AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know. I’d do anything to make Nila happy. Walk through fire, sleep on nails. The works. And I’d give up the pack in a heartbeat if she couldn’t be part of things with me.”
Lucian would do anything to make Mia happy, too. He just wished the berserker didn’t scare the elders so much. He felt confident that he could be out with Mia in the woods on the full moon and be perfectly safe to be around. But he couldn’t prove it, and the alpha clearly thought that Lucian’s word wasn’t worth much.
Exhaling loudly, he said, “I’m going to head home.”
“Want to come over for dinner tomorrow night? We should really do it right this time. I promise my mate won’t sneak anyone else into the house.”
Lucian chuckled. “Let me check with the boss, but it sounds good.”
An hour later, he walked in the front door of the home that he now shared with Mia. It smelled like Italian spices and tomatoes, and his mouth instantly watered. Mia set a large pan in the center of the kitchen table and smiled at him. Candles burned on either side of the bubbling pan of lasagna.
“Smells wonderful, sweetheart,” he said, joining her and giving her a kiss.
“I’m craving Italian.”
“Oh?” he asked, smiling down at her sweet face.
She blinked rapidly several times and said, “I want to take the test tomorrow morning. I think I’m pregnant.”
He cupped her face. “It’s good to find out either way.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sad?”
She shook her head slightly, her eyes brightening as she seemed to try to hold back tears. He enveloped her in a hug, holding her close and wanting to take away every bad thing.
“I wouldn’t trade you for the pack,” she whispered, her voice rough with emotion. “I just want to be with you.”
“I want that, too.”
Her hands curled into his shirt, and she rubbed her cheek against his chest, right over his heart. They stood like that, both of them holding tight to each other, for what seemed like hours. In reality it wasn’t more than a few minutes, but the emotional hold continued on long after they separated enough to sit down and eat.
“I don’t know what it’s like to feel torn the way you are, sweetheart,” he said as he sank his fork into the layered mass of noodles, cheese, and sauce. “But I wish you wouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself about me.”
She made a face. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you’re worried that I’m going to feel left out, or jealous, or something. I get how important the pack is to you.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment, instead focusing her attention on the square of lasagna on her plate. When she’d cut it into pieces and speared a chunk, she said, “It’s notjustabout you.”
He raised his brow questioningly, silently encouraging her to finish her thought.
“If I’m not pregnant right now, it’s probably a good bet that I will be after this coming fall heat. When Iampregnant, half of the baby is going to be berserker. If you’re not accepted by the pack as being a safe beast to be around at all times, then they’re not going to let our kids hang out, either. It’s bad enough to suffer with the thought of being away from you during the full moon, but do you honestly think I could stand to be separated from my kids? To let them think for even a half a second that they’re not valued and important?”
Lucian loved his fierce truemate a little harder right then. Ready to go all momma-bear on anyone would who treat her kids differently.
“You’d rather not be here at all, then.”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem,” she said. “If we stay, hoping that maybe Acksel and the elders will change their minds about you, I might be condemning our kids to always being outsiders. If we go, I lose my pack. It’s hell one way or the other.”
“I’ll be your pack. I know it’s not the same, but we can go to my dad’s on the full moon.”
She smiled at him, but he could see she was still at war. Things were new with them, and he wasn’t about to put a rush on her decision. Walking away from the hunters to keep her safe had been a no-brainer, but although he had considered his teamlikefamily, they weren’t actually family. The pack was a big family, and she’d grown up in Wilde Creek, expecting her entire life to play out from start to finish in the woods at the alphas’ home. Her best friend, their kids, everyone growing old together in a picturesque way, as if Norman Rockwell had painted wolf packs instead of humans.
He stood and pulled her from her chair, enveloping her in a tight hug. “Let’s put a pin in things for now, sweetheart. First things first – find out if you’ve got my bun in your oven.”
She made a face. “Did you just say that?”
