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My eyes watch her every movement from across the room, but Andie pokes me in the ribs. “Leave it alone.”
“No.” I sound like a toddler, but I don’t care.
“If it was something urgent, she’d tell you,” Andie reminds me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know now.
“Seriously, Cait.” Embry sighs. “She’s not a child anymore. She’s almost our alpha. Trust her.”
“I do trust her,” I say without hesitation. “I just…”
“Don’t want to be left out?” Lucinda cuts in. “Welcome to my world. I barely had ten years with my kids before they decided to act like adults.”
Amersyn raises a brow. “Isn’t that normal for fae?”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Lucinda crosses her arms, but grins. “Though, they’re still pretty incredible.”
She told me earlier about Dominic figuring out his wings, and she hasn’t stopped smiling since. It makes my heart want to burst.
“That they are,” I tell her.
“What are we going to do about Beatrix?” Amersyn asks, the only one of us not finding the punch incident hilarious.
My eyes meet the vampire’s as I say, “Absolutely nothing. She’s old. Let her have her fun.”
“At our expense?” she asks with a raised brow.
I shrug and look across the room to find the witch in question, sitting on the ground, playing cards with my grandson. “Yep.”
Amersyn shakes her head but doesn’t say anything else. Out of all of us, she’s the least…domesticated, but that doesn’t mean we love her any less. She has the harder path, unable to have kids and in charge of the protectors. A task she chose, but still, we don’t take that lightly. It’s not something I would have wanted to take on myself, and I’m grateful she and Maciah did.
Andie loops an arm around me and then Lucinda, beaming with joy. “Thank you, ladies.”
“For what?” Lucy asks, surprisingly not backing away from the half hug she’s receiving.
“For being here, for accepting me into your little girl gang, for never allowing me to feel alone,” she says, eyes getting glossy. “I spent a lot of time by myself when I was younger, but finding Foster, Charlie, and the coven… Everything changed. I don’t even want to know where I’d be if I hadn’t met all of you.”
And just like that, any of the tension lingering from anyone else is gone.
We’re a lucky group, and sometimes we take that for granted, but not today.
“If someone suggests we all hug right now, I’m going to punch you in your tits,” Lucinda says, but her tone is light.
Oh, how far she’s come.
Everyone else laughs, and I don’t think I could be happier.
“Who’s ready for dinner?” Roman announces from the hallway.
Not only did he take care of breakfast this morning, but he also made me relinquish dinner to him and Beatrix. Though, she didn’t help long.
Roman’s eyes find me in the group of our closest friends, and he winks, making my stomach flutter like we’re still in our twenties.
By shifter standards, we’re not even close to old, but we’ve learned more times than I care to count that life can be shorter than we want. So, as the years pass quicker, I’m conscious of each one, which is why I’m okay with retiring as alpha female.
I want to spend the rest of my years with my mate, sometimes being selfish, sometimes doing exactly what we do now. Just being here for not only our family, but our pack.
Though, with our daughter in charge.
Nowthatmakes me feel old, but also incredibly proud. I knew the moment Dawsyn was born that she was going to be strong, but she’s turned out far more incredible than I could have ever predicted.
