They worked side by side and were able to unload the truck surprisingly fast.Leo’s muscles were burning by the time he stacked the last tire at the back of the shop, but he’d enjoyed the time spent with his mate’s twin.
“If you’re wondering,” Theron said, turning to look at him after stacking the last tire, “we’re not going to go anywhere.”
His brows rose.“You’re not going to be nomadic anymore?”
Theron shook his head.“We only wandered because we were lost, you know?Without Mira, the family was fractured.I was young when we went to find her after the old king died, and I can’t tell you the grief that swamped us all, but especially our mom.Finding her has been a balm to all of us.And there’s no way you could drag my mom out of here, at gunpoint or otherwise.We all feel the same.”
“I’m glad,” Leo said.“There’s definitely a place for the clan, my alpha already mentioned it to me.We can talk when the time is right.”
“You got it,” Theron said.
“We’ve got dinner,” Acastan said, sticking his head out the back door.“It’s in the breakroom.”
“Thanks, I’m starving,” Leo said.
“Gryphons like to eat,” Theron said with a chuckle.
Mira was in the breakroom with her family.Leo gave her a hug.“I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled the food.”
“Me, either,” she said with a smile.
They grabbed plates, filling them with chicken and rice, and fluffy biscuits glistening with honey butter.
“Dig in, everyone,” Layla said as the last of the family members took their seats at one of the large tables.The wolves who were helping out in the shop gravitated to the food, filling plates, and ducking out to the other breakroom to watch TV during their break.
For a long while, there was no conversation, just forks scraping on plates, and then the family sharing started, with Theron telling about a time he’d miscalculated a landing and went straight through a barn roof.And Layla shared how Selene had wanted to fly like her male family members and tried to jump off a second-story balcony with only a towel around her neck like a cape.
When the meal was finished, Layla and Selene refilled the glasses, and Auron stood and lifted his cup.
“I’d like to propose a toast.”His eyes were glowing, fatherly wisdom and love shining through as he looked at his family.“To our family, whole again as we’d always dreamed, and new love and the future that blooms full of hope for all of us.”
“Hear!Hear!”Rami said, raising his glass.
The muffled sound of plastic cups touching was followed by everyone cheering the toast.But Auron wasn’t finished yet, apparently.“To Leo and our Mira, once lost and now found.When the time is right, the sun will rise on your mating, and it’s our joy to be part of all things new.”
“That sounds like a mating vow,” Leo said.
“It is, actually,” Dorian said.“When gryphons mate, they make their vow at sunrise, speaking their promises aloud.It marks the beginning of their joined lives.”
Leo looked at Mira, and she smiled sweetly, her love for him shining in her eyes.“To us, and to your family, becoming mine.”
She kissed him and touched her glass to his.“Hear!Hear!”
ChapterSixteen
Mira lingered after the shop was closed for the night while Leo tended to his own closing duties.As she helped her mom and sister clean up, she marveled at how a few days could make such a difference in her life.
She’d had the rug pulled out from under her several times in short order.
“You, okay?”Selene asked.
“Yeah, I was just thinking how thankful I am to have you all in my life.I didn’t even know you were missing from my life because of that Wiccan spell, but once I shifted into my gryphon and I met you, I could feel that you were my family.It’s like my life got turned upside down more than once in a week’s time.”
“I hate the time we lost, and I hate that we missed you growing up and you missed having your twin and sister, but I’m so glad you’re with us now,” her mom said.
“I’m glad for that too,” Mira said.She hugged them, thankful that because the spell had been broken, she could feel the family connection, and then stepped back with a smile.“I’m going to check on Leo.”
She found him alone in the bay and locking the last of the big doors.
