“How lovely.” She lined up a row of jars and put the wide-mouthed funnel in the first one. “And polite to send a note like that.”
“Yes, I guess it is.” This text was followed within the hour by one from each of the others, making me think they’d decided just how long to wait before sending me something. Not wanting to pressure me. It was lovely.
Later that evening, a call came from all three of them, and we spoke for a few minutes before Roan asked, “Would you like to come over again and spend some time together?”
This time, I didn’t take a carful of bodyguards with me. Rumor offered her mates, but all I asked for was the use of the truck for the evening. And when I arrived, I parked in front of their home, and before I turned the engine off, all three were outside and headed down the walk. I tried not to let my heart lift too much—my walls shouldn’t be falling so quickly—but their smiles and the bounce in their steps? How could I resist smiling back?
They escorted me inside, where they had snacks waiting: a pitcher of lemonade and a plate of brownies that made me wonder. “You didn’t buy our mix, did you?”
“We did.” Benji held the tray out to me. “Don’t hate us if we messed them up.”
I took one and bit into it, savoring the fudgy chocolatey goodness. “Oh, you took them out at the early stage.”
“Is that okay?” Roan asked.
“Yes, if you cook them more, they get cakier, but I like it this way.”
Their mutual sigh of relief had me grinning again. We sat around the living room for a while, eating brownies and drinking lemonade, just talking about our weeks in the most comfortable way possible, but after the brownies were gone, I sat up straight, and the air in the room changed.
“Is something wrong?” Harlan asked.
“No, but I want to ask you something.” Unease crawled up my spine, but I’d spent a lot of time avoiding people and things. I didn’t want to avoid them.
“Go ahead.”
“My wolf and I, we were wondering”—I was in over my head, but I kept going—“if we can meet your wolves.”
“That’s it?” Roan chuckled. “My wolf is about to burst out to meet you.”
We went out onto the back porch, their yard very private with high trees all around, and they undressed quickly and shifted. White wolves, all of them, with the most gorgeous fur, and when they turned away, I knew what they were offering—space for me to shift privately if I wanted to. To join them.
“My wolf will never forgive me if I don’t.” I took off my clothes and shifted, joining them in the yard. I had so little experience, having avoided shifting around anyone before I joined Darkshadow, but the guys began to chase one another back and forth, frolicking in such a lighthearted way that when Roan bumped me with his nose, I let myself be drawn in. But their treatment of me was different, gentle.
They were rolling one another over and bouncing. Then they’d prance next to me, nuzzling and making little growling woofs that had my wolf preening, stretching out, and prancing. Such a flirt.
But I couldn’t bring myself to be upset about that. Especially when I could see the looks of admiration in their eyes. Having never seen my wolf, never shifted anywhere near a mirror or thought to look in a body of water for my reflection, I still had no doubt she was lovely. She was too wonderful to be anything but.
When we’d shifted back, though, we were all quiet, and soon I said my goodbyes and drove home. Reflecting how ourfirst shift together had gone, I wondered if they were so careful because they thought I was fragile. In reality, I was anything but.
I’d never have gotten this far if I were.
Chapter Twenty
Harlan
As beautiful and wonderful as shifting with our mate had been, our time together in our fur couldn’t last forever. And all too soon, our beautiful wolf was at her apartment, and we were at our house without her.
It physically hurt to be away from Lily. Rowan, Benji, and I all felt it. It was a dull ache, one I couldn’t shake but also couldn’t fully describe. The thought of her suffering, even for a second, for any reason, was too unbearable. Even considering that she might be struggling the way we were had my stomach in knots.
We were the alphas and should be the ones shouldering all her pain.
I called the guys to a meeting. We weren’t formal like that normally, but what I wanted to discuss felt important enough to make it so.
It was time to do something about the room we’d made for our mate. We’d said we needed to wait until our omega agreed to be with us. And at the time, it felt like the right timeline. But now that we knew Lily, it needed to be ready for her. Thinking of her ready for her nest and us not having it done on time… My beast couldn’t handle it.
I couldn’t handle it.
It was time we made that decision.
