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“I know.” She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I find myself wondering when things will feel less complicated, but then I remind myself that life’s already a lot easier than it was a few days ago. It’s hard to be patient right now.”
Max couldn’t agree more. He was impatient for this business with Greystone to be behind them. He’d always respected Rex and his position as Alpha, but at the moment, it felt like his older brother was moving a little too slowly while they waited for Edward’s next move. He was impatient to get Sarah home with him, where the four of them could live like an actual family, the way they were always meant to. Most of all, he was impatient to settle into the relationship he knew he and Sarah could have once everything calmed down. His mate was home. She was alive. She’d given him not only a son but adaughter. He didn’t want or need anything beyond that. “I know.”
“As far as her gifts, I suppose it’s a little more complicated than simply accepting them.” Sarah’s brows came down, and the fine lines next to her eyes deepened as she slipped into the past. “Ava surprised me with them when she was little. If she was afraid of the dark, she could create this little spark of light on the end of her finger. Or if she got particularly frustrated with something she was trying to do, this little breeze would suddenly kick up in the room, even without a window open. I came to appreciate her talent when it came to things like the light because I knew it helped her get through our confinement. It always terrified me under the surface, though, because I didn’t know what Edward might do to her if he ever found out.”
His teeth ground together. “I don’t like to think that anyone would ever harm their own grandchild, but considering his other acts, I’m not so sure.”
“Neither was I.” Tears glistened in her eyes until she blinked them away. “I was constantly afraid of what might happen to her, either if he found out what she could do or if he thought that harming her might be just punishment for me.”
His fist pounded into the arm of the chair, sending vibrations down through the deck beneath him as he tried to control the fury that flooded through him. “Selene’s blood, I can’t believe the man would be such a monster! As your mate and Ava’s father, I can’t even begin to tell you the things I’d like to do to him for what he’s done.” Max’s wolf was churning inside him, ready to come out and make sure Edward never had the chance to harm anyone again.
Sarah had asked him not to do anything right now. He’d gone along with it at first, wanting to keep her happy, but there were some things a man simply had to take care of. He was just about to tell her when he saw her sag against the back of the chair, frowning down into her coffee. His anger still simmered inside him, threatening to come to an explosive boil at any moment. “I’m sorry. I know he’s your father, despite everything else. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s fine.” She lifted her head, but only to gaze off into the distance.
A vague memory tickled at the back of his mind. Sarah wouldn’t look at him when she was angry. It’d always driven him crazy. “It’s not fine, clearly.”
“Just let it go, Max.” She turned to the right, pulling her eyes even further from him.
A different anger moved through him now. “What happened to what you said a few minutes ago? Am I the only one who should speak up when something bothers me, or does that also apply to you?” He heard the petulance in his voice, which only raised his frustration.
She whipped her head back around, her eyes glaring and her chin tipped back. Sarah looked like she was ready for a fight. In fact, she looked just the way she had that last time he’d seen her, before all of this had happened. But she flicked her fingers in the air. “You know what? Fine. I’ll just say it. The part about witches and magic never bothered me, Max. It was different, but it wasn’t a deal breaker by any means. I can’t say that I didn’t struggle with the other traditional aspects of your pack.”
How easy it’d been to forget all the things they used to fight about. Max had only been concentrating on how nice it was to have her at his side where she belonged. It’d been hard to know he’d had another child, one whose life he hadn’t been involved in, but knowing about Ava now had made him just as giddy as welcoming a baby into the world. He’d been letting his excitement over Sarah’s arrival override the reasons they used to fight in the first place. “Like what?”
“It’s been a long time, Max, but I don’t think I should have to recite it all over again,” she returned.
“I’d rather you did, so we can get down to the bottom of it. We’ve already said we have a lot of things to talk about, a lot of things to figure out. If this is one of them, we might as well get it over with.” His exasperation was taking hold of him now, and he didn’t want to just walk away from it and pretend it didn’t exist. Max wanted to pick it apart, to find out what was wrong and dig it out like a splinter.
“You and I were raised very differently, Max. My family has a lot of problems, yes, but it’s not as though I can just erase who I am and what I believe in. You guys are just so traditional, so old school. All this business about Selene and marking has never sat right with me. It feels so constrictive.” She put her mug on the table next to her and ran a hand through her hair.
“You’re looking at it the wrong way,” he insisted. “We’ve been over this.”
“Yes, and you were the one who just demanded that we go over it again, as I recall.”
“Look, I don’t want to fight with you. I just want you to understand that—” Max stopped talking as the door behind them opened.
Joan stepped out onto the deck, her eyes darting back and forth between Max and Sarah. She undoubtedly knew something was wrong, but she wasn’t going to interfere. “I just came to let you know that lunch is ready. Dawn has the day off, and she and I have been busy in the kitchen.”
“That sounds great.” Lunch would be a nice distraction, and it would cut off the argument he was about to have with Sarah before it got any worse. He really didn’t want to fight with her. They’d have to work a few things out at some point, but it was all too new to do it right now. Max stood and held out his hand. “Shall we?”
Sarah twisted her mouth as she considered it but then took his hand and let him pull her up out of the chair. “I could eat.”
He gave her hand an extra tug to pull her closer as she got to her feet. His wolf reacted just as much as his human did to having her close like that.
“Do you know where Hunter and Ava are?” Joan asked as she opened the patio door. “I haven’t seen them for a bit.”
Sarah’s hand squeezed so that her knuckles dug into the sides of Max’s fingers. “I thought they were in the basement.”
“They’re not,” Joan confirmed.
“I’ll check their rooms,” Max said as they stepped inside.
“I’ll double-check the basement and maybe the garage.” Sarah darted off, her footsteps rattling downward.
Max headed up. He looked in Ava’s room. Joan had gone all out trying to make the poor girl feel like she finally had a home. A giant stuffed panda sat on top of a fluffy purple comforter, and a stack of books rested on the nightstand. There was no sign of Ava.
Next, he popped into the room where Hunter had been staying. It hadn’t been nearly as personalized since they all knew he and Max wouldn’t remain at the packhouse any longer than necessary. He’d still managed to leave socks on the floor and several empty sports drink containers on the dresser, but they weren’t in there, either. A quick check of the other guest rooms yielded no different results.
