Page 17 of Nick
Each time Nick thought about looking at her, the image of Javier’s face—those early years without him—flashed before his eyes, and his jaw tightened.She had stolen something irreplaceable, and though part of him thought he understood her reasons, the other part felt the betrayal like a fresh wound.
“Nick,” she said quietly, almost lost to the whispering wind.“I’m sor—”
“Save it for later,” he cut her off.
There would be time for apologies, for explanations, but not now.Not when every instinct screamed at him to turn away from her deceit.
As the mesa came into view, its silhouette stark against the darkening sky, Nick hardened himself for what was coming.The pack meeting was a necessary step, a bridge he had to cross to save his son from a bad alpha.
For Javier, he would walk through fire, face down any challenge, even if it meant enduring this proximity to Sarah, who still pulled at his soul.
The climb steepened, and Nick’s muscles tensed, his shifter nature coiling beneath his skin, ready for whatever might come.The scent of pine mingled with the earthy tones of the desert, a familiar comfort that did little to ease his turmoil.
His inner wolf whined and scratched at his mind, wanting to run free.
But Nick needed his human side to be in charge tonight.
“Almost there,” Sarah murmured behind him, but Nick didn’t need the reassurance.He knew the paths of Sunburst Mesa as well as he knew the scars that marked his body—each one a reminder of his past within the pack.
He led the way to the flat, open space atop the mesa where the meeting would be held.Here, the pack would gather under the rising moon, and here, he would face what he had left behind.
There was no turning back now.
Nick stepped into the firelight, his presence a sudden ripple in the otherwise tranquil space.The sun had dipped below the horizon now, and the first stars began to prick the velvet sky.The air was alive with the murmur of voices, almost enough to drown out the undercurrent of tension that thrummed through him.
“Nick,” a voice called out—a familiar tone that tugged at the corners of his memory.Heads turned, and one by one, members of the Sunburst Pack emerged from the paths onto the tabletop mesa, their expressions a blend of curiosity and cautious warmth.
“Reagan?”another echoed, disbelief lacing the single word.
He nodded, his throat tight with words unsaid, muscles coiled like springs beneath his skin.
The pack closed around him, a sea of faces he had once known as well as his own—fewer faces than there had been back then, lined with a few more years, marked by time, but still unmistakably themselves.
They clapped him on the back, murmured welcomes.It was surreal, stepping back into this fold, feeling the pull of old bonds he’d thought severed beyond repair.
“Welcome home, Nick,” Larissa said, playing her role of surprised pack member with aplomb.
“Thanks,” he managed, his voice rough as sandstone.He didn’t trust himself to say more, not when every instinct screamed at him to remain wary.
Then silence descended, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea, revealing Vincent, the alpha, standing at the center of the circle.His cold blue eyes fixed on Nick with all the warmth of a winter’s frost.
“Nick Reagan,” Vincent’s voice boomed, filling the space between them with an edge that could cut glass.“You’ve been gone a long time.Why come back now?”
The question hung between them, and Nick felt the scrutiny of the pack.He met Vincent’s gaze head-on.
“Sometimes,” Nick said, his tone even but threaded with an undercurrent of steel, “you have to face the past to build a future.”
Vincent’s lips twisted into something that might have been a smile on a less cruel face.But there was no kindness in it, just the sharp glint of challenge.
“Indeed,” Vincent said, the single word echoing with his disbelief.
For Javier, for the chance to be the father he hadn’t been allowed to be, Nick would endure Vincent’s scrutiny, the pack’s suspicion.
He was no longer just a lone wolf cast out into the wilderness—he was a father, a protector.A member of the Moonstone Pack.And in order to keep Javier safe, he would reclaim his place among the Sunburst Pack, too, whatever the cost.
Nick shifted his weight, a muscle twitching in his jaw as he prepared to voice the lie that might grant him passage back into a life he had once known.
“I couldn’t stay away from Sarah…or our son,” Nick said, giving away none of the seething anger boiling inside him.The words felt like stones in his mouth, but he forced them out anyway.
