AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“For yourcompassion,” he said, so quietly no one other than me might have heard it.
All of them in a row and that one at the end in particular left me choked up. “West,” I said.
“You know how much I love you, Sparks,” he said, holding my gaze for a beat before he went to place his ornament alongside the others.
“How much we all love you,” Nate added, hugging me close with an arm around my shoulders.
I dug into the little purse I’d been carrying. My fingers closed around warm copper. “Great minds think alike?” I said, drawing it out.
I’d commissioned the piece, so I doubted there was any other quite like it in the whole world. A wolf, a bear, a jaguar, and an eagle leapt from the design in different directions, but they were joined together in the center by an etching like a flame.
“It’s beautiful,” Aaron said.
“It’sus,” Marco declared.
As West rejoined us, the four of them drew me into a combined embrace. I soaked in the heat of their bodies and their twining scents. I was aching again, but this time with gratitude for the path that had led me here, that had let me find the men I was meant to share this life with.
Please let me never lose them.
Chapter 4
Nate
I ranmy thumb over the book’s cover, its new leather smell tickling my nose. It looked well bound to my unpracticed eyes, the pages inside crisp and the black text neat. Of course, the contents of that text were going to matter a hell of a lot more than how the type looked.
I turned to Aaron, who’d left the Christmas celebration outside to come with me to the office that had belonged to every disparate alpha before me. When I held the book out to him, he took it gingerly.
“Does it look well put together to you?” I asked. “You’ve got to have a much better eye for this sort of thing than I do.” The eagle shifter had never made any secret of his fondness for books and the information he could glean from them.
Aaron flipped to the table of contents and then through several of the entries. “It’s come together really well,” he said, in a tone that was impressed enough that I relaxed. “She’s going to love it, you know.”
“I hope so.” I swallowed down a twinge of worry as I took the book back from him.
“Why wouldn’t she?”
I grimaced. “I just can’t help wondering if it’ll end up upsetting her more than anything else. All those reminders of the past…”
Aaron gave me a friendly pat on my arm. “Nothing in that book is about the painful parts of the past. Our dragon shifter lost a lot on the day of the attack, and every day after while she was forced into that secret life. This gift is going to take a large step toward replacing things she might never have expected to get back. I wouldn’t be surprised if she cries, but I guarantee they’ll be happy tears.”
“I don’t really want to make her cry at all,” I muttered, and this time he gave me a playful cuffing instead of a pat.
“You definitely know how she feels about you trying to protect her.”
“Hey! I learned my lesson. I’ve been very good about not overstepping.” I tucked the book into a gift bag I’d set aside for this purpose—simple red paper printed with gold snowflakes, too pedestrian for what it contained? But it was too late to find anything else—and pushed away from my desk. “Thank you for all your help with the particulars. I might not have had anything to give at all without your advice.”
I couldn’t say organization was exactly my strong suit, and bringing this book together had required quite a lot, from tracking down the best contributors across each of the kin groups to working out the necessary timelines for receiving their submissions to presenting the stories they’d offered in a coherent way. The eagle shifter had cheered the project on and offered much-valued tips from the start.
“Oh, I’d imagine you’d have been fine,” Aaron said. “But I was happy to help. I can’t wait to see her face when she opens that up.”
My feet hesitated before I reached the door. I glanced at my fellow alpha. “Do you think she’s all right—just in general?”
Aaron raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Just—all the effort she’s been putting into these celebrations, running around, handling half the work on her own, trying to make each one of them spectacular… I know she’s enjoying it, but at the same time, it seems a little much. Considering...” I motioned to my belly area.
Aaron chuckled. “You’d better not let her hear you suggest she should be taking it easy,” he teased. Then his voice turned more serious. “One of my healers on staff looked her over yesterday morning and didn’t raise any concerns. Hanging decorations isn’t pushing herself all that hard.”
“Not physically,” I agreed. “And I suppose it makes sense that she wants to accomplish something major before shehasto take it easy for a little while.” Even our dragon shifter would have to take some time to settle into life as a mother. It was going to be an adjustment for all of us—but one I couldn’t have been looking forward to more. The thought of finally getting to hold my infant daughter in my arms sent an eager quiver of excitement through me.
