My father shook his head to prevent my brother from answering.
“Dad, we’re all adults here,” I said.
He looked at me, and although I knew he’d always see me as his little girl, tonight, I wanted him to see me as the adult I’d become.
“Please don’t keep us in the dark.”
“What Nikki said.” Niall leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs. “Leave out the gruesome deets, but at least share the big lines.”
Nate’s gaze unlocked from Dad’s. “The girl in the morgue is gone.”
“Gone?” The piece of cherry pie Adalyn had scooped up toppled off her fork and onto her lap. “Someone kidnapped the body?”
Nolan balled up his napkin and got to his feet. “I’ll get my jacket.”
Nate held out his palm. “Slow down, Nolan.” His eyes moved to Liam, which led me to assume our Alpha was communicating with Nate using the mind link.
“Come on, you two.” I rolled a lock of hair around my fingers. “What’s going on?”
Nate’s lips thinned, vanishing into his cropped beard. “The victim . . . she got up and left.”
“Say what now?” Nash sputtered, blue eyes going as wide as his twin’s.
“So, she wasn’t killed?” Adalyn asked. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
Liam shifted his sleepy son to his opposite shoulder and stared at Nate, who after a moment, shook his head.
Our Alpha pushed away from the table and stood. “Call the coroner and tell him we’re coming.”
“A morgue’s no place for a baby.” Mom dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. “Leave Storm with us. He’s safe here.”
Our Alpha seemed all at once reluctant and relieved. “Are you sure, Meg? It’s late.”
“Of course, I’m sure.”
After kissing his son’s head, Liam deposited Storm in my mother’s open arms, which woke the kid right up. “Thank you.”
“Please.” Dad clapped Liam’s shoulder. “You just made my wife the happiest person in all of Colorado.”
“You did. You really did.” She nuzzled the top of Storm’s head while he tried to snag her ring finger, entranced by the swirly ink of my father’s vow, which she’d had tattooed the day of their mating ceremony—You are my sun, my wind, my home.
He wore her vow on his finger—You are my moon, my stars, my wild.
Some packs wore jewelry; ours inked the emblem of their mating, because so many adornments were lost while shifting.
“We shouldn’t be gone for more than an hour, Mom,” Nate said. “Two tops.”
“Don’t worry about us. Just stay safe.”
“We will. Dad, Nolan, thanks for dinner. Sorry I can’t help with cleanup.”
“We got it,” Nash and Nolan said at the very same time. While they no longer shared amniotic fluid, they seemingly still shared a brain.
I got up and began to stack plates, watching Nate and Liam out of the corner of my eye. There was something those two weren’t telling us. Liam caught me watching and although he tried to smile, the tension wringing his features did zilch to tame the fine hairs rising on the back of my neck.
My wolf scratched at my skin, wanting to be let loose, and it startled me since it had been a long time since she’d made her presence known. Sure, my nails and fangs lengthened, and the hairs on my body occasionally thickened, but I hadn’t fully shifted since the accident. Mostly because I feared it would damage my knee.
Considering there was nowhere to run, not with a deranged shifter on the loose, attempting a full shift tonight was out of the question. The assassin may not have managed to kill the girl, but he’d tried.
