Page 28 of My Pucking Family

My heart and wolf were adamant about it not being too soon because we're mates and usually once two people mate, they move in together immediately; I can still be a strong and somewhat independent woman while living with my mate; Zoey can come visit and stay the night with me any time, and really, my normal college experience flew out the window a long time ago.

So I did what any eighteen-year-old girl going through a new life crisis would do. I excused myself to one of the guest bedrooms and texted my best friend.

I smile to myself at the supportive nature of my best friend and send up more thanks to the universe for bringing her to me.

Happy tears filled my eyes.

I clutched my phone to my chest and took a moment in private to let the conversation wash over me.

I was really going to move in with Roman.

My soul mate.

Well, at least the moment was mostly private; my wolf purred in agreement.

Once I had allowed myself to completely absorb my decision, I quietly left the guest room. As I padded down the hallway, I found Roman pacing the living room with one hand tangled in his hair. I hadn't meant to worry him. I had wanted to sneak up on him, like he had done with me the morning before, buthe almost immediately noticed my presence and turned to make eye contact with me.

Unable to say the words out loud, I let myself smile as I felt heat rising to my cheeks and nodded at him. His happiness was palpable as he scooped me into his arms and held my body against his.

“Please say that nod meant you decided to live here with me. Not just because you feel that you need to, but that you want to,” he pleaded with his chin resting on top of my head.

I leaned my body away from his so that I could look into his eyes as I told him, “Oh, Roman, I want to live here, with you, because of you,” I finished with my hand pressed against his heart, earning me another panty-melting kiss.

When Roman pulled away, I wasn't able to capture the whimper that escaped my lips at the loss of his touch. He gently stroked the side of my face with his chin while he said, “There will be plenty of time for that later, but if we don't finish working on our list, I will soon become much too distracted, and we won't get any more work done today.”

While my body very much wanted to spend the rest of the day distracted with him, he was right. This all needed to be discussed, and any plans needed to be decided upon.

We moved on to the next item. Family. There was almost too much here to unpack.

At the highest level, my parents were witches; Khaos is kind of my soul’s brother; and who were my real parents?

Learning that my parents were witches probably should have been more of a shock than it was, but after everything I've been through in the last couple of months, it's easier to just roll with the punches. Even though it was kind of startling to hear that myparents were witches, some things just made sense. The biggest one being the wolfsbane.

My parents hadn'tpoisonedme my whole life out of some kind of darkness. They were trying to protect me from something. Though it would have been helpful to know what that something was.

Some other things that just seem to make sense now that I know they were witches are little things from my childhood. Getting so close to animals during a shoot, and them never even flinching at our proximity. The few times they identified a strain of plant life thought to be extinct.

Witches or not, the love was real. I know that with the same fierceness that I know Roman is my mate. I just wish they had trusted me to keep their secret. Hell, I wish they'd told me my own secret.

Even though I find myself wishing a lot of things with them had gone differently, I am grateful that this new life brought me to Willa. While unorthodox, it's comforting to have another person in my life that I can completely be myself with. It kills me to hide so much of myself from Zoey.

As far as Khaos being the brother to my soul's previous life…that one feels a bit more precarious. I wasn't sure I wanted a relationship with him or not. I could feel the bond between us, but how would he react? Would he be angry with me for the reincarnation of his sister that was outside of my control? Would he try to keep me from Roman? Would he even believe me? Roman suggests that I wait and see what happens the next time I have any interaction with him and go from there.

Back to the topic of parents: I hadn't even thought of who my actual parents might be. When Roman brought it up, I was in a state of shock for a few moments. I knew my parents werewitches, yet I hadn't put the puzzle pieces together to wonder if I had other parents out there. God, that's so weird to think about. The thought of two people, or in this case werewolves, being the ones who brought me into this world and not the people who raised me.

I was honest with Roman when I let him know that I wasn't ready to try and find out who they were right now. It’s just way too overwhelming.

Since the men hadn't found any leads about the kidnapping and weren't able to get anything out of the man who they had found in that house with me, the trail had gone cold for now.

During our discussions of family, I had a moment of peace wash over me when I realized that even though I lost my parents and have mystery parents out there in the universe somewhere, I still found the most amazing little family. Zoey, Willa, Roman, Benny, Slate, Dolos, Eris, and even Andrei have all become my family.

I also used that moment to have a little more fun than our strict get-shit-done day had planned, and I started a group text.

After that, we discussed hockey and how I would fit into their schedules. I would obviously be at all home games with Zoey, and there would be a guard stationed nearby, just in case. During practices I would usually be home—it's still strange to think of this as my home now—working on my school work, but will be free to do whatever I want. It was the away games that worried Roman the most, especially since he had one in three days.

With the league being inherently werewolf, there are policies in place for mates. Those policies grant me access to anywhere the team goes. As much as my old, independent tendencies scream at me to resist and say that I can take care of myself, I just don't really want to. I don't want to be away from Roman anymore than he wants to be away from me. I don't want to watch him play on the television when I could be in the stands cheering for him. Why wouldn't I take advantage of everything in place that allows me to stay close to my mate?

That left the only topic of conversation to be me and my wolf. I luckily hadn't had anymore incidents of her trying to unnaturally force a shift, but with the full moon approaching, there is an especially good chance that I will experience my firstshift very soon. When I say approaching, I mean according to my web browser, the full moon is in five days.

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