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“Evie?” Molly called out, forcing Evie to look up from her tablet and her eyes softened. Molly ran to her and Evie leaned down to pick her up in her arms, my heart warming at the kiss Molly placed on her cheek.
“You’re looking so pretty, Molly. Are you dressed so fancy so you can see all the wolves run tonight?” she asked, walking into her room so I could finish putting on her socks and shoes.
“I wan see James,” Molly whined, making me sigh. This child of mine had a one track mind.
“He’ll be there. You’re not going to get scared when he turns into a wolf are you?” Evie and I had both shifted in front of her a few times already to ensure that she wasn’t shocked or terrified if anyone shifted while we weren’t there. Molly shook her head, her eyes excited. She’d asked James if he could change into a wolf too, and James promised to show her his wolf one day. I guess today was going to be that day.
“Well, you be good for Mommy, okay? I have to go change, too.”
‘Is everything okay?’ I mind-linked Evie when Molly came back to stand between my legs so I could re-braid the left side of her head.
‘Yep,’ she answered curtly. ‘I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.’
I didn’t push, but it was clear that something had happened. Cory hadn’t come out to the office in two days—a record for him—and last night when we had the training presentation for how to navigate the security software, he’d looked everywhere but at Evie. Once the presentation was over, he’d left the room so quickly, I could see the air still outlining the space he’d been occupying like they do in Molly’s cartoons. Evie didn’t want to talk about it yet, and I respected that, but I was itching to know what was going on. I thought those two had been dancing circles around each other’s feelings, and I was beginning to wonder if my instincts were wrong and Cory didn’t actually care for her the way I thought he did. Everyone told me Cory was waiting for his mate and wouldn’t date anyone else, but I could swear the man was in love with my best friend. And despite Evie never saying a word, I knew she was in love with him, too.
Worrying about a potential Cory and Evie drama actually helped my own nerves calm for a minute. But then it was my turn to change while Evie looked after Molly, and I found myself wondering what James might like most out of my closet. In the end, I went with practical. I grabbed a pretty light blue sundress with tiny red flowers on it, pulled my hair into a ponytail, added some mascara and walked to the living room so we could head out.
“Doesn’t Mommy look so pretty, Molly? James is going to love that dress, isn’t he?” Evie asked as both of them looked at me with a critical eye. I rolled my eyes at my friend and shook my head, trying to hide the blush and smile that stemmed from her words.
“I have to go get my tablet from the office. Meet you at the celebration?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she answered mischievously.
We parted ways after locking the house. I walked to the office building and up to my office with Molly. I grabbed my tablet, and took a few minutes to put away some documents I left out when I had to leave early to pick up Molly. Thankfully, the documents weren’t sensitive material, I just didn’t like leaving a mess behind for the cleaning staff to deal with.
We walked to Guardian Moon after I was done. The sun was already disappearing over the horizon, the moon beginning to show itself shyly in the sky, waiting for her moment to shine. Sable was already stretching and wagging her tail excitedly. She had never experienced a full moon run celebration with a pack, unless you counted when Evie would drag me out to run during the full moons. The times were few, considering it was hard to find overnight sitters for Molly.
We were approaching the back of the Guardian Moon pack house and I was gobsmacked by the amount of people present. How the hell was I going to find Luna Celeste in this crowd? She had very kindly volunteered to watch Molly so I could let Sable run with the packs.
You can mind-link her, duh! Sable laughed at me, but in my defense, I was still only four weeks into being able to do that for the first time. I still forgot I could do it on occasion.
I tried to link Evie to ask her where she was, but it didn’t connect. I frowned. She was supposed to be here by now. I walked closer to the gathering, thinking maybe she had her mind block up, but I couldn’t see her. Before I joined the crowds though, I heard James calling out my name. Molly immediately wrenched her hand from mine and ran to James, who was wearing a pair of dark washed jeans and a maroon shirt, and his hair was still wet.
“Hello, Miss Molly! I’ve missed you! Have you been good for Mommy?” My traitorous lying child nodded her big eyes at him, making me roll my eyes. It wasn’t like I could call her out on her lie, either. If I did, I would have to tell James the reason she was misbehaving was because she missed him. I didn’t want to put that on his shoulders. He liked Molly, but she wasn’t his. He wasn’t obligated to see her every day because she took a liking to him.
“Are you done with work for the evening?” I asked.
“Mostly. I’ll be back on duty after the run, but I’ve been up since dawn and helped escort the buses here, so Cory said I earned a reprieve for a few hours. You?”
“I’ve got my trusty tablet here. I can work from anywhere,” I told him, showing him the tablet inside my messenger bag, which also had some snacks for Molly in it. “I was supposed to meet Evie here but I can’t find her.”
“Oh, I thought I saw her coming this way when I went to shower,” he replied, looking around with his brows furrowed.
“Yeah, we left the house at the same time, but I had to go to the office to pick up the tablet.”
“I’m sure she’s around here somewhere. Come on, I want you to meet my parents. Aunt Celeste told them all about Molly and they want to meet her.” He grabbed my hand and started dragging me behind him, but I dug my heels in the ground, making him stop. “What’s wrong?”
“Do you really think it’s wise, James? What if—”
“You’re a new pack member and they’re the previous gammas. They just want to meet you. I promise I haven’t told them anything. I won’t even hold your hand when we see them,” he told me quietly, a small bit of hurt showing in his grey eyes.
“I’m overthinking this again, aren’t I?” I sighed, making him give me a small smile.
“It’s okay. Trust is a process.” He continued to guide me through the crowd until I saw Luna Celeste talking with a few other people. James dropped my hand, but continued to hold Molly, who was chatting animatedly at him about what the last three days were like for her. When Luna Celeste saw us, she smiled widely and waved, making the rest of the people surrounding her turn toward us. My nerves spiked, but I reminded myself that I was welcomed here.
“Zi! I’m glad you found me. I was going to mind-link you if I didn’t see you soon. This is Camila and Gillian, the previous beta couple of Crescent Moon, and Maya and Danny, the previous gammas and James’ parents. Guys, this is Ziomara.”
“Welcome to the pack. I hope everyone’s been treating you well,” Maya smiled warmly at me, her eyes going to Molly, who was now shyly cuddling into James’ chest. I tensed, wondering what both of them would think about my child cuddling up to their son, but her face immediately lit up and she approached slowly. “Hello! You must be Miss Molly! I’ve heard so much about you, so I snuck something for you from the caterers that I think you’ll like,” she whispered conspiratorially, bringing out a cookie from a wrapped napkin.
