Page 24 of Riley Goes Home

Malcolm snorted.

“Pretty sure having your babies is a legitimate excuse to leave a shower, love.”

“But I know this. You showed me the way each Vanguard pack was born, raised.” Mum straightened up then, hope beginning to rise. “Thank you for showing me your traditions. I’m glad you had an experience that made you feel supported.”

Where the hell was this going? I glanced at my brothers and saw similar looks of concern on their faces.

“But we aren’t the Vanguard pack. We’re the Taylor’s, and our place is here.”

Fathers didn’t play as important a role in a birth, but it wasn’t until she said those words that I realised how much I needed to hear them. Going back to Bordertown felt like a regression. We all knew the politics, the bullshit that reigned there. It worked for a lot of alphas, but not us. Riley had given us more than her heart and our children, but a purpose. I liked to think that the first alphas were caretakers, protectors, and Bordertown didn’t need that from us. We might not particularly like the Williams, but they would keep the town ticking alongjust fine. Our work here, the kids we helped, that to me felt like a true alphas’ calling.

“Are you accepting new members?” I blinked as I stared at my fathers, trying to work out what the hell that meant, but John just smiled. “I mean, you’ve made it sound pretty damn good, living in the city.” I snorted because we had a block out in the hills, and almost no beta would describe this as urban living. “Your mother is going spare in Bordertown.” He put an arm around her and gave her a hug. “Can’t keep her nose out of Omega Williams’ business.”

“It’s because she is making some silly decisions…” Mum huffed until everyone around her chuckled. She flushed bright red, her eyes falling to the ground. “I’m meddling, just like your grandmother used to do to me when you boys were young. God, I’ve become just as bad.” Her fingers raked over her face. “She was such a pushy old bat…” Her hands fell away. “And I’m becoming one too.”

“Because you're smart, driven, and want the best for everyone.” Where the hell had that come from? I stared at Riley as she smiled down at my mother. “We might not agree on how that’s done, but I think we want the same things.” Our son let out a big burp and then a little grunt as she brought him back down and then held him out to my parents. “Maybe if we started working together, we might be able to achieve something amazing.”

“Can I…?” Mum was asking for more than just to hold our son, but Riley nodded. I watched my mother take him with my heart in my throat, not able to breathe until she had him settled against her chest. “Oh, he’s beautiful. Just beautiful.” She stared past Riley to the rest of us. “All of them are.”

“And they need grandparents.” Who said that? Shit, apparently me, because everyone was staring my way. “Ones that respect the parents’ wishes and works with them, ratherthan trying to dictate how things need to go. Ones that don’t try to stuff them into predetermined roles.”

“You’ll have your work cut out for you holding your tongue,” one of the dads said to Mum. “Reckon you can do that, El?”

“That’s what you need?” I loved my mother, but I couldn’t remember the last time she’d asked me a question like that. “If that’s it, then I’ll make it happen. I’ll keep my mouth shut and my heart open.”

“There will be slip ups.” My dads held my gaze and it felt like something was happening here. “It’s hard from going from being the ruling pack to a support position, but…” I hung on their every word, needing to hear it. “There’s always a transfer of power to the younger generations and now… Now it’s your turn to lead.”

Plans were made,ideas tossed around about what the parents could do, as they came to sit down on the veranda. They were introduced to Lily and her pack, my dads talking with her guys because they’d met them at different alpha meetings over the years. We didn’t commit to anything right now, not yet, and there was no need to, not when my son was returned to me, the weight of his body grounding me as he lay sleeping on my chest. Right now there was the breeze on my face and the smoky smell of the barbeque to enjoy and then. My pack, my mate, my babies, my friends and family. Tomorrow more problems might arise, but right now this was enough.

Chapter 16

Riley

“There is one tradition you might like.” I was very proud of myself for not stiffening when Eloise brought that up one morning. Candy was nursing one of the babies and shot me me a meaningful look, as if making clear she’d put my son in his bassinet and throw down if required.

She wasn’t.

“Oh?”

A strange kind of serenity had fallen over me as I settled into the rhythms of motherhood. Probably because at this stage we were all working as a well oiled machine. As I fed the babies, someone was always there, to make sure I had a glass of water or some food, a pillow tucked under me if we were still in bed. I experienced this quiet, this peace, as each child fed and then was whisked away to be burped, have a nappy change or to be cuddled close and soothed. We were truly becoming a pack.

“You never got a chance to witness due to… the misunderstanding.”

I nearly snorted at the way my mother in law phrased it. Candy did and noisily. Eloise looked befuddled by my best friend’s reaction, but then forged on.

“Even if we’d known what you would become, you wouldn’t have seen it. You were a baby yourself when the other alphas were born, or just a twinkle in your dad’s eye.”

I shifted my son onto my shoulder, patting him softly, his little squirms, his grunts feeling like they filled my heart.

“An omega can’t shift for the entire pregnancy, as you know,” Eloise continued. “In some it can be hard, to divorce yourself from the other half of your soul.” Her hand slid over and took mine. “You are more than a mother, my son’s mate. You are more even than your work. You are an omega, but that’s only half of you. On the first full moon after an omega gives birth, you reclaim that part of you, the wild part. The bit that wants to run over hill and dale with the wind in her fur.”

If you’d told me Eloise would wake up and try to make me dissatisfied with my current state, I’d have told the guys to head her off at the pass, redirect her attentions to the flower beds that were in desperate need of a weed.

Instead, I just blinked.

For just a moment, we shared something that couldn’t really be put into words. Candy shifted restlessly beside me, sensing that something was going on, but not sure of what.

Eloise was right.

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