“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Don’t thank me. Thank yourselves for being good at your jobs.” Margaret glanced around the scene. “Though I’m guessing the town response is going to be more complicated than the professional one.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “Small towns have opinions.”
“Let them have opinions,” Dane said, appearing beside us with that quiet intensity he brought to everything. “We do our jobs well. We support each other. That’s all that matters.”
“Easy for you to say,” Sable muttered, but I felt her drawing strength from the bond. From knowing we stood together.
Captain Rhodes appeared, looking for Beau. When she spotted us, her expression shifted through the same sequence Margaret’s had. Surprise, understanding, approval.
“So you four finally figured it out,” she said, a smile playing at her lips. “About damn time. Beau’s been pining like a lovesick puppy for weeks.”
“I have not,” Beau protested, but his neck went red.
“You absolutely have,” Rhodes said cheerfully. “You’ve been bringing her coffee every morning like it was a sacred ritual. The entire station knew you were gone for her.”
Through the bond, I felt Beau’s embarrassment mixing with something warmer. Pride, maybe, that his feelings had been that obvious. That he’d been willing to show vulnerability even before the bonding.
“Well, it worked,” I said, because someone needed to rescue him. “She kept him.”
“She kept all of us,” Dane corrected.
Rhodes’s expression softened. “Good. You all needed someone to keep you. Especially you, Calder. You’ve been punishing yourself for three years over something that wasn’t your fault. Maybe now you’ll finally let yourself be happy.”
“Working on it,” Beau said quietly.
The debrief took another hour. We documented everything, filled out incident reports, coordinated with the hospital about patient status, and made sure all equipment was accounted for and returned to proper locations.
Professional. Efficient. Exactly what we’d trained for.
But underneath it all, I could feel the pack bonds humming. Could feel how we’d slipped into working as a unit without consciously deciding to. Could feel how Sable’s coordination, Beau’s rescue expertise, Dane’s security management, and my medical skills had layered together into something stronger than any of us working alone.
“This is what we are,” I said when we finally piled back into Dane’s truck for the drive back to the house. “We’re a team. Maybe we don’t know how to do the domestic stuff yet, but we know how to function when it matters. That’s a start.”
“That’s more than a start,” Sable said from the front seat. She turned to look at all three of us, and I saw the certainty in her dark amber eyes. “That’s proof that this works. That we work. When it actually matters, we’re solid.”
“So we just need to figure out the other ninety percent of pack life,” Beau said dryly. “The boring domestic parts where we’re not responding to emergencies.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Dane said with his usual tactical certainty. “One day at a time. One decision at a time. Together.”
Through the bonds, I felt everyone’s agreement. Felt the fear mixing with hope, the uncertainty mixing with determination. Felt that we were all terrified and committed in equal measure.
Felt like maybe we really could build something that worked.
When we got back to the house, exhaustion hit all of us simultaneously. The adrenaline crash after emergency response combined with still recovering from heat and bonding. Sable looked ready to fall asleep standing up.
“Food first,” I said, because someone had to be practical. “Then sleep. We can process everything else later.”
“I’m too tired to eat,” Sable protested.
“Not optional,” Dane said, already moving toward the kitchen. “You need fuel. All of you do.”
We ate leftover pasta that Dane heated up, too tired for conversation, just the comfort of being together after a successful response. Of knowing we’d functioned well under pressure. Of proving to ourselves and each other that the bonds didn’t make us weaker or more complicated.
They made us stronger.
“I’m proud of us,” Sable said when we’d finished eating. “Today was hard, and we handled it. Together.”
