Kassidy and Cora didn’t appear to notice or care, as they reached out and snagged a glass. I went for one with bubbles, hoping it would be sweet.
“So, Finley…” Cora continued. “I get the feeling this might be more shocking than the revelation that there’s a whole other dragon shifter in our world.”
That produced a rumbly shot of laughter from Kassidy as she took a sip of her red wine. “Agreed.”
Rubbing my thumb over the condensation on the side of the glass, I shrugged. “It started when I was taken. Finley found me first, and he fought a damn dragon to get me out. He was stuck in his bear form for a bit, which happens during high stress situations—it’s a trauma response from his past. Of course, the second he turned back into a lumbersnack, he started growling and huffing and puffing at me.”
Cora’s bark of laughter was very wolf life. “I don’t know whether to love that you called him a lumbersnack or laugh at the fact that you’re mixing up your fairy tales there.”
Kassidy nodded along. “Lumbersnack is so fitting. I’m going to use that in the future. Consider it borrowed.”
“Borrow away,” I said. “I think I heard it in an audiobook once, and it stuck with me. So, yeah, he was raging away, and I honestly… I had enough. This part of me that had been trying to be nice, and hold on to hope… snapped. I proceeded to knee him in the balls hard enough that he probably tasted his future children…”
They both grimaced, and I wasn’t sure if I’d gone too far with that analogy, until Kassidy leaned forward to laugh. “Balls in his mouth. Took me a fucking second.”
Cora’s lips twitched, but she managed to hold it together. “You’re a brave shifter, Emme. That bear scares me almost as much as the dragon. He’s got all this built-up rage.”
It was the truth, but also… not.
“Yeah, well whatever he saw in my face that day, he knew I was washing my hands of him once and for all, and it scared the ever-living shit out of him. He immediately changed his actions, and he’s continued to change them ever since. He didn’t just say the words, he backed them up. He’s even been going to therapy.”
Cora looked impressed. “What does that mean for you and bonding with him?” she asked. “I assume, based on Hunter and Kellan, that you’re no longer afraid of a completed quintet?”
That was the point I remembered she still didn’t know the entire story. There’d been so much going on, and only my pack was aware of what had happened in my past. “Shit, I’m so sorry,” I burst out. “I haven’t shared all of my past with you yet. I’ve been wanting to tell you for ages, but I had to tell the alphas first. The reason I feared bonding with the pack was that omegas can share their energy with their bonded mates. Worse than that,they can have it forcibly taken. It happened to my mom and her pack, and in the end, they took so much that her wolf faded. I found her hanging in the street.”
My words rushed out of me in a huge flood, and my legs felt weaker by the time I finished. It still kind of took my breath away to reveal my past so freely, when I’d spent so many years running and hiding from it.
The girls reached for me, their expressions filled with horror and sorrow.
As they embraced me with their warmth and caring, I forced myself to add, “There’s trauma in her death, don’t get me wrong, but I hated my mom. I don’t feel her loss in the way you would normally with a parent. But I was determined never to follow in her path.”
“What’s changed?” Kassidy asked, her expression dead serious as she pulled back to meet my gaze.
“The Reeves pack is what changed,” I said, feeling the truth in that. “I shared power with Kellan to save his life and it did nothing. He never craved more. He never tried to take from me again. Hunter and I have been bonded for weeks, and not even once has he shown any sign of wanting power from me. Not to mention I found out a bunch of shit about my mom and that pack, including the fact that they weren’t her true scent matches. I’ve learned that my situation is never going to be hers, and I won’t risk losing my pack on a maybe of losing my power. For them, I’d embrace a bigger fear than that.”
For them, I’d give up everything.
CHAPTER 46
EMME
After our heavier conversation, we moved on to normal chats about our lives, and then we started shopping. An hour later, I found myself in the dressing room with a small pile of clothes to try on.
Cora and I finished at the same time and converged on the counter to pay for our items.
“I’m really happy to see you so settled in your pack,” she said as she leaned against the bench. “You have this new glow about you.”
Ah, the old glow of happiness. Or maybe it was copious amounts of sex. “It’s weird, we’ve gone through the sort of drama and hardships a lot of packs wouldn’t experience in a lifetime,” I said, pushing my clothes toward the shifters behind the counter. “But we missed the normal dating and getting to know each other part. I only just recently learned their birthdays.”
She shot me a lopsided smile. “In the first few months after finding your scent match, it tends to be more about our beasts and hormones thandatingper se. You’ve actually taken it slower than most. From what I recall, War and I didn’t even come up for air for weeks, and it was only later we started to converse about more thanwhat surface to screw on.”
I blinked. “It still takes me by surprise when you speak so bluntly. There you stand all refined and proper, but on the inside you’re just sass and sex.”
She howled. “Oh goddess. That’s so damn true. I like to keep everyone guessing.”
“I’m starting to see that.” And I absolutely loved it.
“You ladies are done already?” Kassidy called as she hurried over. “How did you try everything on so quickly?”
