Page 62 of His Prodigal Alpha

“Come back to Beck and Ollie’s with me,” Rex all but pleaded, and I would openly admit that there was no way I wanted to be separated from him, either. “I need to check on Lena and Dex. And let the others out of the bathroom.”

“I’ve just sent Sandy to grab our phones and stuff,” Ollie told me, awkwardly trying to readjust his hold on his kids. I took Duke from him and he sagged with relief. “Thanks. Anyway,” he tilted his head in the vague direction we’d been frolicking in before we’d heard about the attack on the house, “our stuff will be here soon. Brandi and the others were already heading to the house before we came this way. As she put it, she’s more menacing as a woman than as a rabbit.”

I snorted. Ollie’s best friend, Brandi, was dating Lena, and she was a riot. But she was also fiercely protective of her friends, and I imagined that she could do a whole lot of damage if she wanted to. I definitely wouldn’t underestimate her, even though she was a petite blonde woman and a rabbit shifterto boot. With a veritable herd of equally determined smaller species shifters at her side, I assumed she would be okay.

“Good,” I said, nodding. “Then we’ll head over to the house and see if she needs a hand.”

I felt bad leaving Eric behind while he was injured, but it made no sense to have both alphas out in the fields when half the town were probably going insane with worry at the Pack Alpha’s house. Besides, I was exhausted and felt grimy, and I just wanted to wash up and snuggle up with my mate and cub. Cam was due for a feeding anyway.

It was funny how even with all the drama, my instincts were still attuned to his schedule.

Biology. It was wild.

As expected, the half of the town who were smaller species shifters were crammed into Beck and Ollie’s house when Rex and I got there. Jazz offered to hold Cam while Rex and I washed up, but neither of us were willing to let him out of our sight, so we took turns showering. We also borrowed clothes from Ollie and Beck’s closet before we headed back into the crowded living room. There, Rex hovered over me while I fed Cam, and he answered as many questions as he could, assuring the townspeople that we’d neutralized the threat for now.

Dex and Lena were among the assembled group, too, which was a relief. Brandi had Lena’s head in her lap as they sprawled on the floor, her expression dark. Dex was slumped on the end of one of the two couches, nursing what appeared to be an epic headache. He looked grim and defeated, which was unsettling considering his usually smarmy, snarky personality. But they were otherwise okay, and there had been no further attacks on the house.

But I was officially once bitten, twice shy, and I hoped that the pack would behave that way going forward, too.

Chapter Sixteen – Rex

In the weeks that followed the attack on our town, I found myself roped into helping Beck deal with the fallout. It was rough for a while, with people mourning the six shifters who had died and calling for us to retaliate. There was no point reminding the townsfolk that our dragons had done far more damage to the attacking side at the time, either.

I also thought that we had gone vigilante enough when we held the contingent of seven Moonmusic shifters against their will, questioning them for hours about the motivations for the attack. As much as I hated them for trying to take my kid, I didn’t think we needed to devolve into our own cult-like mentality. Perhaps that was the part of me who had been raised human, but I believed in the justice system.

Thankfully, in the end, Beck sided with me and we reached out to nearby law enforcement. Imagine our surprise when the cops who turned up were also shifters! They assured us they weren’t sympathizing with the old-school packs —especially when one of them was an omega himself— andwe were more than happy to send our hostages off in the backs of their trucks.

On top of that, we began discussing the need for proper pack security. More and more strangers were visiting the town, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many were staking us out for our weak points. I felt ridiculously paranoid, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling justified in those feelings. Our kids needed to grow up safely.

“You’re doing the ‘burn the world’ face again,” Damon said, shaking me from my musings. He switched off the bedroom light and sauntered towards the bed, backlit from the nightlight in the hallway. We left the door open, and even though we both had enhanced shifter hearing, we kept a video baby monitor on my bedside table, too. “We’re safe, babe, I promise.”

If anything good could have come from the whole abduction saga, it was the closeness Damon and I now shared. Maybe it wasn’t healthy that we had clung so tightly to each other in the fallout, but I’d been in love with him beforehand, and I was even more in love with him after watching him fight to save our kid and the pack from further harm.

But I hadn’t said the words yet. Firstly it was because I’d promised to let him set the pace. Then it was because I didn’t want him to think I was professing my love just because he’d given birth to our son. Then it was because I didn’t want him to think it was a trauma response.

I swear to the Gods, I wasn’t making excuses. I was turning forty-three soon: I was adult enough and mature enough to face my feelings.

I was.

Except, alright: maybe I was atinybit afraid that he’d still find it too much, too fast. I mean, he’d just been throughsomething traumatic, too. Was it wrong to give him some time to process that first? I didn’t think so.

As it was, I was almost afraid to point out that he had all but moved into my place in the weeks following the attack. At first, I thought he was silently humoring my desperate need to keep him and Cam in my sights as often as possible, but then I paid a little more attention and realized he was making himself at home. My inner cat preened with smug satisfaction. My mate was settling into the home I had provided!

Some part of that felt mildly patriarchal and outdated, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t forcing him to be there, and he seemed happy to settle in my home. If he was happy and I was happy, there was no problem, right?

“Seriously, you’re starting to freak me out.” Damon sounded mildly amused beneath his concern and I blinked, smiling sheepishly.

“Sorry. I was thinkin’.”

He laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, I got that. I was giving you a damn strip tease and you werenotreacting the way I wanted.”

Those words had my attention. I focused on what he was wearing —or, rather, what he wasn’t wearing— and my mouth went dry.

“That’s more like it,” he practically purred, giving an enticing swivel of his hips as he dropped his underwear.

My heart hammered. It had been almost seven weeks since Cam’s birth, and we had done little more than cuddle. I obviously hadn’t been pressing the issue, knowing that Damon needed to take as much time as necessary to recover from pushing an entire person out of his body, but we’d both also been kind of wiped after working and then looking after anewborn. Whoever coined the expression ‘slept like a baby’ has obviously never spent time with an honest-to-God baby. They don’t sleep. At least, not for extended periods of time.

Where was I?

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