Dear Goddess. Rowen brushed up against me through the bond—soft, warm, steady.
I straightened, picking Lake up in my arms. “If you have to run,” I told Billy and Fitz, settling Lake into my hold, “you run to me, or any of the betas. Yeah?”
“But…”
“There is no but,” Diesel told him. “If the alpha calls to you, you run to me, or him, or Killian here. Understand?”
“And me,” Brand murmured. His attention was on the bush. “Ciara,” he called out, like he’d done this before. A little blonde girl peeked out from behind a bush. “Did I not tell you not to snoop?” Brand asked her gently, and she giggled. He looked at me and Killian, who were staring at him. “She’s a snoop,” he muttered.
That wasn’t why we were staring, and he knew it.
“Are you seeing this?”Killian asked as we watched the young girl edge forward and then run the last few steps, throwing herself at Brand’s legs. He scooped her up and swung her onto his shoulders.
Brand met my gaze and shrugged. “What? You got one, I got this one.” He reached out and tugged the older boy, Billy, closer. “Come on, you lot, it’s time for food.”
Fitz looked between Ciara and Brand’s shoulders, andLake in my arms, and rolled his eyes. “Attention seekers,” he muttered as he turned to walk behind Brand. Killian grabbed him and flung him onto his back, laughing at his giggles.
Diesel snorted. “Did they just get domesticated by strays?” he asked me.
I grinned at Lake. “Yes, we did,” I confirmed as I started to follow the others to the pack hall.
“Billy said you’re really scary,”Lake told me.
“Did he?”I felt Rowen watching, and I turned to look back at her. “Can you get him to tell my wife?”
Lake’s body shook with laughter. “I don’t think you’re scary either,”he told me smugly.
“Good.”
Rowen’s warm voice came through the mindlink. “You look like you’re ready to adopt him?”
Lake’s head was on my chest, eyes open, watching everything, perfectly at ease. “I think I might be.”
A surge of love came through the bond. “Every day you surprise me, mate. I like it.”
She walked away to check the trails, and I walked in silence while Lake chattered in my head, so excited to be heard and telling me everything he’d ever wanted to say. It was enough to almost,almosterase this morning’s message from the Council.
“Still with me?” Diesel asked me once we were in the pack hall, and the four young ones were at a table with Brand ensuring they were eating.
“Always,” I answered him, finding it hard to take my attention off the young ones. “What were we talking about?”
He gave me a flat stare. “Goddess, you’re going to be one ofthosedads…” He sighed, but I saw the playful smirk. “I was talking about the part where we pretend you didn’t almost pop like an overfilled balloon? Or the part where we start planning a counterstrike?”
“Ah,” I muttered. “Reality.”
He snorted. “Yeah, therealityof preparing to fight the Pack Council,” he said with a dry tone.
Inside, the hall was already buzzing with tension. Pack stood around the long table, waiting. Some argued quietly. Some paced. Some stared at the doorway, as if the moment I arrived would magically give them answers.
“You got them, Brand?”
“I got them,”he assured me, watching over them.
I ruffled Lake’s hair, telling him to stick close to Brand. I walked straight to the center of the pack hall. The room stilled. “I know you have questions,” I said. “But mine first—and maybe the only question that matters—who here knew the Pack Council would move this fast?”
Silence.
Then a voice from the back spoke up. “We knew they were angry. We didn’t know they’d…” They trailed off, unable to saydissolve.
