“Not every day you come home with your new mate next to you, either.” He laughs and points down to where he’s going to land.
“I’m surprised there’s no media buses,” I say, following his finger but also leaning around to make sure there’s no one lurking.
I shoot off a text to Allan. I mean, it’s unnecessary because he’d hear us hovering but at the same time it feels pretty rude not to. And then I do the same to Ronnie, giving him the heads up too. Both of them reply quickly, both also ask to see me for a few minutes.
“Allan and Ronnie want to see us,” I offer, reading the text again from Ronnie about the police wanting to question me about Pack Lowly.
“Ram can go with you; I’ll take all our stuff up and get the kittens and some food. Dare will be busy getting the chopper locked down and doing any maintenance needed, including a refuel in case we need to leave in a hurry.” Kai updates and his brothers are unfazed about being assigned roles, I’m not worried either as long as we all end up in my suite before too long.
“I should have brought some of the blankets back from my nest,” I offer as an afterthought. I feel a wave of regret that I didn’t think of it sooner.
But I can literally feel Darius rolling his eyes and I swing a burning glare his way. “Fuck, little moon, you really think we didn’t pack a couple of cases full of them for you? Yikes, woman, you need to lift your standards a bit or no shit, everything we do is going to blow your mind. Although, maybe just keep underestimating us because the look on your face right now, I want every fucking time I do or say something to surprise you.”
He talks a mile a minute, but I’m way back at the start of the conversation, melting at how thoughtful he is. I remember to thank him as I ride a crest of surging emotion that crashes through our bond.
“You do not need to thank me. Although if you insist you can sit on my face later, as a sign of your appreciation.” He chuckles, making me laugh. The massive smile on my face does not disappear even when we land with a thud.
I look at Ramses surprised at his heavy handedness, and he looks dead serious before he shrugs. “No shit, Heidi, now we’re packed, we can just be ourselves.”
I gasp at him, hamming it up with him, and he reaches over to snag me to pull me for a kiss before needlessly explaining the crosswinds are a bitch to land in.
As if I’d give a crap about a landing like that. I care a lot about the kiss though.
I break away from his orange dipped lips when I see the side doors open, and Allan comes outside. And it’s weird seeing my father here. I like it a lot. Of course my thoughts swing straight to Margot, and I wish she was here to see me arrive home with my pack.
Dare opens my door, unbuckles me before lifting me out and crouches behind me protectively as we hustle under the blades. He uses a hand on my hip to slow me down, and then the brothers trade, Ramses taking his brother’s spot. And I know it’s not only coming home that would have them on edge, it’s the newness of our bond. In a lot of ways, I don’t want us to lose this part of our bond, the feeling of needing to watch over each other, the readiness to fight to the death if needs be is confirmation of how deep our bond is going to grow.
“Heidi,” Allan says, his eyes are flitting all over me as he checks I’m okay.
I answer him with a hug. Gone are the days where we’re going to love at an arm’s distance, and yeah, there will be some level of discomfort but like me, Allan has been starved of physical contact for too long.
He doesn’t say much as I give him a cuddle, but he gives me a brief smile afterwards which speaks volumes of his relief to see me again.
“You’re looking well,” he says, moving straight back into his normal, staid manner, which is fine. I’ve probably pushed enough boundaries as it is.
“I’m good,” I say, turning to pull Ramses closer.
Allan stops us from walking inside when he sizes Ramses up, in challenge too. Allan’s Alpha posturing is so unexpected that I belt out, “Dad!” Before I can stop myself.
“Sorry, it’s probably my fault,” Ramses says cautiously. And then I have to listen to the two Alphas volley blame between the two of them before I leave them to sort out their Alpha posturing to go inside.
It feels nice to be back home, it would be better if I could spend days relaxing and lazing around but by the pile of business cards laid out on the front reception table, we’ve had a lot of visitors in the past few days.
Grabbing my phone out of my bag, I patch a call through to Douglas.
“Heidi,” he answers on the first ring.
I invest in my client-attorney privilege like I never have before because Douglas is one of the most important people in my life. He’s almost like the father I should have had in Allan, and I mean that with the utmost respect to the both of them. “Douglas, I’d love if you could come over and meet my pack.”
ChapterFifty-Three
HEIDI
Douglas arrived at Verdune within hours of my call, bringing with him a wave of celebration. He climbed out of his car, ignored everyone to throw his arms around me, showering me in his pride. He hugged me so tightly, and for so long that when he did eventually let go, he met a near feral Darius. Even Ronnie looked put out.
My lawyer also arrived with his suitcase, and a declaration he’d be using the downstairs office during his stay with us in the lead up to the Verdune meeting.
Safe to say, Ramses, Kai, and Douglas hit it off almost immediately. Darius glared for a while before he started to thaw. Douglas’ dry sense of humour definitely helped there.
