AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I followed Declan across town. The trip would’ve been so much faster if he stopped appeasing the damn world and drove faster than barely ten miles per hour.
Mom’s house hadn’t changed. It was a place out of time with the same porch, the same shutters, the same outdoor furniture, and the same paint. The broken lawn gnome on the side of the house was still there, taped together after Lucas and Finn toppled into it. The dent in the garage was still there from Declan learning to drive and mixing up gears. There was a matching dent on the other side from Nolan after Declan tried to teach him to drive. The shed had a boarded-up window from the time I’d broken it. All the furniture was made of wood and stained different colors thanks to Sam figuring out his craft.
We’d worn down that fucking house. I pushed my sunglasses atop my head as I got out of my jeep and just stared. My heart ached while I took in all the little details. This house welcomed Sam and Finn when their parents died. Cousins became brothers here, diving headfirst into wild shenanigans built on tight bonds and determination. Mom got the call about Dad passing away in this house. A whole town came together with meals, gifts, and helping out as the seven of us figured out how to be a family without him. Fuck, Nolan had only been three at the time. I remembered sneaking into Declan’s room for months because I couldn’t handle the grief alone. This house saw one of the worst moments of my life: Mom finding me after I’d tried to kill myself when I was sixteen. Only Mom, Declan, and Sam knew what happened that night. As far as Lucas, Finn, and Nolan knew, I’d gotten so fucking sick I needed to stay in Olympia.
Fuck, this house had been the start of our story. Genevieve and I had our first kiss on the roof outside my window and hundreds of kisses after that. How often had I snuck off into the woods to see her or vice versa by climbing down that tree by my room? I’d told Mom I was going to marry Genevieve right there on the porch and brought home my fiancé not even a week later. Every fall, we’d eat donuts on the porch, and I’d sing songs I’d written for her while she stared at me like I hung the moon and the stars for her. I fell in love with her more and more every day in this old house.
We were supposed to start a family and surprise Mom with grandkids. We had plans to buy a new playground for the next generation of Byrnes. There were so many things we had dreamed of for our life, stories we’d shared with the stars as we laid out in the backyard late at night.
All of it—our whole story—came from this house. And fuck, it hurt just to look at it.
“My baby boy is home!” Mom exclaimed as the front door flew open. I smiled as I watched her hurry down the stairs to hug me. Yeah, I’d always miss my mom. It didn’t matter that it’d been less than a day—for either of us. With her hair up, her big smile, and her apron tied around her waist, she looked happy.
“Okay, Mom.” I chuckled. I tried to pull away, but she dragged me right back for a tighter hug. “I’m staying. You can hug me all you want later.”
“I’m going to hug you all I want now,” she retorted in my ear. “You get that little wolf behind of yours ready for all the Mama time we have to make up for.”
“There’s no party, right?” I asked hesitantly. She rubbed her hands together when she let me go. That fucking look on her face made me think there was—or there would be.
“Not today. Your Uncle Cil should be here shortly with Maddie, and we have to get to the pack house before the others get here. It’s a whole mess,” Mom said with a sigh. “But I have all the things to make pancakes in the morning for you. Finn’s staying the night at the pack house, so it’ll be just you and me. We can catch up.”
Behind me, Declan fucking chuckled while I bit back a groan. Mom’s notorious talks. Fuck me, I was headed straight for one.
“I was thinking maybe I’d stay with Declan tonight—”
“Sorry, not enough room,” Declan interrupted. Damn it. “Our house is a wreck right now while we build the other one.”
“Pack house?” I muttered. Fuck, to avoid a talk with Mom, I’d stay in the heart of the fucking chaos.
“Not a chance, baby boy,” Mom called over her shoulder, heading back up the stairs. “You’re all mine.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled.
“Language!” she yelled from inside the doorway. Double fuck.
“You never learn, do you?” Declan laughed. “She always hears. Have fun with that.”
“I hate censoring myself,” I whispered. “I’m showing up at your house and fucking staying.”
And I immediately glanced over my shoulder, waiting for her to yell again.
“Not happening,” he replied. “I have a full house. Let’s get your shit unpacked and get out of here before Uncle Cil shows up. We’ll be stuck for the next hour if he starts talking.”
“Does he do that?” I asked. “Visit a lot?”
Uncle Cil had left the pack in favor of not caving to the old pack rules. Before my brothers took over, us Byrnes had to get married and have kids before we turned forty. If we didn’t, we were forced to leave the pack and Cedar Harbor for good. Instead of conforming, Uncle Cil had left Cedar Harbor before we were even born. Unfortunately, that meant he wasn’t here for us, he wasn’t here for Mom after Dad had died, and he missed out on… well, fucking everything.
But when my brothers took over the pack, they made fucking changes. About damn time. Out with the old, in with the new, and all that crap. It turned out the pack didn’t give a fuck about the time constraints or forcing us to leave. Old-world rules fucking sucked. But Sam being the bleeding heart he’d always been, he made sure the rules were retroactive. It meant Uncle Cil could come back, and it gave his daughters the chance to lead the pack alongside us—though, they had no interest in doing so.
“Did you know he and Mom slept together?” Declan demanded.
“What?” I scowled. “No! No! I didn’t want to fucking know that!”
“In the bar.”
“Stop fucking talking! Why would you tell me this?” Full fucking body cringe. I didn’t want to think about Mom that way. Ever. “Jesus fucking Christ, Declan!”
“If I have to be scarred for life, so do you!” he exclaimed with a laugh.
