Page 93 of A Wolf in the Garden

“You don’t want to risk anything,” I muse, leaning into his warmth further. His hand settles on my waist as he gives a very non-committal hum, sipping at his coffee.

I can’t blame him for being cautious. This quiet truce between him and Weston seems almost too good to be true, and I feel as if we’re all on edge, doing our best not to burst this bubble.

I know Bronte feels the tension too, and does her best to counteract it with her relaxed demeanour. She is the balm that has held this family together for so long, and today is no different; she breezes through the vines towards the house as if it’s any old day, and not one where she’ll be turning into an eight-and-a-half foot tall wolf monster at sunset, waving to us with a grin on her face. She looks completely at home on the vineyard, dressed in casual white linen paired with leather sandals, her laughter ringing through the air as Weston runs at her, tail wagging, and for a moment I think he’s going to bowl her right over. He rears up on his hind legs and I hold my breath, letting it out in one big gust as she catches his huge front legs with ease, seemingly unbothered by the massive weight she must be supporting right now. Her husband’s huge wolf bares his teeth at her in what I can now confidently read as a wolf’s grin, his tail continuing to wag in a way that makes him seem endearing, and not the difficult man I know him to be.

“Wolves are strong, Ellie,” Van says quietly. “Relax. If there’s one thing I can guarantee you, it’s that he wouldneverhurt my mother. He worships the ground she walks on.”

“Yeah.Wow.” I look up at Van, as if seeing him for the first time again. “I didn’t realise you were quitethatstrong, though.”

He shrugs. “There’s a reason humans panicked and banned us all from competing in their professional sports. I may think it’s wrong and that there has to be some better way to be inclusive, but I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to physical activities, it’s not really a competition, from a wolf’s perspective.”

“Is it a guaranteed win?”

“You tell me. You think a human could beat me in a weightlifting competition? Or in track and field events?”

I nudge him with my hip. “Now you’re just fishing for compliments. I get it, trust me, I’m well aware of how big and buff you are.”

Bronte leaves Weston with the children, and joins us on the deck. “Morena,” I greet her. It’s how Mum used to always greet her, every Saturday morning on the beach.

“Oh,morena,Ellie! It’s such a stunning day.”

“It is.” The clouds from last night have disappeared, leaving the sky clear and the air still.

“I love it when the water looks like glass, like this. Sometimes I really miss waking up to these New Zealand mornings and the ocean views, with the birds singing, you know?” There’s a melancholy in her voice that breaks my heart.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve told West it’s time for him to retire.”

“What?” Van asks, turning away from the view of the playing wolves so that he’s fully facing his mother. “He’s got decades of work left in him — it’s not like we have to hide the slower ageing in this realm anymore.”

Bronte nods. “I know. But I’m sick of it. We don’t need more money. None of you children have shown any interest in taking over the company, and I think our priorities should be different. I see West with the pups and I thinkI want that. These seven months have been torture for me, not seeing any of you. I already lost one of my babies, I can’t bear…”

“Mom.”

I blink back tears as Van envelops his mother in a hug. “You haven’t lost us,” he murmurs to her. “We’re right here. You can stay as long as you like, even if it causes me more headaches.”

“Headaches like what?”

“Ah, don’t worry.” He glances at me over his shoulder, and I shake my head, giving him a wide-eyed look, knowing exactly what headache he’s referring to. We had averyclose call with his nephews this morning, who narrowly missed catching us in an extremely compromising position. I hadn’t even considered that the boys might come running in when Van had fucked me silently, spooning me, his fingers in my mouth to keep me quiet. We hadn’t spoken at all, at least not more than a few hushed whispers of“Are you okay?”and “I love you,”but I had known as soon as I woke that Van needed that closeness, that connection, that reassurance of the bond we have. We were still knotted together when footsteps had thundered down the hall, the tie tugging painfully at my vag when he’d scrambled to reach the blankets, throwing them over us both with only half a second to spare before the door swung wide and two smiley little faces greeted us. Van had bellowed for Lacey to“Come and get your children ASAP!”and she’d sprinted in, cracking up laughing when she realised exactly what was going on.

“I’m going to ask Lacey what happened,” Bronte says, glancing between us, a smile dancing on her lips, “though I think from the blush on Ellie’s cheeks I can take an educated guess. If we stay in New Zealand, we won’t be living here on your vineyard, don’t worry. I started looking into properties around Lake Wanaka.”

“Really? Billionaire land, huh?” Van asks, eyebrows raised. He’s right; from what I’ve read, Wanakaisthe place where most billionaires choose to buy properties, if they bother coming to New Zealand at all.

“It’s a compromise. It’s in the South Island — as far away from Northland as we can go and still be in the same country as our children. And it really is beautiful down there; you remember the trips we took when you were a boy.”

“Yeah, I do. I want to take Ellie there, sometime, she’s never even set foot on the South Island. I’ve seen more of her own country than she has.”

A look of guilt crosses Bronte’s face when she glances back at me. “We should have taken you, when we went on those mini vacations away from the Bay.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” She pauses, golden eyes searching mine. “There’s so many things that aren’t fine, Ellie, and I really do want to apologise, for tampering with your memory the way I did. West and I were both very panicked that evening.”

“He seemed like he knew what he was doing.”

“He’s good at appearing calm and in control, yes.Someonetakes after him that way,” she adds, nodding towards Van. “Both of them are very good alphas. Both of them would put their bodies on the line for anyone in their pack, I have no doubt about that.” Her voice drops low, to barely a whisper. “Van was right, the other day. That wolf down there has always protected you, even if the man within him was afraid to acknowledge it. I’m sorry that West has been so hard on you in the past, Ellie.”

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