“It’s adorable,” he assures me.
“We’ll pick you up tomorrow for your family dinner?” Rafe asks, glancing around.
“Yeah. Listen, maybe I should meet with my parents on my own.” Everyone pauses at this suggestion and turns.
“What’s the matter, Sweetheart?” Corbin asks.
“Embarrassed of us?” Eli asks, and it’s meant to be nonchalant, but now that I’ve gotten to know him, I realize it’s not. I lean up on my tiptoes and kiss his masked face.
“Never,” I vow, and his eyes meet mine, full of gratitude and heat. “I’m just—uncertain of how my parents are going to react.” Actually, I’m pretty certain they won’t take their daughter being accidentally bitten against her will well at all.
Corbin steps up to me and takes my face between his hands. “Are we your mates?”
The phrase swoops through me. I haven’t said it. At first it was because this whole thing seemed so precarious. But that doesn’t feel true anymore. Everything’s started to feel solid. I nod.
“Then you’ll trust us to handle this with you. Okay, Sweetheart?” Corbin says.
“Yes, Daddy,” I breathe, knowing no one but the pack is close enough to hear.
His purr is deep and immediate. “That’s my girl.”
“What about Deputy?” Zeke asks, and it warms me up to know that he thinks of Deputy like I do.
“Sunny’s going to take him. She has a lot of land, and he’s going to enjoy running around for the day. I’ll get him tomorrow, as family dinners at my parents’ can run kind of late.”
On our way to the store, we pass Stella’s. She’s standing out front, taking down some signage.
“Hi, Stella!” I call. “How’re you doing?”
“Ugh, I’ll be better when this dusty trap is cleaned out and sold so I can get out of this bum place,” Stella replies.
I take a deep internal breath. She’s old and possibly in pain from her health issues. “Well, I wish you the best. I know we’ll be sad to see you go.”
She grunts and narrows her eyes. “Sure ya will, like your pack’s not the one angling to steal my store out from under me.”
I cock my head and furrow my brow.
“Stella, I don’t know what you heard, but that’s certainly not—” My voice trails off as I look to the alphas, who are all making variously strange expressions. Corbin’s mouth is flat and his eyes are narrowed.. Rafe is looking straight into the air like pretending he doesn’t exist will get him out of this conversation.
“Ah, trouble in paradise? Bad communication is never a good sign, you know,” Stella says with an absolute look of glee on her face.
“Have a nice time in Florida with the other crabs,” I say in rising irritation. I’ll regret it later, but I don’t care right now. Right now, I just need to get the alphas to my shop where I can talk to them about what in the world is going on.
The alphas file in, and I close the door behind, locking it up so that we’re not interrupted. It’s still ten minutes until opening time.
I turn to where they’re standing around the store. “What is she talking about?”
Gage takes charge of this one, which makes sense. I found out he acts as the pack’s agent, doing bookings and major financial decisions. “What she said isn’t right, Princess. We aren’t stealing it from under her. It’s on the market. We hired a realtor, and we are actively seeking information on the property.”
My heart leaps into my throat.
“Why?” I ask quietly, already hoping but not daring myself to say it out loud.
Zeke’s nervous excitement zips through the bond at the same time I feel his hands pulling me to turn toward him. “Blossom, we were a broken fucking pack before we found you. I’d do anything to redo how I found you, what I did. But finding you is something I’ll never regret or change. And now that we’ve found you, leaving seems pretty impossible.”
My entire self feels like it’s lighting up from the inside. Breath catches in my chest.
“So, you’re—you might stay?” I ask, feeling more exposed than if I were naked on Main Street.
