“What’s wrong?” Brodie murmured from the kitchen doorway.
He looked sleep rumpled in his sweats and T-shirt, his hair sticking up here and there. Even asking the question, he still looked so… secure, that it brought tears to my eyes.
“Hey, hey….” He strode over and hugged me without asking any more questions. He could tell I was overwhelmed.
I held onto him as I tried to get myself under control. Then Brodie murmured, “Just let it go,” so I did.
I wept, letting go of the sorrow that had been clinging to me even in the face of all of the happiness I had experienced in the last year. Maybe therapy would’ve been a good idea. I knew it helped Luca. Max had been contemplating it, too.
At some point, the kitchen had filled with the scent of coffee, and then another set of hands touched me. I didn’t open my eyes, but I could tell it was Holden.
Maybe it was the whole “crying because of my Dad” thing or just the utterly masculine support I was getting or, more likely, a combination of both, but when I surfaced, I felt like a new man.
I felt settled. Like something inside me that was outside of my relationship with Max and Luca had slotted in. When I looked at Brodie, his eyes flashed red, which told me that mine were shining yellow. Holden flashed his yellow ones to me, too, smiling like a supportive big brother, maybe.
“Better?” Brodie asked, also smiling.
I looked at the front of his shirt and grimaced. He looked down, whipped the shirt off and handed it to me. “Might as well mop your face a little.”
I chuckled wetly and did as told, then blew my nose and scrunched the shirt up to take to the laundry as soon as I got up.
“Brodie, uh, there’s something I want to ask. I haven’t talked about it with Max but I know he agrees.” There weren’t many things in life my brother and I didn’t agree upon, after all.
“What is it?” Brodie’s eyes were caring and his expression open.
Holden stepped back and went to start breakfast.
“How would you feel if Max and I changed our last names to McRae?”
Brodie gasped, his eyes widening. Then tears fell downhischeeks, and we laughed together, hugging again.
Holden chuckled in the middle of cracking eggs. That was the scene Kye and the girls walked into.
“What the hell is going on here?” Kye asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
It set us off more, and Holden started to laugh with Brodie and me.
“Why can’t you weirdos be weird after I’ve had coffee?” Kye whined, walking over to us and hugged Brodie from behind, pressing his cheek against his mate’s bare back.
“Because Ben and Max want to be McRaes,” Brodie said, sniffling a little.
Kye gasped and looked around him. “You do?”
“Yeah.”
He squeaked and rounded Brodie, then pulled me into a hug.
Laughing, I patted his back.
“Okay, okay. Let’s make breakfast,” Carys said, even though her eyes were shining a bit more than usual, too.
We changed our names before the next full moon. That run turned out to be rowdy as hell, and we came back in dirty and happy and boisterous. Luca had opted to stay inside, something about the slush versus snow ratio being off now, which Rian heartily agreed to.
We had a feast after we changed back, then slept the night in a big puppy pile in the living room.
Life in that comfortable, happy groove continued.
Holden and I went to work in town. Brodie and Lina started on more renovations. Kye and Carys helped them and kept the rest of the house organized and clean and the pack fed. Rian acted as an all around helper and spent money wherever it was needed.
