Riley heaved a dramatic sigh. “Oh, geez. There they go kissing again.”
Knox chuckled. “Get used to it, buddy. Kissing your Aunt Leni is my favorite thing to do.” His eyes flared, and behind the lush curve of his lips, the points of his fangs gleamed. “One of my favorite things, that is.”
He lowered his mouth to hers again, but paused as a large black Rover turned in to the parking area in front of the diner.
“That’s the Order,” he said, tension seeping through their bond.
“Were you expecting them?”
He shook his head. “No.”
They had been in regular contact with Sterling Chase from Boston, but the big blond warrior who stepped out from behind the wheel of the SUV outside was a different male. He was accompanied by a tall, stunning woman with a chin-length, raven-dark bob. The female carried herself like a warrior too, garbed in black leather the same as her companion. Except she held an infant in her arms.
And then, from out of the backseat, another woman appeared.
Petite, fair-haired. With bright blue eyes the exact shade of Riley’s.
Leni’s breath seized in her lungs. “Oh, my God. It can’t be . . .”
But it was.
“Shannon.”
Leni wanted to run to her. She wanted to race outside the diner and pull her sister into her arms and never let go again. But her feet stayed rooted to the floor. Her heart hammered with uncertainty in her breast as she watched the frail woman take a few hitching steps away from the vehicle.
It had been so long.
Shannon had been through so much.
Knox had been working with the Order in Boston and Montreal, doing what he could to help the warriors piece together what had happened to her sister, and where she had ended up after Travis arranged for her abduction.
They had told Leni not to get her hopes up, that finding Shannon alive, let alone in any shape to resume a normal life, were likely slim to none.
But now, here she was.
Home. At last.
Knox drew Leni close to him, a fortifying presence as she waited the eternity it seemed to take for her sister to step inside the diner with the couple from Montreal.
The bell jangled. Shannon flinched at the sound.
Then her eyes lifted, meeting Leni’s tear-filled gaze.
“Leni.” Shannon’s hand trembled as it came up to her cracked, pale lips. A jagged cry tore out of her. She took a step, then another. Then ran forward and clutched Leni close.
“Oh, Shannon. I’ve missed you so much.”
Her sister wept, and Leni did too. It seemed as though they clung to each other for an endless time before Shannon’s hold finally loosened.
She drew back, looking at Leni’s belly, then up in question at the massive Gen One Breed male at Leni’s side.
“This is my mate, Knox.”
Knox smiled, his deep voice gentle and soothing. “I’m honored to meet you.”
Shannon gave him a faint nod, then her red-rimmed gaze slid toward the counter. To the grown-up seven-year-old she hadn’t seen since he was a baby, but who could never be mistaken as anyone’s child but hers.
The sound she made was a mix of elation and abject sorrow.
