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Tobey pouted as Charlie carried him off to get his skates on.
“Are you ready to skate with Mama?” Leith asked Ronan who hung from his hands like a limp ragdoll, grinning gummily up at the alpha.
I accepted the baby with fresh skates back into my arms and skated into the middle of the ice as the rest of my family zipped around us.
“Are you ready, leanbh?” I asked, not expecting an answer because he was a baby and couldn’t talk yet.
But his giggle was an answer enough.
Gently, I leaned down until his little baby feet touched the ice and held him up by his hands in the same way that we did when we practiced his walking at home.
“Smile, Mama!” I heard Enzo call and I tilted my chin up to grin at the camera as Ronan squealed with joy.
This picture would be a perfect match to one of the ones that was in an album that I kept in the cedar trunk I’d brought back with me from Ireland.
We’d donated most of Finneas’s things, but I’d packed up all of the pictures that he kept and we’d also brought Riley back with us. The cat now spent his days relaxing in high up places as he avoided the rowdy golden retrievers who he’d become reluctant roommates with.
Finneas had been a shutterbug until alcoholism truly took over his life and there were hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of me, Mam, and the three of us.
One picture that came to mind as I skated with my son was one of me and my mam.
I was probably no bigger than Ronan and we were in one of the local ice skating rinks as Mam held me up in a pretty pink princess dress as she stood on ice skates and grinned at the camera.
Even almost two years after going back to Ireland I still had complicated feelings about my father, but whenever I braved a look at the pictures I knew that, at the base of it all, he’d loved us at least a little bit before the alcohol got to him.
“Come on, that’s enough pictures,” I called to my pack as Brynn zipped around me, her two alphas having taken their children as they skated in slow circles around the ice. “Join me!”
Artie made it to me first and he gently took one of Ronan’s hands in his own and we skated together.
Leith and Wiz were next, stepping easily onto the ice as they skated to us with ease.
Finally, Enzo was last, and despite being as enamored with hockey as he was, he wobbled in his fancy suit as he joined us with a shaky grin on his face.
“You got it?” I asked, holding out a hand to catch him if need be.
“Of course I’ve got it, you four may be able to skate circles around me, but I think I can remain upright at the very least,” Enzo said dryly as he finally made it to us.
Ronan let out an ear-piercing squeal, bouncing on his little feet as he tried to move ahead of us on the ice and frowning at our hands when we wouldn’t let him go any further.
“It looks like Ronan here is going to be better at skating than you soon and this is his first time on the ice,” Leith joked as he clapped a hand on the other alpha’s back and nearly ruined his balance in the process.
“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit, that kid has Olympic gold running through his veins on both sides,” Enzo grumbled, glaring at the other alpha.
“Who knows,” I said, leaning down so I could get a better look at Ronan’s smile as we skated slowly together. “Maybe he’ll be into football instead.”
My four packmates shot me an incredulous look because none of us knew a thing about football.
“Or maybe not,” I amended with a grin. “But, either way, I can’t wait to see how he grows.”
