“Hey, Simon. What are you working on? Anything interesting?”
“Just some light cybercrime. Some veryannoyinglight cybercrime,” he mutters, snapping his laptop shut and glaring at it.
“Cool. Need a hand? After dinner, of course, which is ready. I was sent up here to fetch you and I really must insist you join us. Beth was adamant that she get at least one dinner with everyone all together, and I can’t deny my mate a single thing.”
“He really can’t,” Cassian agrees. “The moment my mom expresses interest in something, he buys it for her. He gets her so many presents that, by the time Yule rolls around, he’s always out of ideas.”
“I really should just save some of them for Yule,” Colin muses with a carefree shrug.
“That reminds me,” Ian adds, pocketing the pieces of paper he’d been writing out strings of sigils on. “When we get back to the pack house, I owe you about a dozen courting presents.”
Impossible, wonderful, thoughtful man.
I want him forever.
I want all of them, this amazing pack, forever.
CHAPTER29
Dinners at Rose Manor have always been subdued affairs, voices seldom rising over the sounds of cutlery and the light strains of piano music playing in the background. Even Aspen and Claire’s young triplets are quiet and reserved.
Dinner at the Leclerc estate is anything but. The conversation is boisterous and the laughter unrestrained. It’s the sweetest joy and I greedily feel every single moment of it, both in my heart and with my affinity.
Cass’ fathers are full of funny stories and can’t be serious for more than a few minutes at a time. For alphas who possess so much power and responsibility, they’re surprisingly laid back, and the affection between the four of them is clear.
Melissa and Bethany banter like sisters over their glasses of wine, laughing over inside jokes until tears are streaming down their cheeks. Every single one of Bethany’s alphas offers her a handkerchief to wipe them away, and she gamely accepts them all.
Ellie tells me every single embarrassing story about Simon she can think of, teasing her brother until he’s blushing as dark as his freckles, and I’m laughing just as hard as everyone else.
I never imagined a family could be likethis. Loud and loving, completely chaotic and impossibly close.
Luca and Ian are practically strangers here, but everyone welcomes them just as they welcome me. We’re included, we’re teased, and we’re cared for like we’re part of the family.
And when Cassian takes my hand under the table and gives it a squeeze, I realize weare.
I didn’t just gain a mate when Cassian bonded me with his bite, I gained a family.
A pack.
A future.
A forever.
* * *
“Junes, Junes, Junes,”Simon chants, kissing me awake the next morning. Saints, he’s as impatient as a kid on Yule morning. I grumble, turning over and pulling the blankets up over my head as I snuggle closer to Ian, who’s still sound asleep.
“Come on, sleepyhead. You need to put on these pajamas.”
“I’m already wearing pajamas,” I protest with a groan.
“You’re not wearingthesepajamas, though. These pajamas are apresent.”
I flip the blankets down and glower up at him but sit up, accepting the wrapped box. I don’t even notice the pajamas he’s wearing until I’ve unwrapped my very own matching set. The bottoms are a soft green and black buffalo plaid flannel, the top a cotton tee printed with a be-sequined Yule tree.
“Put ‘em on! Comeon. It’s time forpresents.”
Saints above, Simon is acting like a kid on Yule morning because itisYule morning, at least for everyone at the Leclerc estate. Pack Leclerc’s Yule celebration had been cut short when Cassian and Simon came to my rescue, but Bethany didn’t seem to mind.
