Page 137 of Pack Rivals: Part Two
* * *
When I climbthe stairs later and return to our nest, I expect to find the giant love-in has turned explicit. Instead, I find my pack curled up together on the bed, most of them still fully clothed, all of them sound asleep.
I walk to the edge of the bed and stare down at them my hands deep in my pockets. Bea’s wedged between Hardy and Connor, Nate curled up by her feet. Angel’s lying out by her head and Silver’s asleep with his head resting on one of Hardy’s giant thighs.
They all look content, and I think that makes this old heart of mine swell even more than the earlier happiness.
I could get used to this.
I unbuckle my belt and tug off my pants, then I climb into the bed, lying out beside my brother. He stirs as the mattress shifts and blinks open his eyes, turning his head to peer at me though the darkness.
“Mom okay?” he asks.
“Pretty thrilled.”
“Yeah, thought she would be.” He stares up at the stars framed in the sky lights. “She seems really taken with Bea. She never liked Celia, remember? She never said anything, but I could tell she didn’t. I guess it should have been a sign.”
I examine his face. There’s the faintest of lines on his skin now. Lines that weren’t there ten years ago. Ten years. It’s a hell of a lot of time to lose. I’m never going to be that dumb again.
“Did you love her?” I ask.
I always assumed he did. That’s why he was so angry with me. That’s why it never occurred to him that she’d made the move on me.
“I thought I did. But now with Bea, I know I was wrong. This is love, right? This tug in my chest. This need to be with her. This need to make her happy. It’s not just a sex thing, an attraction thing, although, fuck, she has me hard just thinking about her, but it’s more than all that. Much more.”
“Yeah,” I say, “I never felt this way about anyone else before. I hope we can make this work.”
We’re quiet and after a while I hear his breath deepen and I know he’s asleep. I roll onto my side, peering at my packmates a little longer and then sleep claims me too.
* * *
I wakethe next morning to sunlight pouring in through the open blinds and the sound of someone tapping away on their phone. I lift my head and find the bed empty except for Bea curled up with her device.
“Hey sleepy head,” she says with a smile that has my insides warming.
I rub at my face and yawn. “What time is it?”
“Nearly nine.”
“Shit, really,” I say, scooting up the mattress and coming to sit beside her. “I don’t think I’ve slept past seven in years.”
“You looked so peaceful, we didn’t want to wake you.”
“Where are the others?”
“Erm, making me pancakes apparently. Nate is giving them all a cookery lesson, although I’m hoping Molly might be in there too, helping.”
I hook my arm around her and pull her in close, taking a large inhale of her sweet scent. Waking up to that every morning is going to be divine.
“What you doing?” I ask her.
“Checking my emails.”
“Right.”
“I got one from the ecological association.”
“And?”
