Page 43 of Crystal Luna

“We are.”

He pulled her into a side hug and squeezed her tight. “I’ll meet you tomorrow for our late breakfast, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t forget it’s your day to sleep in. No waking up at four in the morning!”

“I’ll try.”

He then nudged her towards the village while he kept walking towards the warriors’ den.

Her body heated more and more with each step she took towards Alpha Heath’s house. She hadn’t seen him in two weeks—the last time being when he’d picked up Curtis and Mia from the apple tree.

When she knocked on the front door, she was greeted by an excited squeal and two thundering sets of footsteps. The door swung open and both children beamed at her.

“You came!” they exclaimed.

“I said I would.”

“Let her come in and give her some space to breathe,” Alpha Heath scolded them from the kitchen.

They quickly did as their father told them and stepped aside.

“They wouldn’t let me start cooking until you got here.” His smile was weary and apologetic as Mia pulled her towards her father.

“That’s alright.”

“Dad always burns the food,” Curtis tattletaled.

“Not as often anymore,” Alpha Heath mumbled as he turned to the fridge.

“Only because Curtis helps,” Mia giggled.

Heath set everything on the counter and then lifted Mia up to sit next to him. “More action and less talking, princess.” He then handed her his phone so she could hold it in front of him while he checked the list of ingredients.

Curtis pulled himself up to sit on the counter next to Velora and whispered in her ear, “Dad’s already checked that list like a thousand times.”

“I can hear you, son.”

“Well, I’m sure he knows what to do so why don’t we wait on his instruction,” Velora suggested and patiently waited to get her first assigned task.

As expected, Curtis quickly took over his father’s cooking. He insisted that he and Velora would take charge while Mia and their father were assigned to prep. Alpha Heath eagerly got to chopping vegetables, seeming rather relieved. Curtis clearly had inherited his mother’s skills. Once everything was on the stove and simmering, they set the table together.

“How are you and Rayan getting along?” he asked when he sent the kids away to wash their hands.

“Good. He might have figured out the whole half-shift thing today.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “He did?”

“I told him about how I use a mirror image to shift, so he used the mind link to show me what I looked like in that moment.”

“Clever. I didn’t even think of that.”

“I did, but it never worked. He believes it’s because I never truly knew what I looked like.”

“I have to admit my pride is a little damaged. It never crossed my mind to use it for the half-shift.”

Before she could answer, Mia and Curtis bounded into the room with clean hands. Dinner was filled with them bubbly chatting about their day and how they wanted to make this a weekly thing so they’d at least get one meal that wasn’t burnt. Alpha Heath took the blows with grace and silenced them with ice cream for dessert.

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