Page 30 of Pack: Posy 3

"You're such a kind, considerate girl. Itishard and sad, but I have many, many happy memories that help."

She turned the page for us and saw the Carsons with Jay and me on either side of them.

"I just realized that Jayden's name is made up from his parents' names," she said with a smile. "Jay and Denise."

"Yeah. They thought Jay Junior would get too confusing, but we call him Jay most of the time anyway. They were great people, Posy. I wish you could have met them. Aunt Denise would have loved you so much and Uncle Jay would have teased you about your height mercilessly. I can almost hear his voice calling you Minnie Mouse."

She laughed, but it was true.

"I'm glad you had them to love you after your parents died."

"Me, too. They died within three weeks of each other." I looked up at the ceiling and blinked until the stinging in my eyes passed. "After losing his luna, Nathan was struggling to keep his family together while running Great Rocks. Royal was in slightly better shape over at Earthshine, so he and Shawn pitched in to help with Moonset, but I think they were all wondering what they were going to do. Thankfully, the sickness had nearly run its course and our doctors were administering vaccines and cures."

Taking a deep breath, I turned to the next page in the album. The hardest page to look at, even harder than my own parents and my adopted ones. In the photo, Shawn Black stood with his arm around Evie's waist. Wyatt was on their left and Wayne on their right. Wade stood in front of Wyatt and Wesley in front of Wayne.

"Then, right when we thought we were safe, we lost Shawn Black."

I couldn't talk for a minute. Couldn't even look at the man's picture. I wasn't ashamed of the tears that ran down my cheeks, but I didn't want to upset our girl.

"Ash," she whispered.

Picking up the photo album, she moved it to the coffee table, then took its place on my lap. I hugged her as close as I could and buried my face in the crook of her neck and tried not to sob.

"It's okay, Ash. You can cry. It's okay to grieve when we lose someone we love."

"He was a great man," I choked out. "I mean, you hear that all the time about people who've died, but Shawn Black truly was. He was kind and funny and smart and compassionate. He always knew what to say and do. He stuck up for Mase against Royal all the time. He wasn't afraid of anything. He loved his mate and kids. He was fair and brave and charismatic. All of us boys idolized him."

I released her to grab the neck of my t-shirt and wipe my eyes, then cupped her face in my hands.

"When he died, it hurt everyone who knew him." My voice came out as a husky croak, and I cleared my throat. "But Wyatt? Goddess, Posy. ItshatteredWyatt. That's his story to tell when he's ready for you to know, but I was so scared. All of us were. We thought— We thought he might try to—"

I couldn't even think it, let alone say it.

"Shh." She ran her hands through my curls and kissed my forehead as tears filled her own eyes. "Thank the Goddess he didn't. I don't even want to think what life would be like without Wyatt."

Right as I felt her body tremble, the alpha link was slammed with my four brothers demanding to know why our girl was upset. Rolling my eyes, I didn't go into more detail than to say that she wanted to look through the photo album her brothers gave her and that led to looking throughourphoto album.

Do something to make her happy!Wyatt insisted.

Don't dwell on the morbid past that nobody can change!Cole snapped.

See if she wants to make brownies,Jay suggested. That will cheer her up.

Mase remained silent. In the past, that wouldn't have been unusual; however, since Posy came into our lives, he'd become more vocal, and I wondered if he was thinking, or if he'd run into trouble with the Cold Moon representative.

Mase?I asked.

She has a right to know,he said begrudgingly,but take a break if she gets too overwhelmed.

"Is that when your surviving parents decided to combine packs?" Posy asked, drawing my attention away from my brothers.

"Yeah. We started hearing stories of rogues raiding decimated packs and other alphas taking advantage of the situation to claim territories that weren't theirs, although King Magnus put a stop to that. It was one of his last decrees before he abdicated the throne to King Julian."

I shifted her to lay in my arms before I continued.

"Nathan couldn't hold Great Rocks together without a luna to hold him together, and Evie was, well, she was in no condition to hold her family together, let alone River Rapids. Royal and Julia had completely taken over running Moonset after Shawn's death while still trying to run Earthshine. With Dark Woods folded into Moonset, they were running three packs. It was insane. So the four of them got together and made the only decision that made sense."

"And the Moon Goddess approved?" Posy snuggled closer, and I ran my hands down her long hair.

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