Page 68 of A Beta Protects

“Do you think he’ll tell anyone?” I set my beer aside, not as interested in drinking as I am in returning to my mate and falling asleep with her in my arms.

“Not sure. He has a thing with Chloe, so maybe he won’t.”

“Correction. He had a thing with Chloe.” Chloe tried to help him, and Shawn walked away from her without a word.

“How’s Chloe?” I ask when he doesn’t say anymore.

He looks at me. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”

“I suspected.” I push myself to my feet. “It was clear they had feelings for each other. I’m going to bed.”

“And the reason you said nothing to me?”

I pause in the doorway, meeting Sierra’s eyes as she takes the last step down the staircase, in search of her mate, who is still nursing a beer in the kitchen. I nod at Sierra and she smiles.

“Because everyone deserves a chance to find love. I thought maybe it would be enough.”

But maybe sometimes it’s not.

21

KIRA

ONE WEEK LATER

The house I spent so many miserable years in is a very different place now that Bryce is dead.

I wasn’t sure I would be ready to come back to Missouri so soon, but after Bryce was found, ostensibly mauled by a wolf, and an investigation ruled out any wrongdoing, I wanted this life to be over so I could start my new one with Dom in Wylder.

The first thing I see when I step into the den are Dom’s postcards torn into tiny pieces.

They weren’t the ordinary postcards I thought they were before. They were signs that Dom, no matter where he was in the world, was thinking about me.

They were memories.

And now they’re gone forever.

Dom, seeing the devastation on my face at Bryce’s petty act, wraps his arm around me and draws me against his chest, kissing my hair. “I’ll get you a hundred more, Kira.”

I swipe the tears from my cheeks. “No, it’s okay. I have you. I don’t need a postcard.”

“Maybe I could take a picture of me, print a postcard and send it to you in the mail. I won’t tell you when I do it, or if I’ll even be wearing anything. But…”

A smile stretches my lips as I lift my face to him. “Dom, you cannot send naked pictures of yourself through the mail service.”

He returns my smile. “Are you sure? It might brighten Ivar’s morning delivery.”

The front door swings open as I’m laughing, and Galen sticks his head in. “Ah, are you ready to start packing? Everyone is a few minutes behind us with the U-Haul trucks.”

Dom and I did not come to Missouri alone.

I didn’t just fall in love with Dom. I also inherited—or found—new friends. Family even, in the form of Pack Hunt. Because it isn’t just Dom who can turn into a wolf, they all can, too.

My new life is going to be very different from the one I’m leaving in Missouri, and I can’t wait for it.

I look at the house I shared with Bryce. It was his home, his décor, his style, so it never felt like my home. “It won’t take long. There’s only a few clothes and stuff from my parents I want to keep. The rest, I’ll donate and the money can go to a woman’s shelter.” So can the money from the sale of the house. I don’t want it.

“We can get started on the other house if you’re not taking much from here,” Galen suggests. “We can do it in a couple of hours.”

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