Page 14 of Fated In Winter

Conner met my gaze, and I swallowed hard. “Oh. So, are they here?” I asked, changing the subject.

Conner shook his head. “No, they have the triplets out with one of my cousins.”

“Another cousin?

“There are a lot of us. Now it seems there’s going to be even double the amount of Brentwoods. It’s a little unnerving.”

The thought of that much family, of a whole generation growing up together, warmed my heart, even as it made me slightly jealous. Or perhaps it wasn’t that. Maybe it was just that I missed so many people. That I wanted everyone to have the life I didn’t.

And when had I turned so melancholy?

Oh yes. When everyone had died, and I had survived.

“Why do you look like that?”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“What are you thinking about? You look like you’re in pain.”

I shook my head. “It’s nothing.

“If you’re sure,” he whispered.

“Yes. Let’s get to planning.” I pulled out my tablet and brought up a list of things that Conner and I had gone over before. “We need to assign people to each of these without letting the Alphas in on it.”

“We can do that. There’s already a lot of people who’ve come at me in my Pack who want to volunteer.”

I nodded, a small smile playing on my face. “Same. People I hadn’t even spoken to before all know that we’re doing this without the Alpha knowing. So I’m pretty sure they’re going to figure it out.”

Conner leaned forward. “Even if they figure it out, they’ll do their best at pretending they don’t know. And that’s not confusing at all.”

I laughed. “Either way, we are going to figure this out together and assign everybody a part that they want.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Okay, so food…”

We went through each of the things on our list, adding more as we went along. Before we knew it, we had dozens of people from both Packs assigned to certain things, and they would each have a team of their own using nearly everybody that we had talked to, and then some.

“This is going to be a little complicated.”

“True, but I like puzzles.”

I looked up at him, a smile playing on my face. “Really?

“Yes. I like the idea of fitting things into places and trying to make sure that everybody’s involved.”

I bit my lip, and Conner leaned forward. I could scent the forest on him, and I wanted to reach out, to nuzzle against him. My wolf sure was acting weird.

“Romy?”

“I’m glad we’re not going to let anyone slip through the cracks.”

I met his gaze, swallowed hard. “I don’t celebrate Yule. You know, the Packs are just so big, and we’ve had issues, and so Yule hasn’t been a major thing for me.”

I hadn’t meant to say the words, I hadn’t meant to reveal any part of myself, but he frowned and set down his tablet.

“Maybe that’s why they put us both on this.” He let out a sigh. “Kaylee’s the one that does most of the planning. She’s the eldest daughter, while I’m the eldest son, so I usually just stand back and let her tell me what to do.”

“I honestly didn’t think you’d be the type to let anyone tell you what to do.”

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