Sunday morning, Mira kissed Leo goodbye on the front porch of the alphas’ home.The shop was closed on Sundays, so no one was needed to man the front desk, but Leo had tires to change and would be gone until the afternoon.Mira had been invited to the alphas’ house by Cinder to have breakfast with her and Jade, who was Brick’s mate.
“Have fun,” Leo said.
“You, too.”
He made a face but then smiled.“I’d have a better time if you were in the office.I love looking over and seeing your beautiful face.”
Her cheeks heated, and she gave him a last kiss.“Get out of here, you sweet talker.”
“Just for you, my Mira.”
He jogged down the steps and got into the truck, waving before he drove off down the street, a pack vehicle following behind as an escort.
She turned and walked through the open front door.“Hello?”
“We’re in the kitchen, come on down the hall,” a feminine voice called out.
Mira found Cinder and Jade in the spacious kitchen, which smelled of cinnamon and bacon.They both gave her a hug.
She settled on a stool at the counter and happily took a cup of coffee that Jade offered.“Now I can finish the eggs, and we can eat,” Cinder said.
“So we don’t know a ton about you,” Jade said.“But you don’t know a ton about us either, so tell us a few things and we’ll take turns.How’s that sound?”
“Perfect,” Mira said.While they did know about her meeting Leo at the festival and her psychic family, they didn’t know everything that had happened in Bishop or how things were going now, so she filled them in.
“Basically,” she said, as Cinder set a plate of scrambled eggs, two pieces of toasted cinnamon bread, and several strips of crisp bacon in front of her, “my adopted family is going to keep on traveling, but my biological family is sticking around.I think they’re talking to you and Adam tonight about things.”
“Yes,” Cinder said.“Adam’s got some ideas about where they might stay and how to integrate them into the town so you can have your family close.It’s a blessing to have family near.”
“Absolutely,” Jade said.“The more people watching everyone’s back, the better.So it’s my turn?”
“You go ahead,” Cinder said.“I’m going to finishallthe bacon.My baby is craving meat like crazy.”
The alpha female was pregnant, and Mira thought she was literally glowing with happiness.It made her long for that for her and Leo.A family of their own.
Jade fixed herself another cup of coffee and told her story, of how she’d escaped a dangerous situation in her old pack and stayed with a fallen angel, who brought her to the wolves, where she met Brick.“Then we’ve got these anti-shifter buttheads trying to cause a ruckus, but on top of that, an alpha I’d been promised to came here looking for me and nearly took out meandBrick.It’s a very good thing to be mated to protective, strong wolves like all of our mates.They’d do anything, kill anyone, to keep us safe.”
“That’s straight up facts,” Cinder said.
“You’ve met a fallen angel?I’ve heard of them but never met one.”
“Yep, her name is Alli.She’s gorgeous and the sweetest person,” Jade said.
“There’s also a fallen angel named Paris who runs the shifter bar Lykos, and another one named Darien who works for the vampire coven,” Cinder said.
“That’s really cool,” Mira said.“I had no idea.I’ve mostly been around supernatural people, not so much shifters but lots of Wiccans and psychics, elves and such.”
“You’ve been nomadic your whole life?”Cinder asked.
“Yep,” Mira said.“But I’m so happy to be able to put down roots with Leo and the pack.”
“Plus, you two might have some really cool kids.I can’t imagine how neat it will be to have kids who are a mix of gryphon and wolf,” Jade said.
Mira agreed.
Cinder finished the eggs, made some more toast for herself, then told them how she’d ignored Adam’s advances even though she knew they were mates, and how she’d become the packlygisawhen they mated, taking on the mantel of magical protector for the pack, able to shift into a golden-furred wolf.
“I can’t shift anymore until the baby comes,” she said, sitting back with her extra toast.“But we’ve got protections from the Wiccans to keep our people safe.”
