“I won’t.”
Seth pulled Theo into a hug that made his brother squeak in surprise.Seth snickered, and Theo slapped him on the arm, but he also hugged him back.
“We’re really doing this,” Theo murmured.“We’re building lives and being happy.”
It was everything they’d always dreamed of and had never thought they would have.Sometimes, Seth still wondered how they’d ended up here.
The how or why didn’t matter.The only thing that did was that they had.
He left his brother’s house still thinking about Ryan and a possible future with him.He wanted to see Ryan, but he couldn’t help but wonder if that would be too much.Maybe he could go to the house and see if Ryan wanted to spend an hour or two with him.They’d have to avoid making out against a tree, just in case someone walked past them again, but that was fine.They had a lot to talk about.
Instead of going home, Seth headed toward Ryan’s place.There was a bounce in his step as he made his way through the trees.Hell, maybe he could even shift and run around for a bit, have Ryan cuddle him in his polar bear form.When Seth and his family had lived on the streets, they used to shift and puppy pile all the time, but with everyone having a partner now, it’d been a while since they’d last done anything like that.
Seth missed it.He missed the feeling of warmth and family, and of belonging.He didn’t know if Ryan would be comfortable doing that or not, but it was worth asking.At the very least, Seth could shift and be in his fur for a bit.If he and Ryan were going to be together, Ryan would have to get used to seeing him that way.
He heard the voices before he saw Ryan.He smiled until he heard what Ryan was saying.
“I don’t know, Maddie.Maybe coming here was a bad idea.That woman wasn’t wrong.”
“The coven would’ve targeted the pack even if we hadn’t become pack members,” a woman—Maddie—said.Seth hadn’t officially been introduced to Ryan’s sister, but he knew her.
“But we made things worse.”
“Have we?We’re just trying to survive, Ryan.”
“As is that woman.We put her and her people in danger.”
“Thecoven leadersare putting her and her people in danger.It has nothing to do with us.Hell, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t fight next to Chance and his people if the coven attacked.”
There was a pause.Seth held his breath.He didn’t want to spy on Ryan and his sister, but he didn’t know what else to do.Should he step forward and let them know he was there?
“I would,” Ryan said.“I hate this mess.”
“We all do, but that’s okay.We’re in it together, aren’t we?We have allies we couldn’t have dreamed of having before.We were never able to do anything to stop the coven leaders, but maybe now, we can.We’re not the only ones standing against them anymore.”
“Aren’t we?”
Clearly, Ryan had as much trouble as Seth accepting that he belonged with the pack.Maybe they were a good match, after all.
* * * *
WHEN RYAN HEARD FOOTSTEPSagain, he got worried that the woman who’d yelled at him and his sister had returned.He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she had.He understood where she was coming from, but there was nothing he could do to change their situation.He needed his family to be safe, which meant they weren’t going anywhere, no matter how angry some pack members were.
But it wasn’t the woman who popped up from between two trees.No, it was Seth, which might have been worse.He’d heard what Ryan and Madeleine were talking about, hadn’t he?From the expression on his face, Ryan could guess that he had.
Shit.
“Hey,” he said with a smile.
Seth looked uncomfortable, like maybe he wanted to run away.“Hey.”
“You heard that, didn’t you?”
“It would’ve been hard not to.You’re quite loud.”
Madeleine snorted.“He always is.”
Ryan glared at her.“You betray me like this?”
