I sip the cocoa so I don’t have to talk, but after a couple of minutes of silence, I set my mug down and turn to them.
“Are you staying?” my mother asks calmly. Her omega scent spikes and fades, giving away her anxiety.
“If you have room for me?” I murmur, and my scent rises, evidence of my fear.
She pulls me into a hug. “I don’t care if you are a hundred, you will always be welcome here. This is your home, and it always will be.”
I sniff. The emotion hits hard, taking no prisoners. Always welcome, always safe.
“Now, the boys are staying in your room, but only because they are having work done on their house. They will be gone in a few days. In the meantime, you can have the guest room.”
The guest room, which is directly opposite my room, where Devon will be sleeping.
I pick up my mug again and finish it, feeling the chocolatey warmth in my belly. I swear, it’s got magic in it.
“Honey, what happened-” Mum gets cut off by her phone ringing. She looks at it, then snorts. “I have to take this, but we’re not finished.”
I watch her escape and look up to find my dad staring at me.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, honey. But if you decide you do, we will be biased listeners. Absolutely, and one hundred thousand percent on your side.”
I shake my head. “I’m going to go down to the beach. Show Danger around.”
He gives me this knowing look. “The old traditional back to town inspection, huh?”
“I just drove straight up here because…” I trail off, not wanting to tell him about Heather the Hellbeast. “I wanted to come home.”
It’s not a lie. I did want to come home.
“Go, have fun. I know you’re part fish. Swim it off and come back up for dinner; we can all catch up properly when your mother has finished her meeting and Pops is back from work. And then you can tell us all about your pack.”
I wince.
His eyes sharpen.
“Danger needs to be walked,” I say in a rush, stepping back and tripping over a new chair.
“He’s really cute, Sofia.” Dad lets go of whatever he was going to ask, and I love him all the more for it. If it were Pops or Mum, they would have pushed.
I smile and lift my hand, waving to him as I go to the front of the house and out onto the porch. I have a secret weapon in the war of affections, no croon from Devon can beat it.
“DANGER! WALKIES!” I shout at the top of my lungs.
There is a beat of silence and then the frantic scrabbling of an out-of-control sausage dog as it comes flying down the hall, long ears flapping out of either side of its head like a cape.
I pick him up, refusing to look at the alpha I can see just out of the corner of my eye.
“Can you stop making it so hard for me to avoid him?” I beg the dog as I get his harness on him.
“Rebel?”
I let out a squeak of sound and turn, racing out the front door. Once I’m sure he’s not following, I finally relax enough to notice the salty air. I can pinpoint what each smell is, but the combination is home.
To get to the beach, I just need to walk seven minutes and thirty-five seconds towards the ocean. One road, no turns, but as I get closer, that’s when the magic happens.
My stomach flutters, and I feel myself walking faster. I clip Danger’s lead on and set him down so he can run beside me. That first glimpse of the azure ocean hits me with a massive wave of rightness.
