—who would never do anything to risk their secret being found out by human outsiders—knew that she was using her shifter powers to cheat at cards, and she’d folded.
Jacqueline wasn’t sure if she’d folded because she didn’t want her neighbors to know about her cheating, or didn’t want them to know she stooped so low as to cheat at a game against humans, but either way, the Sweets were going to support Arlo’s pack.
Except… it’s not Arlo’s new pack. It’s mine, too. Ours.
Tess had timed the waffles perfectly for her parents’ exit. Across the table, Tally had wolfed hers down in a second flat. Jacqueline could guess what was coming next.
Tally slithered off her seat and ran under the table to hug Jacqueline’s legs. She bit back a smile and then, thinking better of it, let herself laugh out loud.
Perhaps that’s the strangest part, actually. Over one weekend, I’ve gone from being single to finding the love of my life and four children. A family.
She met Arlo’s eyes. They were full of a deep, contented happiness that made warmth spread through her entire body.
It was strange, but it was a good strange. She wasn’t scared; she was excited. Whatever came next, she was ready to greet it with open arms.
“Up you get,” she said, lifting Tally onto her knee. Tally giggled and reached for her half-eaten waffle.
Jacqueline glanced at Arlo. She knew Tally’s telepathic shrieks cut through his skull like a hot knife through butter. “Are you all right?” she whispered.
He kissed her hand. “Never better,” he said, and slid his plate with an extra waffle along to her.
Never better. He was right. This wasn’t the life Jacqueline had planned—it was so much more than that.
Forget two-point-five children and a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence. She had a pack of seals and a sea wolf to sail into the sunset with.
And whatever Eric was. She grinned at him across the table as he spooned ice cream onto his waffles.
“You’re all right with all of this?” she asked. “The whole pack thing? We’ve hardly met yet, and it’s a big decision.”
He nodded fervently and Kenna answered for him. “Oh my God, yes. He’s so sick of having to be in charge.”
Eric gave an abashed smile. “Yeah. And it feels right, you know? Like Kenna said…”
“Hey!” Kenna smacked him on the arm. “I haven’t told them about that yet!”
“About what?” Arlo asked.
“I think I can guess.” Jacqueline put down her fork and carefully pushed the second plate Arlo had given her out of Tally’s reach. “You knew from the start that you wanted Arlo to be your pack leader, didn’t you?”
She remembered how the three of them had put their heads together and whispered conspiratorially back on the cold, windy beach that night. It felt like an eternity ago.
Kenna blushed. “Maybe.”
“And you too!” Dylan burst out. He waved his knife and fork. “But Kenna said we couldn’t just say that, because you’re a human and we might scare you off and then nothing would work, so we had to wait until you fell in love and Eric got back!” He beamed at them and then dove back into his waffles.
“Wait.” Jacqueline frowned. “Is that why you kept getting worried when you would argue, or when Tally stole my dinner?”
“I didn’t want anything to go wrong!” Kenna blurted out. “I thought, if we didn’t behave, you wouldn’t want us.”
A lump formed in Jacqueline’s throat. “Well, stop worrying about that right now.”
“That’s right,” Arlo rumbled. “Pack doesn’t mean never fighting, or never disagreeing. It means we’re there for you. Always.”
Kenna dropped her eyes and stabbed her fork into her waffle. “Well, I know that now,” she muttered.
“Good.” Arlo said, and Jacqueline echoed him.
“Because in a few years we’ll be a three-teenager household, and if that isn’t a recipe for scrapping then I don’t know what is,” she added.