Page 68 of Tamed Wolf

“Your brothers double teamed me over the washing machine,” she giggles into my ear. “During the spin cycle!” She covers her mouth like she did something shocking. “Do you have any idea what that did to my orgasms?”

I throw my head back and laugh, trying to imprint this happy face of hers into my head. “What I'm hearing, is that I missed out and need to make it up to my mate.”

“I mean, I won't stop you.”

I watch as my parents steal our baby the second they see him, leaving my brothers with empty arms and eyes tracking the woman in my lap. They can damn well try, but she's not going anywhere. “You hungry?”

She shakes her head, looking around at the crowd gathered. “No, I've been snacking all day. Maybe I'll get something later.”

“Alright, just let me know.” Then I spin her around so she can watch the fire, keeping her back pressed to me as I wrap my arms tightly around her waist.

“Oh, my parents came by.”

“I'm sorry, what? What happened?”

“Nothing really. It was pretty stupid; I think they were just trying to get into the good graces of you guys now that I’m mated to somebody they deem important. We pretty much chased them off, though.”

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” she says waving me off. “I’m not going to let them upset me, they don't matter enough. This fire is incredible, by the way. I know you said you were good at building them, but damn.”

“Thanks. I might have made it a little too big, but I wanted to make sure you had a good time tonight.”

“You guys are here, so that's pretty much a given.”

I smack a big kiss on her cheek. “You say the sweetest things to us, Lark. Oh, Brooklyn was looking for you.”

“Where is she?”

I shrug, figuring if Brooklyn wants to talk to my woman, she'll come back and find us soon.

My brothers join us eventually, and we introduce Lark to a few people that stop by and a couple of our buddies we hang out with on occasion and their mates. My favorite thing is that none of them have anything but nice words to say to Lark, and by the time the alpha is about to make his usual pre-run pack announcements, she's got a couple phone numbers and invitations from some of the female wolves in the pack to get together sometime.

Not sure she'll take them up on the offers, but it would be cool if she found some friends she could hang out with when she wanted to.

“Alright, alright, let's bring it in,” my dad calls out, still holding my son. Rowan’s clapping, making people laugh as he tries to get their attention. He's such a ham.

“Hopefully everybody's enjoying the food, thank you to everyone that pitched in to help make it. Tonight is a special evening, as this is the first time my new daughter-in-law will be joining in a pack run. Welcome, Lark. We’re very happy to have you.

“Also, we have some business to take care of. I know everybody's having a good time here, but let's remember that sometimes packs need to take care of difficult tasks.

“I've been in contact with some of the alphas from other packs, as my sons are spearheading some changes we're going to be implementing into our pack in the near future. There will be more details soon about ways to help and ways to get involved, but it's going to take all of us to make their dreams a reality.

“A very generous donor,” he says as his eyes flick to Lark, “recently upgraded the beds at the shelter out of the goodness of their heart, and that's a great solution to get things off the ground, but we're hoping to take those beds out of those rooms and move them to a series of small cabins we want to build behind the Alpha House.

“I know we've been talking about what to do with that land for years, but it's past time we take care of the wolves from our pack that reside at that shelter. They're suffering and need their pack to support them. There will be informational meetings next week at the Alpha House at the normal meeting time, and if anybody has questions or concerns or would like to donate time or materials, you’re encouraged to join.

“Also, I've decided to open up communication with the Wild Pack.” There’s murmuring at this, and my dad allows it for a moment before taking the situation back in his own hands. “If you don't know, many years ago the The Wilds is where we used to send wolves when they got ejected from our pack. There's a high security compound there to reform them, and we have our first set of wolves set to travel and join them tomorrow. This may be an option we keep open as we investigate things in the pack that have been overlooked.”

He starts talking about more inane things like he didn’t just drop a massive bomb on everyone, but we tune him out, because Lark has gone still as stone in my hands and that’s all the three of us can really focus on.

We found out a few days ago that her exes are getting pushed out of the pack, sent to a place that we haven't sent wolves to since I was probably a kid. I don't know why we stopped, but when we were talking to my dad about what to do with her exes, it felt like an aha moment.

They'll be far away so Lark doesn't have to run into them or think about them, they won't be able to interfere with her life. No one will question the heavy beating they took from us for disrespecting Lark after we met her, or ask why they’re healing so slow. In short, out of sight out of mind.

Lark will be able to move on with her life knowing they're living out the rest of theirs in a shitty place, where they'll have to perform hard labor daily if they want to remain fed and sheltered.

“You okay, Lark? Say the word and we’ll get you out of here.”

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