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Once Ryker is alone, my dad approaches him. He’s careful; as another alpha, he knows how volatile Ryker has to be feeling right now. Then, leaning in, he whispers to him. That… that’s actually a little shocking. I’ve known Paul Booker since I was barely a year old, and I didn’t think hecouldwhisper.
After a quick exchange, the two pack Alphas look over at me.
Since I’m not sure why, but I don’t want them to worry about me, I smile and wave.
My dad’s eyes crinkle at the corners. Shooting me a thumb’s up, he calls out, “‘Atta girl, Kitten.”
He claps Ryker on the shoulder, gives his head a small shake, and takes a seat in the first surviving row. I hear him murmur for my mom. As soon as the challenge broke out, he had whisked her away, bringing her to safety. Now that it’s over and the body is gone, he calls for her, not even a little surprised to see that she’s working with the Mountainside packmates to help salvage as many seats as possible.
Heading toward Dad, she blows me a kiss as she goes to take the seat beside him, but my dad pats his lap. My mom’s complexion turns pink. She shakes her head, folding her dress under her before she starts to sit on her chosen chair next to him again. My dad gives her a mock-growl, then stands up, muscling one arm under her butt, the other behind her back. As easy as that, he lifts her, then drops down with her in his arms.
My mom—her blush now a vivid, bright red— throws her arms around my dad’s shoulder, holding him close.
It’s obvious what they’re doing. Not only is my dad taking any advantage to cuddle with my mom, but he’s holding her on his lap so that someone else can have her seat.
Because my parents? They’re waiting for us to restart the ceremony. Everyone else is milling around, unsure what to do, but my alpha dad and omega mom have no doubt that we’re going to finish what we all came here to do tonight.
That, if nothing else, makes me realize that everything’s going to be okay. Shane can’t hurt me, Ryker is safe, and my parents are still ridiculously in love. I take their long-lasting affection as an omen that, one day, me and Ryker will be sitting in the front row of our own pup’s mating ceremony, snuggling obnoxiously while our child pretends not to see.
We’ll have those pups one day. We’ll have a mating that will still be going strong more than twenty-five years from now. I know it.
And it all starts with tonight.
As that premonition washes over me, my wolf yips to catch my attention. I look over just in time to watch Ryker walking toward me.
His expression is neutral, but I’m not looking at his face. I know his face, and I know that he’s so used to wearing a mask when he has to that it’s useless to try to read anything in his sharp jaw, his sculpted cheeks, his strong profile.
But his eyes? A girl can tell a lot about her male from his eyes.
Ryker’s no exception. In the depths of his dark gold gaze, I see worry. I see shame. Like Audrey, I see grief.
And I see fear.
My big strong alpha is afraid that I’m going to change my mind, and he proves that I’m right when he says, “Paul just asked me if we’re gonna get started soon.”
I nod. Just what I expected when I saw them take their seat.
“That sounds like my dad. He always says he’s too old to wait around.” It’s a long-running joke since shifters are long-lived and my dad’s only just turned fifty. He used to say the same thing when he was thirty and I kept him waiting while I read a book on the toilet. As if I didn’t know that he’d just run out back and reinforce his territory markings by pissing around the Alpha cabin in Lakeview. “What did you tell him?”
“That we’re probably gonna have to push the ceremony back until next month. He laughed and told me good luck with that, then sat down.” He glances over his shoulder. “Looks like the rest of the pack is following your parents’ lead. Seats are filling up again.”
“I see that.”
“You want me to tell them that the ceremony’s off, or should we do it together?”
Oh, Ryker. He can’t possibly think I’m going to let him off that easy.
“Is there a reason you’re trying to cancel on me tonight?”
“Well, I did just have to take down my Beta. Alpha challenges tend to put a damper on any celebration.”
“Maybe in Mountainside. We didn’t have many in Lakeview because, well, everyone loves my dad there, but you forget I came from the Western Pack. The Wolf District. My mom’s told me stories you wouldn’t believe. There, a challenge was a celebration.” Mainly because that was how Wicked Wolf Walker ran his pack, but still. “You’re alive. I’m alive. We survived to this full moon. You really want to wait another cycle to do this all over again?”
“Gemma, I—”
I take Ryker’s hand. Well, no. Not a hand. Not really. Though Shane went fully wolf to challenge him at the end, Ryker never did. He stuck with a partial shift, his body hunched in a beastly form that proved to be more dangerous than a full wolf.
Now, with his inner wolf still riding him hard, some parts of him are still more animal than man, including his hand.
