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“Are you okay?” I asked in a small voice. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
She came over and wrapped her arms around me. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said firmly. “I’m fine. I want you and Margo to be fine, too. You’ve both been through a lot. If Amelia’s pushing too fast, it could be good for everyone to slow down a bit and come to terms with everything.”
“Even you?”
“Me. You. All of us.”
I sensed Nathan outside the room, but he hesitated by the door. “I’m okay,” I said. “I want to get on with things.”
“Oh, really?” She went back to cooking. “So can we finally talk about your birthday party?”
I couldn’t help groaning. “Not a party, Perdita, seriously.”
“Please?” she said. “We need a reason to celebrate. What better time than my Dorian’s birthday?”
Her mischievous grin made me relent. “Will it make you happy?”
“Very.”
“Fine, I’ll have a party, but no decorations.”
“What’s a party without balloons?”
I wasn’t going to win this battle. “A few balloons. That’s it.”
“How about townies?” Perdita asked as Nathan finally entered the room.
“What’s this about a party?” he asked.
“I wore him down,” Perdita said.
“Finally.” He gave me a sly grin. “It was getting hard to hide the party food from the teens.”
I groaned. I had never stood a chance. “Can you two restrain yourselves this year? Please?”
“Just a small gathering,” she said. “It would be great if we could end this year on a good note.”
“Besides,” Nathan said. “You’ve nothing to worry about now, so why not celebrate turning eighteen?”
I looked away, embarrassed. I had been dreading my birthday for so long in case I would have to leave. Nathan, Perdita, and even the alpha had all recently reassured me that I would never be sent away from the pack. I would always be a part of the Evans family, no matter what.
“If you really don’t want to, we can cancel the whole thing,” Perdita said. “The three of us could go out for dinner instead, maybe even invite Margo.”
I thought of Victor’s lost expression and the rest of the teens who looked miserable all of the time. I knew what my answer had to be. “We’ll have the party. It’ll be nice to celebrate something for a change.”
Nathan and Perdita exchanged a warm, reassuring glance. We would be okay. All of us.
