Page 112 of Pack Rivals: Part Two
“I’m going to be disappointed if you can’t spot her,” Axel says behind me.
“I’m beginning to feel a little jealous here,” I say, “it sounds like you all have a crush on this boat.”
“She was my first love,” Axel says.
I twist my head to smile at him and something catches my eye. I stop and turn that way, and then I spot her. Unlike the other boats, she’s carved from brown wood, and she lies in the water like she was always meant to be there. Her mast stretches high up into the air and crisscrosses with beams and ropes, her sails resplendent in the wind.
“There,” I say pointing to the boat and am awarded with six broad smiles.
“I knew you’d spot her,” Nate says.
They lead me towards her and as I get closer, I read the name painted along her side in rosy pink letters.Phoebe.
I glance toward Connor.
“Did you change her name?” I ask.
“No,” he says, “it’s always been her name.”
I tune into his scent, to the scents around me, looking for signs that they’re playing me again. I find none. I find I trust them.
“You can ask our mom,” Angel says, resting his hands on my shoulders. “It’s always been her name.”
“It means bright, radiant,” Axel says looking at me. “Because she is.”
“It’s called fate, dumbass,” Hardy says, jumping up onto the boat and holding out his hand for me to join him. “Phoebe Stormgate was our first love. Phoebe Carsen is our forever love.”
I roll my eyes at him, although inside my heart is swelling. For such a big growly man, he really is a softie.
Then they’re positioning me on the deck, while they busy themselves, untying ropes, lifting anchors and pulling on levers and gullies. They work together without a word to each other, instinctively knowing what the other is doing, working as a well-oiled team. Is it that the bond? Or a sign of how well these men know each other? Watching them now, it’s hard to believe a rift ever existed between them. It’s as if they’ve always been a pack of six alphas.
Fated.
Like Hardy said.
Fated to be together.
My heart tugs.
Is this my fate too?
I’m beginning to believe it is.
“We have to use the engine to leave the harbor,” Axel tells me, “but once we’re out on the open water, we’ll use the sails.”
I look up into the mast and excitement floods my belly.
“You don’t get seasick do you, sweetheart?” Silver asks me, coming to sit beside me as we begin to chug out of the harbor, passing the other boats moored up and some on their way in or out.
“Bit late to ask me that now,” I point out. “But honestly I don’t know.” I shuffle along on my seat until my body rests alongside his. He peers down at me, then hooks his arm around my shoulder and pulls me in even closer.
He breathes in my hair.
“Hmmmm I can smell Angel on you, sweetheart.”
“Uh huh,” I say. I’m not even going to deny that.
“You smell good.”
