Page 62 of Family: Posy 4

"Cole? Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, honey."

"I don't want to hurt you." I bit my bottom lip as his hand stilled on my back for a second before it started petting me again.

"Well, then it's either about my mom or what I wrote inside your card. I can't think of anything else you'd be worried about asking me."

"Iwouldlike you to tell me about your mom sometime," I admitted. "I'd like to know a little about the woman who gave birth to one of the men I love. Only when you're ready, though."

"So it's about the other thing, huh? I should have guessed you'd want to know."

"You don't have to tell me," I hurried to say. "It obviously still bothers you a lot, and I thought talking about it might help, that's all."

"Mason and Willow were in fifth grade," he didn't hesitate to start the story, "I was in fourth, Jay in third, Tweedledee and Tweedledum in second, and Peri in first."

"Wow. All the fam in one school building at the same time!" I teased. "Well, I guess it made it easier when one of the parents had to come in to sort out trouble."

"Yeah, it did," he snorted. "Anyway, one day, the fifth graders were leaving the playground as we fourth graders were coming out. I saw Mase standing in front of Willow as he stared down a group of five human boys. Of course, Ihadto get involved."

"Of course," I said dryly.

"They were teasing Willow about being a tomboy and saying she should exchange her boobs for balls and got more vulgar from there. Even as a kid, Mase was never the kind to get into a fight unless he had to, but these boys had pushed him to his limit. As for me, I was the opposite. Always a little too quick to throw hands. Even though we didn't have our wolves yet, our training had made us much stronger than those damn humans, and we had them on the ground in seconds despite it being two against five."

"I'm not surprised." I shrugged and lifted my head to stare up at him. "It sounds like the reaction I'd expect out of you both, but why didn't you stop once you had them down?"

"One of the idiots wouldn't stop running his mouth. I hadwayless control of my temper back then than I do now." He wouldn't meet my eyes as he spoke, and I felt his shame in our mate bond. "He was in a coma for three days. Thank the Goddess he woke up and recovered without any permanent damage or even scars. I never felt so disgusted with myself. He was just a stupid human kid who made a bad decision. Nothing that should have almost cost him his life."

"What was Willow like?" I asked after a moment, steering the conversation in a different direction. "Wasshe a tomboy? Was she like Mason, or the exact opposite? That is, if you're okay to talk about her."

"Such a considerate, polite baby," he teased with a lazy smile and finally looked at me. "Yeah, I guess you could call her a tomboy. She was always hanging out with us and doing whatever we were doing. Fishing, climbing trees, hiking, messing with cars in the garage. She was brave and strong and dependable, and she feared absolutely nothing on this earth."

"So a female version of Mason?" I confirmed with a small smile.

"Alouderversion, anyway," Cole chuckled. "Even before Royal started to hound him so hard, Mase was the type of kid who kept everything inside. Willow, on the other hand, kept nothing to herself."

"So Papa wasn't always so hard on Mason?"

"No, that only started after the sickness had devastated the five packs and the parents decided to join them into one. Papa thought Mase had to be perfect because he was going to be first alpha."

"Mama told me that Mason is more like her than Papa." I raised one eyebrow. "Do you think that's true?"

"Verytrue. Mama is the ultimate mom. When we eventually have pups, Mase is going to be the ultimate dad. Don't you see the way he fathers all of us now?" Cole chuckled.

I grinned, nodding in agreement. Masonwasgoing to be the ultimate dad.

"My mom, on the other hand—"

"No, Cole," I cut him off. "Only when you're ready."

"Sweet, sweet girl," he crooned and cradled my face in his palms, then pecked my lips. "Always so careful of others' feelings. I'm happy to tell you about her. I miss her, of course, and I think about her nearly every day, but I can talk about her now. I can talk about all of them now."

He laughed suddenly, and his eyes crinkled up at the corners.

"What?" I pouted.

"Nothing." He shook his head, still grinning. "Just imagining how she would have reacted when she met you for the first time."

"Would she have liked me?"

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