Page 169

“I won’t,” I promise.

“And we have a pack cat.” Luca smiles. “I will regularly visit Cornbread. I don’t want her to miss me.”

In the end, we decided as a pack to adopt Cornbread.

The ginger terror is now settled into the inn.

I reckon she’s an Alpha because she’s claimed the whole place as her territory, including my bed.

She’s a dick. I hold Sophie responsible.

I don’t regret adopting her, however, because of how happy she makes Luca.

“I better make sure you miss me too, huh?” Determination washes through me. “We’re going to bond, and I will prove just how much I fucking want you. We’ll become the Cole pack, and it doesn’t matter where we are, how much time we spend together, or where we sleep. We’ll belong to each other.”

I lean forward to grip the handle and shove open the door.

When the door swings open, I gasp.

The room is more beautiful than I first imagined when I planned it with Evan.

My eyes mist with tears. “It’s stunning.”

Rhett carries me over the threshold.

The walls are roughly painted in violet paint, and I can see Angel’s messy handiwork in the butterflies that have been daubed in sunny yellow.

The sash windows stand open, and the warm Texas breeze gusts across my cheeks. The chorus of cicadas chirps from the restored butterfly garden outside. Giant yellow butterflies swirl like vortexes in the blue sky.

“Hello, swallowtails,” I murmur.

A tray of Gatorade and snacks rests on the floor, alongside a bowl of water, cloth, and a thermometer.

Thanks, Angel.

The room is dominated by a single piece of furniture.

A vast bed.

Cole’s bed is an ancient four-poster with gauzy saffron colored canopy like a butterfly’s wings. The posts have been carved with oak leaves, and its bottom frame is carved like deep roots, while its top is like branches.

I can tell the care that has been taken with the building of the nest itself on top of the bed. I bet that each of the Alphas has taken part in its creation.

The nest is swallowed with pillows, cushions, and throws. It has been arranged in a hollow with walls built around it. The pillows are soft, fluffy, and velvet. The quilts are tucked around the oak headboard to make sure that no one can accidentally touch anything hard.

Clothes from each of the Alphas have been added to the walls to make sure that each of their scents are mingled into the nest: plaid shirts, olive field jackets, and sky-blue hoodies.

Suddenly, I realize that it’s built like a blanket fort with space for me to burrow in the center.

They truly have remembered everything I love.

I burst out purring when I notice that some of the cushions are embroidered with acorns, butterflies, or blackberries.

Even here, the Coles are honoring my first pack.

“Can I take it by the purr that you approve?” Rhett sounds amused.

I am falling further into my heat and merely purr more deeply.