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“I doubt Joshua’s going to fight fair. Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m not. I can bide my time to see who else sides with him. I don’t want to be picking off traitors and rebels one by one over the next ten years. I want this over.” I wanted the pack to be a safe place for Amelia and Dylan.
Shaw sighed. “Alright.”
When I hung up, Teresa looked at me curiously.
“We’re going to search Amelia’s room.” I wanted to know that Joshua and his ilk hadn’t somehow made it into her room to plan other things that would endanger her. The thought of my own pack being the danger to Amelia ignited fury in my chest.
“She’ll appreciate that,” she said, but she still fell in at my heels as I strode toward the door.
“She wants to know there’s no reason I might tear her throat out before she’s willing to come back.” I couldn’t hide the bitterness in my voice.
We were walking across the dark shadowed lawn toward the house. Only a few lights were on now; Karissa had left the porch light shining, illuminating the wide front porch. For some reason, I imagined Amelia stepping out the front door, just for a second.
With a smile on her face—for me—and a baby in her arms—who was mine.
I pressed the desire down. The bonds between Amelia and I were hot and bright and…terrifying to us both.
Teresa flashed me a sympathetic look. “She’s suffered a lot, Stone. If she hadn’t… she could see that she can trust you.”
I scoffed again, and this time it didn’t manage to sound like a laugh at all. “She has every reason to feel like I betrayed her. She was terrified of me and I chased her.”
So fucking stupid.
But I’d had to stop her from leaving pack territory…and throwing herself into danger’s path. Just because she was so wild to get away from me.
“Anyway,” I added harshly. “I thought you despised Amelia.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
The house was quiet as I stepped into the foyer. I headed up the stairs. Karissa had tidied up the Lego blocks that had briefly taken over the living room once they left. I’d slept in the command center the last few nights—it was my house, but Karissa was so damned loud, it was easier to let her win—and the sight of the clean, tidy living room caused a sudden pit of loneliness to open in my stomach.
I’d missed not just Amelia, but her child. Brennan’s child.
Tee and I made short work of searching Amelia’s room. There were precious few personal items of hers, and nothing she had bothered to bring with her when she ran, scared for her life.
It was Brennan’s memories that were harder to face. His battered baseball cap that he had worn obsessively the year he was fifteen. Our mother’s guitar books, since she was the one who had taught him to play and passed on her obsession with the oldies. The line of his sweatshirts, hanging up in the closet, even though I’d never understood why a hoodie deserved a hanger.
“Hey.” Cole’s voice, from the doorway, made me turn. Dylan was at his side, Cole’s hand resting on the boy’s shoulder.
Dylan’s eyes brightened when he saw me and he rushed forward. He didn’t seem to notice anything strange about the fact I was searching his mother’s room, even though I felt like I’d been caught red-handed. But Dylan threw himself at me wholeheartedly, and I hugged him tightly.
“Uncle Stone,” he said, and my heart squeezed. He was wearing pajamas—ones made in this decade now—and he scolded me, “You woke me up!”
“Sorry.”
“Aunt Karissa has been letting me stay up and watch movies in her room since my mom is away,” Dylan said. “But can I sleep in your room tonight?”
I didn’t know what to do with that request. I wasn’t used to sharing my space with anyone. I hadn’t even liked sleeping near kids when I was a kid myself; my mother had too many of us too close in age, and I’d grown up craving my privacy.
Tee was giving me a distinctly meaningful look.
“Um, okay,” I said. “I’ll put you in bed. But I have some work to do before I go to sleep.”
“Do you have a TV in your room?” Dylan asked cheerfully, which made me quite sure I was being scammed. Still, I settled him into my bed and set my laptop on the nightstand so he could watch whatever he wanted. Dylan’s sheer glee that I let him on Youtube suggested to me I was making some kind of mistake, but I had to get back to Cole and Teresa, so I let it go.
