Page 78 of Holly Jolly Heat
"I can feel your emotions," Michelle said, wonder in her voice. "Lucas, you're happy. Like, radiantly happy. Dex, you're relieved. And Ro, you're?—"
"Content," I finished. "I'm content. Because this is what I've been waiting for. What we've all been waiting for."
Lucas moved first.
He cupped Michelle's face in his hands and kissed her, gentle and reverent and full of months of pining finally finding resolution.
When they broke apart, Michelle turned to me.
"Ro," she breathed, and it was question and invitation and surrender all at once.
I kissed her the way I'd been wanting to kiss her for six months. Since the third email she sent me, when I'd laughed at her terrible joke and realized I was falling for someone I'd never met. Since Pike Place Market, when I'd caught her and felt the bond snap with recognition. Since every moment between then and now, watching her walls crack and rebuild and crack again.
I kissed her like she was everything I'd been looking for.
When we finally pulled apart, Michelle was breathless and glowing and absolutely beautiful.
She turned to Dex, who'd been waiting patiently.
"Dex," she said softly. "I can feel your protectiveness. It's... it's overwhelming. In a good way."
"You're mine to protect," he said simply. "That won't change."
"I don't need protecting."
"I know. But I'll protect you anyway. That's what pack does."
She smiled and pulled him down for a kiss, and watching her kiss Dex was like watching something fundamental slot into place. The protector and the protected. The strength and the vulnerability. The balance.
When they broke apart, we stood in the dusty attic surrounded by Christmas decorations and family history, and everything felt different.
Complete.
"You're still scared," I observed.
"Terrified," she admitted. "But for the first time, I'm more excited than scared. Is that weird?"
"That's healthy," Dex said. "Fear means you understand what's at stake. Excitement means you're willing to take the risk anyway."
"We still need to figure out the professional side," Michelle said, her practical nature reasserting itself. "How we handle clients, how we go public, when we go public?—"
"Later," I interrupted. "Right now, just be with us. Feel the bond. Let yourself enjoy this moment before your brain starts planning."
She looked like she wanted to argue, but then she just... relaxed.
"Okay," she said. "Later. Right now, I just want to be with my pack."
My pack. She'd said it. Finally, completely, without reservation.
We settled onto the attic floor, because standing was overrated when you could curl up together, and Michelle ended up in the center with the three of us surrounding her.
Pack pile. In Janet's attic. Surrounded by Christmas decorations.
It was perfect.
"Your mom was right," Lucas said. "We did need this. The forced proximity. The inability to run. The space to just talk and feel and be."
"My mom is a menace."
