Page 79 of Talk About… Trouble

We ran out of room halfway through and had to start clearing out old stuff for the new. It took a solid thirty minutes before wemanaged to finish. Wren and Devon were done at the same time, all of us gathering in the kitchen, eyes darting to the clock.

A sigh of relief ran through us all when we heard a car approaching. Devon started for the door but then faltered, looking back at us.

“Do we greet them on the porch? Is it too much?”

“We’re a pack,” Shepherd said. “They may as well see a united front. Come on.”

He put his hand on Devon’s shoulder, pulling the omega out with him, giving him strength because Devon looked like he was about as freaked out as I was.

I held out a hand for Wren. She put her palm in mine and let me pull her after us.

Braxton parked the van right up front. While his entire pack was freaking out, he looked ecstatic, the smile on his face bright.

They were all singing along to a song that I didn’t recognize. When he turned off the car and the music shut off, the noise was still there. It was nice to know they weren’t all super quiet and shy after the life they’d lived, not that anybody would have blamed them.

“Alright, everybody out! It’s time to meet my pack,” Braxton said.

He and the oldest girl got out, helping the younger ones. The oldest boy was too busy staring at us, as if assessing our worth.

I knew there were a lot of kids, but seeing all six of them standing in a line told me just how much trouble we were in. This weekend was going to be wild.

Braxton went down the line, pointing out the array of dark-haired kids. They all had similar features, so you knew they were siblings. Despite their shabby clothes, their style stood out and separated them.

Braxton started with the oldest girl and boy. “This is Trinity and Carter,” he said. Then he pointed at a girl who could only be a couple of years younger. “This is Evelyn.”

She gave us a shy smile, pushing up her glasses on her face. She had a stack of books in her hand and definitely seemed like the quiet one of the bunch.

The next was Lily, who was decked out in all pink. She had a bright smile and her ponytail was swinging around as she took us all in. It seemed like this little one thought this was going to be an adventure.

I hoped she still thought that at the end of the weekend.

Then he moved on to the two youngest, Ben and Henry. Neither one of them looked shy, and from the holes in the knees of their jeans and the dirt already covering their pants, I had a feeling these two were going to be giving Shepherd a run for his money on the farm all weekend. Their energy levels were off the charts, even standing semi-subdued in front of us.

“This is my pack, kids. We’ve got Nash, Shepherd, Wren, and Devon.”

“You have two omegas?” one of the kids asked. It wasn’t judgmental, just curious.

“We do,” Braxton said. “A boy and a girl omega.”

“Cool,” was all we got back. I guess we’d passed their test.

It was pure chaos for the next hour as the kids chose their beds, put their stuff in their rooms, and got a tour of the place. It was too dark outside at this point to show them the farm, so that would be left for the morning.

“So, I might have gone overboard at the store, so we have pretty much every snack you can imagine. However, no snacks until after dinner,” Wren said.

There were a few grumbles, but they were half-hearted at best. These weren’t kids who were used to having a choice in anything, or at least, not often.

“What about pizza night?” Braxton said. “It’ll give us a chance to put on a movie, and get settled.”

“I want pepperoni!” Henry said.

“No, sausage!” Ben argued.

“I’m grabbing paper,” I said, jotting down all the various toppings I heard yelled out around us. As the list started to grow, I cast a look at Shepherd. “We might have to get a couple more pigs. We’re going to have all kinds of leftovers when they’re around.”

“I think you’re underestimating growing children,” he said with a chuckle. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Shepherd and I put our heads together, ordering eight pizzas since we had six kids and five of us, including two alphas.

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