Page 72 of Can't Be Love

She blew out a breath. “I’ll just be happy when you’re officially bonded and can no longer pull this crap on me.”

Thomas and I both laughed. “I promise you, we’ll still pull this crap after we’ve bonded.”

“So you’re going to go through with it? Like this is it? You’re serious and not teasing me?”

To put it all to rest, I pulled down the collar of my shirt and showed her the bond mark he’d left there. “Done deal. I’m afraid you’re officially stuck with me as family . . . again.”

Madelyn squealed and launched off the couch to tackle us, baby and all, in a huge hug.

“And you’re happy about it, right?” she questioned, sobering for a minute.

“Extremely,” I admitted.

“Both of you?” she asked, looking at Thomas.

“Never happier,” he told her.

“I’m calling Liam right now. He took Oscar over to the office for a bit so I could have some quiet, but he’ll want to know about this for sure.” When she hung up the phone after animatedly telling my twin about us, Maddie yelled into the kitchen where Mom had escaped to. “Mary, Liam’s on his way. We’re staying for dinner.”

Thomas

Chapter 26

Maddie and I actually sat down and talked, really talked. It was both awesome and therapeutic and made the entire trip worth it. Mary Westin’s infamous Tuesday night family dinner was certainly an experience. I felt like I was being drilled by a firing squad between Lily’s father and brothers, but in the end, I passed their tests and was welcomed with open arms to the family.

Kyle had been a little put off that he hadn’t been informed sooner, but Dad’s notice to the packs was going out the next day. I apologized to Kyle for coming into Westin territory uninvited, but I genuinely thought Lily had taken care of it. He assured me that I was welcome anytime and not to worry about it. Formal invitations were not necessary amongst family.

The Westins were very different from my own family. They were loud and wide open with each other. Nothing seemed off-limits, and Mary knew everything there was to know about each of her children.

With my parents, especially my mom, I always felt like I had to walk around on eggshells. I didn’t like upsetting her, and maybe it was a product left over from the days of Maddie missing, but I never felt like I knew for sure what would set her off and send her running away in tears. It was kind of refreshing not to have to deal with that here. Mary seemed to take as good as she gave.

It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that I was finally able to corner Kyle and really talk.

“Hey, you got a moment to talk?” I asked him.

“Sure man, anytime. Come on in,” he said, ushering me into his office. I closed the door behind me, knowing he had a dampener in the room so the others couldn’t hear us. “What’s up?”

“Tell me what you know about the Verndari,” I said, cutting to the chase.

“I knew you’d get around to asking eventually. Honestly man, Patrick’s my go-to for them. Whatever he told you, I probably can’t add much more to it.”

“Fair enough. So tell me about Westin Force then.”

“How about we go for a ride and I show you instead?”

A few minutes later we left the house and drove down the mountain to the lodge just outside Westin territory. I had been there before and had already pieced together that they were housing the unit there.

“Patrick explained what the Force does?”

“More or less,” I confessed.

“So you know the Force is not only watching the Verndari, for any signs of rogue activity, but also shifters worldwide, right?” he asked as we were walking into the lodge.

“Yes, he did mention that. But he didn’t explain how exactly that was taking place, or whether or not I needed to be concerned for my Pack.”

“You wouldn’t be in line for Alpha if you didn’t ask that, but you have nothing to fear from us, Thomas. Collier is safe and will remain so under my watch. A month ago, heck a few weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have given you the time of day regarding all this, but you’re family now and we take care of own, and we do try to help those that aren’t, they just don’t know it.”

Once inside, we turned down a hallway that I knew was filled with nothing more than hotel-style rooms. I had stayed there myself during the Grand Council gathering. We walked through the roped-off construction area, and once on the other side it looked no different than the rest of the floor.

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