“Yeah?” she croaks out.
My dad smiles fondly. “Welcome to the family, sweetheart.”
As Dad leaves the room, he closes the door behind him. As the four of us settle back into the nest, for once in my life I don’t feel the weight of responsibility drilling down onto my shoulders. I don’t feel the expectations and legacy of the vineyard pressing down onto my back.
I just feel this. Lia. My Omega, in my arms, purring softly while Knox and Eli bracket around the two of us.
It’s more peace than I’ve ever known in my entire life.
I can’t wait until all of us live together.
Knox
Iwake up before the sun.
Not because I have to. Not because something’s wrong. Just because I can. For a long moment, I don’t move. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, listening to everything around me. The sound of Walker’s snoring. The sound of Lia smacking her lips in her sleep. The sound of Eli shifting around for the seventeenth time that night.
I listen to the sounds of my family.
Family.
Holy shit, I’ve finally got a family.
Carefully, I turn my head. Lia’s right there, her cold little feet pressed against my thigh while she tucks herself into Walker. She’s curled into the center of the bed like she was made for it, tucked between the three of us like she’s the final piece of a puzzle we’ve all been missing for too damn long. Her hair is a mess. Her lips are chapped and parted in her sleep. And the marks on her skin?
Our marks?
They stand out against the softness of her warm skin.
I swallow hard. I still can’t quite believe that part. It’s hard to believe any of this, really.
Walker’s got his arm draped over her waist while he sleeps, like he’s not willing to risk losing her. Eli’s on Walker’s other side, his arm around Walker just so he can hold Lia’s hand. And then there’s me, pressed like a solid wall against her back.
I’m part of it. Part of them.
A real family.
“Holy shit,” I whisper under my breath.
When no one stirs with me, I slip out of bed as carefully as I can. The second my feet hit the floor, I stretch, my muscles shivering as my arms go up over my head. My back pops in a way that makes me wince before a grin slides across my face.
God, I feel good.
I glance back at the bed before I reach down and tuck the blankets back around Lia. No sense in her getting cold just because I’ve gotten up. I tuck those little feet of hers beneath the blanket, making sure her freezing cold toes don’t get any colder.
Then I scoop my boxers and flannel shirt off the floor.
After haphazardly dressing myself, I pad out of the room. With all of them still sleeping, it gives me a chance to prepare a little something for them. All of us will need caffeine, I’m sure of it. And with the time Walker’s parents spent in the house yesterday, the fridge is likely filled to the brim with food.
Eli’s place is quiet as I pad out into the hallway. It’s the kind of quiet I’ve never been able to achieve inside of my own head. For once, the swirling voices in my head are silent along with the house, no longer torturing me with thoughts of being alone and dying without anyone next to me. Sunlight is just barely starting to creep in through the windows as I start up a pot of coffee, committing all of this to memory.
Our first heat together.
I never want to forget it.
As the coffee maker sputters and spurts to life, I start opening cabinets to find where Eli keeps his mugs. One of thehinges creaks, and my brow furrows. I wiggle the door. I don’t like how it moves.
“I wonder if he’s got a toolbox somewhere,” I mutter to myself.
