“Thank you,” I said, feeling warm. Linda reminded me of my own Mom, and I thought about how much I missed her.
Gabrielle let out a thin sigh. “I appreciate it, Lady Linda.” She curled her hand around Colton’s arm. “But I really would like to take my son home, at least for now.”
“But I can come back?” Colton asked.
“Yes.” Gabrielle caught my eye for a second. “Whenever you want, honey.”
“Okay,” Colton finally conceded. “Matheson is still gonna come visit us in North Pack, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah! I mean, if I’m still welcome there.”
Gabrielle gave me a curt nod. “Yes, Matheson, of course you are. Now come, honey. You’ve missed two dinners and I won’t have you miss another.”
“Uh, he ate dinner here?” Ramsay said, sounding baffled. “Why does everyone think I’m running a hostage situation?”
Colton leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Bye, little fish. I’ll see you soon.”
I blushed fiercely. “Bye, Colt.”
He waved once more as his Gabrielle led him away, accompanied by Linda to make sure the guards outside knew the new agreement.
“Well, that was weird,” Ramsay said when it was just the three of us. “Anyways, who wants breakfast?”
“Me!” I called.
Eric didn’t speak up. He stood a few feet away, crossing his arms and frowning like he was deep in thought. As Ramsay started preparing food, I came to Eric’s side.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
I seemed to stir him out of his thoughts. He smiled thinly at me. “Fine. I’m glad we got that sorted out.”
“That was really great what you did,” I told him. “You fixed everything with Colton’s mom.”
“It needed to be done. It doesn’t make sense for Colton, potentially one of the alphas in the prophecy, to have restricted access to you. She let her emotions overrun logic.”
“And you never do that, right?” I teased.
He smirked. “No, of course not.”
A question burned on the tip of my tongue. I recalled what Eric said earlier, and then remembered last night...
“Did you really mean what you said?” I asked hesitantly.
“About?”
“Letting Colton and Ramsay come freely to West Pack.”
“Of course I did. Naturally, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t let them, after what I told Lady Gabrielle.”
I bit my lip. “But I guess what I’m really asking is, do youwantthem there?”
“I don’t understand.”
I thought of the previous night, where the three of us had been in bed together while Eric was downstairs, alone. It didn’t seem right. It felt like a piece was missing.
But now didn’t seem like the time to bring it up.
“Nevermind,” I said.
Before he could press me further, Ramsay called out, “All right, folks, come and get it unless you want me to finish it all first!”
