Page 15 of Riley Goes Home

“And you made it?” I gasped.

“Just.” Her smile helped me feel better. “Only a couple more to go.”

I gripped her hand with one hand and the railing with the other, finally levering myself up on the top stairs.

“Regan, so nice to see you again.”

Cyrus smiled prettily and I didn’t note the fine lines around his eyes, the unnatural shade of blond he’d dyed his hair at all.

“It’s Riley, as you well know,” I replied, not willing to be caught up in pack politics. “You sneered it enough times in high school to have it memorised.”

“And where’s your… pack?” he asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Where’s yours, Omega Williams?” Eloise snapped. “Gone on another one of those ‘long business trips’ again?”

His flush told me everything I needed to know about that.

“If you’d like to come this way.” Cheryl’s tone was tight, but she directed me towards the house. “You can visit the birthing pools and learn the lore that is your right as an omega born in our town.”

“How the hell does that even work?” Cyrus couldn’t seem to keep a civil tone. He looked me up and down in the way I might a particularly fascinating tissue sample. “You didn’t look like this at school. Val was the other omega destined?—”

“To leave Bordertown and find her mates outside it,” Eloise replied smoothly. “Cheryl, as ruling omega, you?—”

“I know what I’m supposed to do.” Her sharp reply silenced Eloise, but my mother-in-laws cheeks turned cherry red. Cheryl stepped up to the front door and then opened it with a flourish. “Be welcome. In the alpha residence, all petty grievances are set aside for good of the community. When you step inside.” She shot Cyrus a dark look. “You agree to the laws of hospitality.”

“Fine,” Cyrus huffed, walking over to the front door and stepping inside. “Well, come if you’re coming. I’ve got things to do this afternoon.”

What, I never found out, instead walking inside the house I never thought I’d step inside again.

“Oh wow…”Cheryl flushed prettily as I looked around, but it wasn’t her decor choices I was responding to. “Remember when we played Rapunzel?”

“You mean when you terrors tied a rope on the balustrade and each one of my sons climbed up your ‘hair’ to rescue you?” Irritation and fondness made for a strange combination, but that’s what I heard in Eloise’s reply. “You were a bunch of tearaways, each and every one of you.” A small smile formed as she looked down at my stomach. “Something you’ll become well acquainted with when you birth your boys.”

“So you are having all boys?” Cyrus looked down his nose as he peered at my stomach, but Cheryl elbowed him in the ribs. “What, I just asked?”

“All boys.” I sighed that out because it was only now that I realised what that meant. Looking at the house I could see the ghosts of my mates and me, remembering all the crazy shit we got up to. My focus shifted to Eloise and she nodded slowly. “All that testosterone, and alphas too. I’m going to be living in a madhouse, aren’t I?”

“One filled with love,” Eloise assured me. “Sometimes it won’t feel like it, but it will be, and anyway, your sons will have mine to keep them in line, make sure they respect you. If they don’t…” I couldn’t help but smile at the implied threat. “Well, you talk to me. Now, the pools?”

“So you’re intending to birth in Bordertown?” Cheryl asked in careful tones as she led us deeper into the house.

“I don’t?—”

“Of course.” Bloody hell, my mother-in-law and I were just having a moment, but then she had to talk straight over me. She seemed to realise we weren’t saying the same things, looking over her shoulder with a small frown. “For seven generations, all the Vanguard alphas were born in these pools.”

“And these won’t be Vanguard alphas.” My hand went to my stomach, almost to shield my unborn children from their eyes. Cyrus’ lips quirked at the corners and Cheryl was doing a much better job of being Omega Williams, keeping her expression neutral, but Eloise? I hated the pain there but couldn’t think of any other way forward. “We’re the Taylor pack. We have to create our own traditions.”

“Well, perhaps you need to see what you’re rejecting before you make any decisions.”

Cheryl just shook her head as Eloise pushed past her, walking into a part of the garden we as children never entered. She unlocked the gate and then held out an arm, ushering us in, as if it was still her place to do so. Cheryl let out a long breath and then walked forward, Cyrus hot on her heels.

That just left me.

I felt like I was making decisions on the fly, not having done a cost benefit analysis of each one, which made human me uncomfortable, but the wolf? She knew where we needed to go. We heard the sound of running water and began to move,walking through the gate and then down a neatly paved path to here.

“Omegas usually do water births.” Cheryl had recovered and was reciting the relevant words but with no real passion. “It helps with the pain, or so I’m told.”

That last bit was tacked on, but before I could ask what she meant, we reached this place. Somehow, a grotto was tucked away in the centre of the estate. Everyone was talking, about what, I couldn’t have told you. My feet moved of their own accord. The wolf was not allowed out until my babies were born, the brutality of a shift too much for unborn children, so I hadn’t felt her this close to the surface for a long time. Her paws, my feet, carried us down the steps hewn into the living rock, my sandals kicked off because somehow I knew I needed to feel the stone against my skin. Something electric pulsed through me as I dropped lower.

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