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Ethan opened his mouth to speak but Trevor and Shae took that moment to reach out through our connections and share their joy with me. His eyebrows rose and he laughed with such unrestrained joy that it stole my breath.
“I can feel them. They’re farther away than you and Theo but… they’re there! Thank you, Jade. I love you, too. So much. Putting into words what you did for me is never going to seem possible. The way you saved me, gave me a home, showed me what a pack could be and patiently let me heal and grow, and the way you love all of us. We are the luckiest pack on the planet because you are ours.”
I could feel tears lining my eyes again from Ethan’s words but also from feeling the sincerity behind them: the love. And it wasn’t just coming from Ethan. All my mates were flooding our bonds, trying to communicate through the space that separated us how much having Ethan in our pack meant to them. We stayed in that blissed-out state for a while longer until we had no choice but to get cleaned up and get to bed.
I wished I could keep Ethan in that place of peaceful happiness, to just focus on how much love was between all of us, for as long as we wanted. But it wasn’t time for that; not yet. As we lay back down in the nest, with the scents of our packmates around us, I wrapped him in my arms and began to purr. In almost no time at all, Ethan had dropped off to sleep, with the cutest little puffs of breath coming from his lips. I knew I needed to sleep, too: that I would need the rest for tomorrow. Theo and I had demons to slay; whatever it took to keep them all safe. We would become the monsters that defended our pack from the darkness and kept it at bay.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ETHAN
“Are you sure about that, Ethan? You only have one semester left before you graduate.”
The older Beta looked at me with concern, and I found myself appreciating, for what felt like the millionth time in the last few months, that she was my advisor. So many people would have tied my request to take a semester off to my designation and the fact that I’d found a pack, and just written me off as another Omega drop-out, leaving school to be spoiled by their pack. But my advisor had always been careful to make sure I understood any consequences of my choices, guided me, and fought for me when I needed help.
“I’m sure, Miss Tammy. My doctors told me that I could have a heat as often as every other month until my body settles into the natural processes that I had been suppressing for so long. I will finish my degree but, right now, I can’t continue when I have to take time off so often. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone.”
She nodded, but still looked unconvinced.
“No one is pressuring you to make this choice?”
I smiled then shook my head.
“No ma’am. My pack is wonderful and completely supportive of all my choices. There’s no coercion or anything nefarious happening.”
She sighed then shuffled some papers around and turned to her computer. We spent the next thirty minutes coming up with a plan for submitting my request for a semester off citing all the documentation I’d brought with me regarding my medical situation as well as the circumstances surrounding my pack. We found the summer courses I could take and the ones that would have to wait until the following Fall semester so I could still graduate in a year. When it was time to go, she hugged me tightly and asked that I keep her updated whenever I could.
As I walked out of her offices, I wondered how often she faced Omegas abandoning the hopes and dreams they’d for themselves in favor of what their Alphas wanted them to do or who they were made to be. Shame washed through me as I realized how happy I had been to sit in my own ignorance for so long. How I’d deluded myself into believing that it was noble of me to give a little bit of time to help Haven. My steps faltered when I felt Jade and Theo both prodding at me through the bond. They must have sensed the shift in my thoughts. I needed to learn to lock that up, sooner rather than later. Especially since they planned on going after Graves tonight. I didn’t want to risk distracting them when they were facing off with that monster.
I was lost in thought until sun-ripened blackberries and sea-soaked fresh air hit my senses. Shae and Miles were sitting in the chairs in the reception area with their heads together, discussing something. As Miles smiled and scratched his fingers against the perfectly trimmed beard along his jaw, my stomach gave a little lurch. My packmates were stunning. They spotted me and stood, walking forward to sandwich me between them. When we reached the front door of the building, Miles held it open for us and Shae took my hand.
We wandered through the campus, taking the longer route from the administration building that passed through an area that had the oldest buildings on campus, and broad green spaces with giant trees whose leaves were a riot of golds, oranges, and reds. As Shae and Miles chatted about their own days at university, I breathed in their scents in the crisp fall air and had the sense that these moments would be etched into my memory for the rest of my life.
Miles' phone chimed and he read the text quickly, his mouth turning down as he looked up and scanned the area around us.
“Is everything okay?”
He turned and nodded, smiling at us reassuringly.
“That was the driver. He said there were press vans near the pick-up location, so he moved to the parking garage. It’s just past that building. Will you be alright, Ethan? We can have him meet us in another area.”
I squeezed Shae’s hand and looked between the two of them. This wasn’t like before and I wasn’t alone.
“I don’t know what the media would be doing here, but it’s not worth facing them if they want to talk to Shae or if they’ve connected some other dots. I’ll be fine.”
Miles moved to my side and pressed a kiss to my temple before moving to give Shae a kiss as well and then he began walking in the direction of the parking structure, motioning for us to follow him. Shae kept me distracted, talking about how excited they were to be working for Drake House now, too, and that they couldn’t believe Jade hadn’t thought of it sooner. How Cat was feeling like she could come back to work soon, and scheming over how we could get Miles to set up his office there as well so the whole pack could be together most days.
“Won’t they need to hire another pair of EMTs? You and Cat can’t be on call twenty-four hours a day.”
“For sure. Jade said we’d only have one ambulance but maybe get a first responder vehicle as well and hire one or two more teams. We aren’t going to be helping people as much as we used to. Jade said a lot of it would be the private clients wanting banana bags for hangovers or patching up small things after they’ve done something stupid, but it’s safer and more flexible for both me and Cat.”
I dipped my head over so I could run my nose up their neck and kiss their jaw as we walked. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and I couldn’t help but get swept away in it right along with them. We crossed over the walkway that led to the parking structure’s ground level, which had the one-hour parking spaces where the driver was supposed to meet us, and spotted the car idling a few spaces down from where we emerged. Shae had continued talking, this time about plans for the night, not so subtly trying to curb my nerves. I had only been partly listening, having become distracted by the way the muscles in Miles' shoulders shifted as he walked and that deliciously rounded ass that filled out his pants.
If I hadn’t been staring so hard at Miles' back, I probably would have walked into him when he stopped abruptly, putting an arm out to keep Shae and I behind him.
“Turn around, now. Walk back to the blue callbox on the other side of the walkway and call for help.”
Shae’s voice was hesitant.
