Page 25 of Riley Goes Home

I loved my babies with a fierceness that took my breath away and sometimes it was hard even to relinquish them to their fathers, but right now I remembered I loved that too. Running on four feet, not two, the wind playing across my fangs. When I was in fur the world was a simple place. The colours dulled, my instincts took over, taking me where I needed to be.

And I was just about to reclaim that side of me.

At the next full moon,we had a bunch of people clustered outside on our deck while I stood here in a bathrobe. I watched them, watched the moon rise in the sky, then turned when Fen appeared at my shoulder.

“Ready?”

“No.”

I’d forgotten this, that hesitancy. A lifetime of being told I wasn’t an omega sometimes had me getting in my own head.

“Yes you are.”

He grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumbs over the knuckles, back and forth in a soothing rhythm, like we used with the kids and I understood how it worked. It brought my focus back to the room, to him.

“Yes, I am.” He blinked as I shoved the robe off, staring at my naked body. “But I’m going to shift here. If I get stuck, if I can’t take fur?—”

“You can…”

He had a whole speech prepared, but in the end neither of us needed to worry, because he was right. Letting the wolf come forward was like letting out a long yawn. It helped something relax in me, then out she came.

“Beautiful girl.”

My mates clustered closer. Blake had a baby on each shoulder, as did Haze, but not for long, because we’d brought some very special people here today for this event. Eloise and the dads were present, as was Candy, but more than that. Sage and her pack were dressed very smartly and looking around a little bemused. Charlie was watching everything with soft eyes, even as her mates stood at her back, tense and at attention. It was Lily and her guys I trotted towards, because standing in the centre of them was Evie. She held out a hand, luring me closer and the wolf knew what she was.Cub. Alpha. Pack, that’s what ran through her mind. She giggled as I sniffed at her palm.

“It tickles.”

“You’ll do the same when you grow up, kiddo,” Ben told her.

Right now wasn’t her time, it was mine and a need rose along with the moon. I let out a long howl, no doubt spooking the cows in the neighbours’ paddock, right before I took off. Shouts turned to howls as our children were placed in the care of their moon guardians, and then I heard the sound of their paws thudding the ground in hot pursuit. My stride lengthened, my claws raking the earth, throwing up the moist, rich scent as I passed. It didn’t mask my own though, because as I raced across stretches of grass and wove my way through trees, they found me. A black wolf, another, then a grey, one by one my pack formed around me and that’s when I saw the wisdom of some of the old rituals.

It was easy to get lost in motherhood. The children were so tiny, so vulnerable, they needed every single thing we had just to keep them alive. We could sacrifice our own needs for a while until they got bigger an more independent, but underneath that gift lay a truth. Me, Riley, wolf, scientist, omega, mate, I was all those things and now, I was a mother. I ran up to the crest of the hill beside our dam and howled this to the moon.

Everyone else had taken the quicker route, walking up the path that led to the dam and now they waited by the water. A single wail had my paws pacing back and forth restively. A bark from Fen’s wolf had us all surging forward. Because while we were the heart of the Taylor pack, there were more members. Our friends, our families, the people we’d tried to help, they clustered together to wait for us to induct the newest members.

Chapter 17

Evie

Would I be that beautiful one day? I thought, as Riley and her pack came back to skin. I wanted to think so, but she was an omega, not an alpha. They were supposed to be pretty, while I was?—

“You remember what to do, kiddo?”

I looked up to see my dad, Reed, was standing there. He winked, something he only did for me and I smiled back.

“I think so.”

I turned back to Mum, watching her jiggle the baby, which seemed weird, but it made it stop crying. She made this weird shushing sound too.

“This is important.” Reed was the quietest, most mysterious of my dads, but sometimes he’d tell me things and I’d always listen. “You step up like this, it means something.”

“It means we swear to protect them until they come to adulthood.”

All my dads had sat me down and told me about that rule. I nodded now. One of the old guys, the Taylor pack’s fathers, he stepped into the water, the moon reflected on its surface.

“Today we come to induct new members into the Taylor pack. Each person present swears to ensure these children safe until adulthood. Be clear in your heart about the commitment you’re about to make.”

The pretty lady, Sage, she didn’t look so sure. The baby she was holding was starting to cry, but her mates clustered closer. Would I have mates like that? Would they help me if I had a child? I frowned slightly as they began to make silly faces at the kid until he went quiet and then gurgled.

---