few months. In my pack. Near my mate. The mate she’d apparently had a crush on since childhood.
“That’s wonderful!” Serena exclaimed, her face lighting up. “We’d love to have you, wouldn’t we, Knox?”
Knox’s hand found my thigh under the table, squeezing gently. A reassurance. A silent promise that this meant nothing.
