“I was hoping, but I could live with Alison if you’d…” she said.
“You will live with me!” he said firmly, interrupting her.
“A mate should always live with their mate,” Hail said.
Titus kissed her again, then started walking, still holding her up off the ground and against his body.
“Wait! I have clothes and bags to get.”
“I got it,” he said, stopping at the Jeep they were approaching and putting her down.
Hail opened the back of the Jeep and started getting her things out. Everything she took out, he took from her and looped over his shoulder. When she was done, she slipped her hand in his and they started down the foot path that led around the side of Jack’s house. Titus effortlessly swung her up in his arms and held her cradled against his body like a child holds a security blanket.
“And you were worried he wouldn’t want you,” Feral said.
Hail grinned at Feral from the shelter of Titus’ arms. “Thank you so very much for letting me tag along.”
“Congratulations, Hail. And Titus,” Feral said.
Titus grinned tiredly at him just before they disappeared from sight, hidden by the side of the house as he carried his mate toward his home, their home, far beyond Jack’s house.
“Go to sleep, Titus!” Jack called out, knowing full well that Titus would hear him. Then he looked at Feral. “And another happy mating is completed,” Jack said.
“Is it too much to hope for another?” Feral asked.
“Not if you’re patient. I don’t know if Alison will fall into your arms the way those two just did for each other. But she might,” Jack said.
“No time like the present to see,” Feral said.
“If she says no, Rance’s house is available until Titus and his crews finish this one, and start renovating it. Titus hasn’t slept since Hail left, so you probably have more time than you think before we’ll have to move you if Alison won’t take you. But either way, you won’t have to sleep outside at least.”
“Thank you, Jack. I’m going to go on over and see what she says.”
“Go back the way you came. When you get to the second turn off to your right, take that right. Follow it until it comesto a dead end. Alison’s house is at that dead end. You’ll notice the road is more of a path there, grass covered, instead of dirt. Nothing but golf carts drive on that area of the road now, and not very often, but your Jeep should make it. Let me know how it goes with Alison. I’m invested,” Jack said.
“Will do,” Feral said. “Fingers crossed.”
Jack watched as Feral got back in his Jeep and drove back the way he’d come, on his way to Alison’s house.
As the shiny black Jeep passed the new build several hundred feet away from Jack’s house, Jack noticed Dane pause to watch it go by.
Dane looked over at Jack. “Thank God she came back! Titus was becoming nearly unbearable. I was about to put him to sleep.”
Jack held his coffee cup up in a quick toast to Dane. “You and me both. She is never allowed to leave him again.”
“Truth!” Dane said.
Jack laughed. “Y’all let me know if you need me for anything.”
“Will do,” Dane said.
Jack went back inside to prepare the morning pancakes that he always liked to have ready when his daughters got up. It was their ‘thing’. “And the Pride continues to grow…” he said to himself happily.
~~~
Feral parked his Jeep to the side of Alison’s porch, where it looked like there had at one time been a driveway before the grasses had overtaken the gravel spread there. He got out of his Jeep and took his time walking up to the pale yellow house, taking a good look at it, noticing that it was in very good shape.He smiled when he realized all the upkeep had probably been done by Alison herself, because she wasn’t the type to ask for or even accept help. “She’s strong,” he said to himself with a smile.
Feral stepped up on the porch and took a deep breath before he knocked on the door. “I came here for a reason, and I won’t get an answer standing here looking at the door,” he said to himself, as he finally lifted his hand and knocked five times in rapid succession. He moved back several steps so he wouldn’t be crowding the door and waited, his hands clasped behind his back.
