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“Yes,” I said as I watched Brent walk up, the confusion on his face matching the look Waylen was wearing.
“Coming.” Callum’s one word was followed by the line disconnecting and I tucked my phone away.
“Emma is going to kill you. She realized how long it had been then ran off in a panic. We thought something had happened.”
Brent winced at that. “Shit. She’s going to smack us for sure. The line was fucking insane, so it took forever to get through and unload, then we both had to stop by the restroom.”
Instead of smacking them like we expected, Emma slammed into them nearly knocking all three to the ground as she hugged them.
“Gods, I was so worried,” she sobbed. “No more splitting up, I can’t take it.”
“Sorry, Ems. We just had to pee and the line was insanity,” Waylen pleaded with her as he rocked her in a hug.
“We saw the line when we came back in,” she admitted. “That’s why I didn’t beat your ass for scaring me.”
“And there it is.” Brent laughed. “I love you, Em, but sometimes you’re terrifying.”
“Good.” She hummed as she stepped away and took a few deep breaths to calm herself again. “Let’s check out. This prep is going to take forever, it’s an all-hands-on-deck night.”
“I think Emma is using dictatorship to handle her stress,” Waylen accused. He dodged her just in time to avoid the slap to the back of his head. The tension had fallen away some but we were all quiet as we went through checkout and rolled the cart out to the van to load up. Emma and I stood vigil beside them as they unloaded. Our eyes scanned the parking lot around us. We didn’t talk about doing it, instead instinctively falling into the role as they unloaded, none of us willing to take a single risk outside of the safety of our walls.
Not so safe anymore, my mind unhelpfully reminded me. Sometimes I wish I could smack my internal voice in the face. She was a straight up bitch most days and I was over her lately.
The ride back was full of awful karaoke, thanks to Waylen. He ended up riding back with us since his seat was overtaken by cargo and Emma wouldn’t let Brent go without her. He expertly picked music neither Callum nor I could ignore. We proudly belted out every single word to “WAP” and it smoothed over the panic from earlier, bringing back our good moods again.
An hour later, Emma was barking out orders to the ten pack members here doing her bidding. I was starting to suspect Waylen was onto something, my bestie was a dictator in the kitchen, yet no one complained since her cooking was immaculate. But to her credit, it worked. We had trays of crab Rangoon, mozzarella sticks, and chicken wings ready to be fried up. The industrial fryers were being manned by her brothers and somehow Waylen had convinced her to let us blast music so everyone was talking and shaking their asses as we worked.
When we finally finished and the food was cooling, a new group stepped in to take over dish duty and we joined the rest of the pack around the blazing fire. Leven pulled me onto his lap, and I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me.
“You’ve changed this pack, you know?” he whispered into my ear. I was so surprised I shifted sideways so I could look at him. He chuckled softly and brushed his lips over mine. We’d come a long way from the angry fighting we used to do. Though it had led to some amazing sex so I wasn’t going to complain.
“How so?”
“We’ve always had a community here. But we’ve never had nights like this without reason. If Emma cooked, some would come around and share and we did the usual baskets we’ve always done, but this didn’t happen. You’ve managed to bring her out of her shell even more and she’s thriving. Hell, I’ve never seen Selena and Brad in there shaking their hips and singing along to some Taylor Swift, yet here we are.”
I cracked up at that, because the older couple had joined right in with us. In fact, I think she was the first one to start dancing.
“I’ve just always wanted this, you know?” I explained. “My pack was cold, my family small, or gone. I wanted the big pack dinners, the runs, all of which I get here. Honestly, I think it’s healing.”
“It is,” he agreed. “You know I was a stoic asshole before you came here.”
“You were after I got here too.” I laughed. “Don’t act like you greeted me with smiles and trust, big guy.”
He shook his head. “I was just so fucking full of anger and doubt. We’d had too many of those freaking alpha groupies coming through and sticking around. No one was really happy and thriving. We were safe and we were a big family but this is different. This is how wolves should live.”
“Yet somewhere there’s imprisoned wolves and witches living in hell,” I whispered as tears stung at my eyes. “Meira is with them. I’m so terrified she won’t make it. I’ll have to lose her all over again.”
“If she’s anything like you, she’ll survive. You’d fight with everything you had and so will she,” he told me. His words held conviction and I clung to that olive branch with my entire soul. I had to keep hope, had to believe she’d be okay, or I wouldn’t make it through the days of waiting.
“She’s stronger,” I admitted. “When mom died, I really relied on her.”
“And now look at all the people who look up to you, Luna,” he said. The title had my eyes widening and I glanced up at Callum who was across the fire. From the way he was grinning at me, he heard and approved.
“You are the Luna,” Nyx agreed as he settled in beside us. He handed me a bag of marshmallows and a poker to roast them on.
“You’re officially my hero,” I said excitedly, tilting my face up so he’d give me a kiss. Nyx didn’t hesitate to comply.
“Ha, my plan worked,” he joked. “Burn me one, baby.”
