I relish her hug, her happiness, but I can’t take credit for this. This victory isn’t mine. “It was Miles.” She needs to know, needs to understand.
“Yes, but it was you too.” She laughs softly under her breath, and it’s like she’s smiling aloud, that she’s bursting with so much happiness it can’t help but make a sound. “Thank you for loving me, Archer, warts and all.”
“What warts?” I ask with a chuckle of my own. “I don’t see a single blemish. Only the face of the woman I love.”
She pokes me in the chest, then melts into my arms once more. “Rory’s happy. Her pack loves her so much. I feel so much better now that I know she’s in the best possible hands and that I’ll be able to see her again.”
“I’d love to meet her one day.” Hopefully I haven’t stepped too far with this assertion, but I would love to meet my mate’s child. If she’s even a fraction as wonderful as her mother, then she’s basically the best fucking kid in the entire world.
Violet’s eyes sparkle as she pulls back and swings our joined hands between us. “You will, but not today.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” I know. I already know, but damn if I don’t want to hear her say it.
“Archer,” she whispers then breaks into a naughty smile that could eat me alive. “My heat. It’s here.”
twenty
VIOLET
My first heat changed everything. It brought me Duncan, a friend the guys have assured me we will find someday soon. He deserves to know what happened, why I disappeared, and he will.
My first heat also gave the world Rory, the most beautiful little girl in all of creation. It distanced me from my family, but in a weird way led me to my pack.
My first heat changed everything, and now my second is going to set it all right. I have found happiness and love, the place where I truly belong. The guys and I still have issues to work through, but we all want this, want each other, and we’re more than willing to fight for it… even if that means sometimes fighting each other.
We ask the taxi driver to drop us off at the nearest hotel. It doesn’t matter that it’s a dodgy-looking place along the main highway. Skimping on our accommodations is worth it if it means saving precious minutes, having that much more time together. We’ve waited so long for this moment, and I don’t want to put it off a second more than is necessary. Already fresh pricks of pain have begun to sear my insides as my body demands its due.
The alphas and I topple into our newly rented room while Noah heads out in the taxi to pick up some supplies. We’ll need food, water, and a few other small comforts to get us through the next forty-eight hours… or longer. Even before Noah revealed himself as a beta, he was always the one looking after the others’ needs, making sure everyone is fed and healthy. As such, he falls easily into this new role. After all, it’s the one he was born to fulfill.
And I was born for this, my role.
Yes, I’m sure there are hundreds of other reasons why I’m here on this earth, but right now I can only focus on this one. Everything in me is crying for them, happy tears, needy ones, tears that are anguished I’ve gone this long before finding my true pack.
I’m ready for their bites. I’m ready for us to make our claims to each other official in the eyes of the law, just as they already are in our hearts.
This whole time I thought my body was working against me, forcing me to fight against my biology in order to maintain some semblance of sanity. But no, the two of us were always one. My body simply knew what we needed before the rest of me figured it out. And now it’s done me a wonderful favor. I’ve felt my heat coming for more than a week now, but my body kept itself in check until my heart was ready too.
This afternoon, as I was sitting in that house holding my plump and happy daughter in my arms, a little niggling sensation behind my belly button gently told me it was time. I would see Rory again. I would be welcomed into her life. Her new mother practically fell over herself expressing the depths of her gratitude. She’d always wondered about me but was told I died in childbirth and that my alphas couldn’t bear to keep Rory around after what happened. When I told her what had really happened, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a mother’s hug. Even though she’s hardly ten years my senior, I felt like, at that moment, she’d adopted me right along with our daughter. Not so long ago I thought my life was over before it had even gotten the chance to fully begin. Now I see that life is full of surprises. Mine continues to grow and expand in ways I’d never have thought possible.
Everything’s going to turn out all right for me. I know that right down to my bones.
I also know what needs to happen now. Yes, somehow my brain still rings clear as a bell even in the swarm of our desire.
“Miles first,” I say, reaching out to him with both hands. Last time we were all together, Noah was the one who needed me most. Now it’s Miles. Next time it will be somebody else. Packs must put the weakest member first. It’s how we all flourish and thrive.
Archer and Ben reluctantly cease kissing me and let Miles come forward, bringing a fresh wave of sandalwood and bergamot with him. God, I missed that. Missed him. He hasn’t dared approach before now, even though I can see the growing need tenting his pants.
I stand and undress him slowly, kissing each swatch of skin as it’s revealed.
“Thank you for today.” I kiss his shoulder, then pull his button-down shirt away.
“Thank you for finding my daughter,” I murmur, tracing feather-light kisses down his waist until I reach his belt buckle.
“Thank you for giving me space.” I unzip his jeans and suck the thin fabric of his boxers into my mouth, enjoying the moan that escapes him. “Thank you for being mine.”
I relieve him of his pants and boxers and prepare to take him into my mouth, but he drops to his knees, meeting me face to face. “I love you, Violet. Please don’t ever doubt that. I will spend the rest of my life showing you just how much I want you. Just how much I worship you.”
I place a hand on each of his cheeks, holding my sweet, sweet cinnamon roll in my hands. “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just be here with me today. I love you, Miles.”