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“No.” She uses her firm Luna voice on me, and I try not to bristle. It’s hard to hear my little sister, the girl I helped raise, speak to me like that. “You can’t hide out here second-guessing what you’ve done. You need to come out and see for yourself how the Glass siblings have come together. Paxton made his choice; you shouldn’t be the one suffering for it.”
I stare at the rows of cookies sitting untouched on the kitchen island. I hope my feelings of guilt haven’t tainted the taste of them.
“Just tell me one thing, Tess. Are they happy to be together?” I squeeze my eyes closed tightly and hold my breath waiting for her to answer. I don’t think I can live with myself if this all turns out to be a mistake. I wasted precious time I could have spent looking for our brother reaching out to Paxton’s family instead.
“Tasha, look at me.” Peeling my eyes open is painful. I’m not sure I’m ready to face the truth. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent the entire day hiding in the kitchen while my sister and her mate greeted the guests I invited.
Tess grabs me by the shoulders and forces me to meet her eyes. It’s an interesting role reversal from all the times I had to be the one reassuring her.
“What if this is a huge mistake?” I whisper.
“I promise it’s not. Come meet your new family, Tasha. Come meet the people you’ve saved.”
“We don’t know if I really saved them from anything,” I protest weakly, even though she’s already grabbed my hand to lead me out of the kitchen. She shoots me a narrow-eyed look that says she knows more than I do. And I’m sure she does, considering she’s been the one witnessing the arrivals.
Every muscle in my body feels tight as my little sister leads me like a lamb to slaughter into the room where everyone is gathered near the front of the house.
I stare at the intricate cream and gold wallpaper that lines the walls to avoid making eye contact as we enter. People are talking over each other, but the conversations slowly drop off as Tess leads me further into the room.
Look, Tess mind links.
So I do.
Considering how much Peter reminds me of Paxton, it’s almost uncanny how little the rest of the Glass siblings look alike. They share the same flawless dark skin and dark features, but otherwise, each of them is distinctly their own person. There’s a woman in a crisp pantsuit next to a man in dirty overalls.
The sight of them here together makes me crack. I’m mortified as I burst into tears.
“I’m so sorry,” I manage to choke out in between sobs. Tess rubs my back comfortingly as I struggle to pull myself together. This is technically my first outing as the Luna Sovereign, and I’m making a huge mess of it.
A pair of arms pulls me away from Tess and into an unfamiliar embrace. I’m squeezed so tightly I manage to stop crying with a confused laugh. A man who’s easily a head shorter than Paxton draws back enough to give me breathing room.
“I’m Chaz,” he says as a way of explanation, “and I’d like to be the first to thank you.”
“Let go, asshole.” A little pixie of a woman punches Chaz in the shoulder and then worms her way in between us so that the guy has to let go of me. “Don’t mind him. He’s spent the last six months on a logging job where there haven’t been any females. He’s already tried hitting on Leah twice and your sister once before Alpha Dominic basically threatened his life.”
Dominic grunts from somewhere behind me. I imagine Tess must have sweet-talked him into letting Chaz stay. I remember my sister’s mate’s jealous temper from her brief time in the pack hospital.
“Leah’s here?” I scan the room for the woman.
“Right here, sweet cheeks!” She appears from out of nowhere like some kind of drunken fairy godmother, a full wine glass raised high in the air with red liquid sloshing over the sides. She makes a beeline for me, bumping the other woman out of the way. Her eyes scan my neckline. “Poppy said the two of you were bonded.”
“That’s what Peter said,” the pixie who must be Poppy pipes up.
Peter nods from the middle of the group with a smirk. “They are.”
“Uh.” I’m not exactly keen to turn this into a whole group announcement, but the entire family is focused on me, waiting with bated breath to hear me explain how I could be mated to their brother but not bear his mark. “I marked him,” I say, barely louder than a whisper.
“You what?” Leah’s eyes widen to comical proportions. “Youmarkedhim?”
I nod sagely as we stare at each other. I know we’re both thinking of that painting back at her house that foretold a very different story. I’m not sure if it’s happened before, but at least this time, the painting got it wrong.
“Oh my Goddess.” Leah bursts into sobs of her own and throws her arms around me, squeezing me even tighter than Chaz did.
Poppy lets her go for a minute before pulling her off. She studies me with interest, taking me in from head to toe. Her gaze is friendly, but I get the feeling she’s sizing me up. There’s no telling when she last spoke to her brother, but she obviously still feels protective over him. Enough to care whether she thinks I deserve him or not.
How could Paxton really think he’s better off without this? Without family? I scan the crowd quickly, doing a count. I don’t know them all yet by name, but there are eleven new shifters here. Ten of the Glass siblings plus Leah.
The only one missing is Paxton.
