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My wolf was just as unhappy about any time spent apart from our mate. But I did have a solution. “Haven, when was the last time you took a vacation?”
Sure, it wasn’t a true vacation like at a resort, but Haven bounced in glee when I suggested she come with us for a couple of weeks while we did what we needed to in order to get the house on the market and put in the fair time for our jobs, etc. Any time with our mate was going to be better than a resort anyway.
And when that was all done, we’d return, find new jobs, and take care of our mate for the rest of our lives.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Haven
Landing in my mates’ town, I wanted to see everything. They would be leaving this place to move in with me in about two weeks, and they would have to show up for the two-weeks’ notice they’d given. I’d warned Tilly that it might be a bit longer, but she was thrilled to sit at my desk and be me while I was gone. In truth, she knew the business just about as well as I did, and although I’d told her to feel free to call me in an emergency, I didn’t expect a call anytime soon.
Their home had the same cozy feel they’d imbued mine with on their very first day there. I paced through the space, breathing it in and appreciating what they’d created. My gaze landed on a picture of the two of them with a dark-haired woman in the middle. I’d never seen a shifter look so pale, and her eyes held such pain, lines of agony bracketing her beautiful lips.
“That’s Sela,” Collyn said, standing beside me. “If you didn’t guess.”
“I did. She was stunning, but…” How did I say it without bringing up painful memories?
“But hurting.” Fitz joined us and put an arm around my waist. “We knew she was dying, but we tried not to think about it.”
“And so we didn’t see it,” Collyn added. “At least not entirely. She did everything she could to appear at her best, and we tried to delude ourselves that even if she wasn’t getting better, she was at least holding her own.”
I traced her face in the picture. What she’d gone through to keep her mates from suffering. Not that it was possible, but she’d done her best. I’ll take care of them, I promised. You can rest.
Did she hear me? I didn’t know, but the sense of peace that came over me was undeniable. “She loved you so much. She still does.”
“She’d love you, too.” Fitz turned me away from the picture. “As we do.”
“I love you both so much.” Lifting my face, I invited both of them to kiss me. “Now that I’ve greeted the lady of this house, what should we do first?”
“Shift and run.” Collyn pulled his shirt over his head. “I can’t believe we haven’t done it already.”
“Our wolves were patient,” I agreed. “But mine is about ready to take control whether I approve of it or not. She’s desperate to play with her mates. Don’t we need to wait for dark though?” Sunset was hours away yet.
“You haven’t been out in the backyard,” Fitz said, removing his arm from my waist and taking my hand. “We picked this place for a reason.”
The house wasn’t completely isolated, but it was far enough out of town that the next one home lay a good distance away. And when Collyn opened the back door, we stepped out onto a wide patio facing an expanse of meadow that ended at a tree line. “There’s a forest out here,” I breathed.
“And all the neighbors anywhere close are shifters or something even wilder, so let’s go.” Collyn stripped efficiently down to his very gorgeous nudity, as did Fitz. I hurried to do the same before I lost another outfit to my wolf’s need for freedom.
“My yard isn’t this wonderful, as you probably already know, but there is a big park a block away where we can run at night, and it’s about a fifteen-minute drive to a wild area.”
“We know.” Fitz grinned at me. “We’ve checked out the options and found even more of them. We will be able to do a lot of exploration together.” And then, he was shifting, becoming his wolf. Collyn was even faster, and I wanted to take some time to get to know them, to pet the lush white fur and look into their golden eyes, but my wolf was having none of it.
I hadn’t shifted with someone in such a long time, and never a lover, much less a mate, but my wolf’s reaction took my breath away. She bumped their shoulders and nipped at their muzzles before racing across the lawn and into the forest beyond. I heard a yelp and bark behind us and felt my wolf’s satisfaction at setting a high bar for our first chase.
Of course, she didn’t know these woods, and presumably our mates were familiar with every acre of it, so they would catch us sooner than later. But tearing through the battered remains of last autumn’s leaves, skirting boulders, and darting around trees, I felt a freedom I’d never experienced before. A freedom to be myself and not worry about anything but the pleasure of running and breathing and knowing my mates were right on our heels. The sparkle of water caught our interest and we veered off toward it, but before we quite reached the lake calling to us, we were tackled and brought to ground by our mates.
I’d never known my wolf to tussle, at least not since she was a pup, but we rolled across the ground, barking and growling and nipping at one another until we landed right in the lake. The cold water startled me so much, I took my skin, finding myself sitting in a foot or so of depth with the two white wolves looking down at me. Circling their necks with my arms, I held them close, suffused with so much love, I didn’t know how my heart could hold it all.
We wouldn’t be staying here, wouldn’t come back to this place very often if at all, but the memories we’d made here would hold true in the home we lived in together for the rest of our lives. One where Sela’s picture would have a prominent place. I wanted her to know that I was taking good care of these men she’d loved so much.
Epilogue
Haven
Moving my mates to the home that would no longer be just mine but ours took a bit longer than two weeks. Try six. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of was a big job. I kept insisting we take their things, while they insisted they didn’t need much more than their clothes because I had everything. It was the closest we’d come to an argument, but in the end, we compromised and brought several pieces of furniture. Collyn had actually made a couple and others were hand-me-downs from family that held sentimental value.
Their fears that their items would clash were completely unfounded. Silly alphas. In particular, the pair of recliners were a great fit. They went into the media room I envisioned in the basement. It would be a space they could do anything they liked with, and I promised I would keep away from their man cave.
