“Hey, Mia and Draven. I hear you need a lift to cupid-land.”
Mia laughed and hugged Indie with one arm, still holding her husband’s hand with the other. “I’m so glad we get to hang out with you today! Can we go to the University?”
“Yep. I’ve got permission to take you across the ether to Cupid U. If we have time, I can give you a tour of Cupid Inc., too. There are only a few places I can’t show you.”
A small part of me wished I were going with them. I didn’t want to be bait for Barrett, but it felt like the right move. The enforcers were excellent, but Barrett didn’t care about them. He wanted me, and he wanted Alanna.
Indie met my eyes. “I need to hold Alanna. Babies are more sensitive to the ether, so I need to keep her close.”
I nodded, kissing her cheek one last time before handing her over.
“Be good for the cupids,” I murmured, then looked at the group. “Thank you. Please keep her safe.”
They all nodded. Then I blinked, and they were gone.
I turned back to Riggs, feeling like part of me had gone with them. With so much tension in my life, any time Alanna was out of my sight, I tended to unravel.
Last night had been the first time I’d been able to relax, even a little.
And I knew why, even though I’d become an expert at pushing both him and thoughts of him away.
I felt safe with Riggs. More than that… I was falling in love with him.
Chapter 14
Piper
The search was a bust. We were out there for several hours and didn’t find any traces of Barrett or his men on Clan property. Disappointed, yet strangely relieved, we retrieved Alanna from Mia and Draven and returned to the Lodge.
Weeks went by, and the Clan started to feel more and more like home to me. Alanna was already settled in. She loved the bears and their mates. It amazed me how much life in the Clan grew to revolve around her, and with so many people coming in and out of the Lodge, I had more than enough help caring for her.
I wasn’t alone anymore, and that fact was driven home many times, in many ways, as the weeks went by.
I started to relax more, hoping against hope that Barrett had just given up and had gone to ground somewhere. I didn’t think it was likely, but maybe the consequences had become too real to him? I mean, King Asharien still had people hunting night and day for him. So did the Prime. And we still had the enforcers who’d been sent to bulk up the protection here at the Lodge too.
As King Asharien sent more protection, the bodies occupying the Lodge had at least doubled. With so many of the bearsworking from home, it made for some very crowded days and nights, but we all managed without wanting to maim anyone. Well, Taco and Drew got tossed in the pool one evening, but that was kind of normal around here.
I got to this quiet place within me where I stopped looking for reasons to leave after all of this was over, and I started looking for reasons to stay.
I was tired of fighting.
I was tired of running.
And I was tired of counting all the ways things could go wrong, or all the ways Alanna and I could be hurt, and instead I took a good, hard look at all we would be gaining.
We had a Clan. We had people who cared about us, who’d befriended me, and let us into their lives. They didn’t have to do that, and yet they had. All of them.
Friendship had always come hard for me. I’d never known why, but with the Clan, it wasn’t difficult at all. It was easy. They accepted me exactly as I was. I didn’t have to put on a show, or wear a mask, or be anything other than myself.
Being allowed to be myself… it changed everything.
And Riggs…
He loved me. He didn’t even have to say it. I just knew. And I was not an easy person to love. But he never made me feel that way. He always made me feel likehewas the lucky one.
Movie nights had become a Clan thing once a week, in addition to dinners once a week. Some weeks we went to movie night at Emrie and Roarke’s home in the city, and some nights we had it here at the Lodge, but it was always funny, and it was never quiet. It was also hilarious when Emrie, with her progressively pregnant belly, chose the movie, because she always chose the cheesiest romcoms, and the guys in the Clan dutifully sat through them.
Taco threw popcorn at the screen, of course, and the rest groaned at how improbable the storyline was and slammed the perfection of the characters, but that was all part of the fun. In fact, the romcom nights became my favorite nights. Not because of the movie—I preferred action—but because of how uncomfortable and vocal the guys were about it. I knew Emrie secretly enjoyed that aspect as well, because I caught her smirking a time or two.
