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His thumb swipes my cheek, wiping away a tear that escaped, as he looks me over briefly. “Are you alright?”
I let him wrap his arms around me, crushing my face against his shirt as I inhale his scent. As his cologne invades my senses, my muscles relax, and I nod against his chest. The sound of gravel crunching has his arms tensing before he relaxes again. I peek around his shoulder to find an older woman with gray streaked black hair walking around the side of the house with a small brown haired girl following her.
“Maddie!” Mila says, rushing over to take the large casserole dish from her hands.
“I hope you don’t mind, but we brought some potato salad.” The older woman smiles, her gaze sweeping the yard briefly. “If I’m not mistaken, it’ll pair wonderfully with those grilled steaks.” She winks at Mila before making her way over to us, sitting herself down on the chair beside us. “Well, Gideon, don’t just sit there. Introduce me to this beautiful woman.”
My cheeks heat at the compliment, and I tuck a strand of hair behind my ears. “Adara,” I say, reaching out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you…” I trail off, realizing I’m not sure if I should call her by the nickname as Mila did.
She smiles, a glint in her eyes. “Madrona, but you’re welcome to call me Maddie if you’d like.”
Gideon shuffles to sit on the chair, pulling me onto his lap as before, and I fight against the blush flaming my cheeks again. “Madrona is the pack mother. One of many pack parents, but easily the best.” He gives her a warm smile, the rare expression stealing my breath as it transforms his face. “That’s Jaz,” he nods to the brown haired girl standing by the grill, glaring at Frank with her hands on her hips as he laughs. “Sawyer and Bella’s girl,” he adds under his breath.
It takes me a minute to work through the familiarity of that first name, but slowly, the pieces click together in my mind. The blue book in his office. Sawyer. I twist around. “But… her mother…”
“She killed herself a few years after his death,” he answers.
My eyes travel back to the spitfire girl before me. Pride and strength ooze from her small frame, but my heart breaks for her all the same.
“She’s been doing very well since you found her,” Madrona says. “She won’t talk about that night, but whatever you did… Gideon, you saved her.”
His lips press into a firm line. “She never needed saving. She just needed to remember where she came from.”
Madrona nods, the shadow of a smile ghosting her lips.
I make a mental note to ask him more about it later when everyone else leaves.
“I think I’ll go help Mila with the food.” Madrona pushes herself up from the chair, making her way to Mila and following her into the kitchen.
Not long after she walks inside, Jaz skips over from the grill and takes her seat. “Found her then?” she says, smirking.
Gideon rolls his eyes.
Jaz laughs. “He was goingferaltrying to find you.”
He cuts his gaze to her with a glare, which only makes her laugh harder.
“He almost gave up. Can you believe that?”
I look over my shoulder at Gideon behind me, feeling his fingers tighten on my hips. “You almost gave up?”
“I did not—”
Jaz nods, her eyes alight with mischief as she cuts him off. “Your scent was making the hunters go in circles. It was driving him straightferal.”
“The hunters?” I ask, unsure what that means. Did Gideon have his entire pack searching for me?
“Oh, yeah.” Jaz leans back on the lounge chair. “He had the hunters out, the whole pack on high alert. He was even out there tracking you himself, which happensnever. I tried to help, but,” she shrugs and rolls her eyes, “you know how stubborn he is.”
A laugh escapes me at her attitude—so carefree and relaxed while insulting the most dangerous wolf in existence. One look at Gideon tells me he doesn’t actually mind, despite the gruff exterior.
“You had school. You can’t just skip your studies to prance around like—”
“Yeah, yeah,Dad.” She waves her hand in his direction.
“You’re insufferable,” he growls.
She ignores him, jumping forward to sit on the edge of the chair. “Oh! Can you do magic? I’d love to see it. Does being a witch help you control your wolf better? I can shift on demand now, but it’s still not the most comfortable.”
