Page 16 of Broken Chains

I nearly choked by her use of the word mate as it was still ringing through my head every time I looked at Peyton. I had been around the pack enough to know what a mate meant to a wolf shifter. Looking at little Opal, it made sense that Ruby and Bran were mated. I just didn’t understand why my wolf felt the same about Peyton. We didn’t even know her, not really.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Ruby asked Bran.

“Finished work early and since Kate’s been bugging Wyatt about a leaky faucet at the diner, I came by to help him fix it.”

“Are you done?” Ruby asked.

“I am,” he said, sharing a heated look with his mate.

“Great, well, since you guys are busy anyway, I’m going home. Do you want me to take Eve for a few hours?” she offered.

I was shaking my head as Peyton looked up at me.

“She’s fine. Go enjoy your family time,” Peyton told her.

“Okay. Oliver, it was really nice to meet you,” Ruby said.

“You too,” I told her.

“Hey, before I go, could you give me your mate’s name and number? I’d love to call her and schedule some playdates for Opal and Eve,” she said.

I cringed. I hated explaining myself to anyone. “It’s just me,” I said.

“What about Eve’s mother?” she pressed.

“Ruby,” Bran tried to warn her to back off and I appreciated it, but I also needed to say it. I wanted Peyton to hear it from me.

“From what I can tell, Peyton’s been more of a mother to that girl than her biological egg donor ever will. She signed over her legal rights and skipped town a few weeks back. She’s not even in the same zip code anymore and will never see Eve again.”

The room was awkwardly silent until Ruby spoke again. She shook her head and shrugged. “Your name and number will suffice.”

I snorted, and so did Bran. “She doesn’t falter easily,” he advised.

“I can see that,” I laughed, taking the phone and punching in my name and number before handing it back to her.

“Thanks, I’ll be in touch. Peyton, we’ll talk later,” Ruby said, and something told me I was going to be the highlight of that conversation. She gave Peyton a quick kiss on the cheek, and then she carefully held on to Opal and leaned down to plant a kiss on the top of Evie’s head. My daughter cooed in delight.

Alone, Peyton shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

“Where’s Kenneth?” I finally asked, realizing I hadn’t seen my brother even once.

She sighed and bit her bottom lip. “Thomas picked him up about an hour ago.”

My heart dropped and I thought I was going to throw up.

“Thomas Collier?” I said through gritted teeth, trying to hold back a growl. She looked a little taken aback from my reaction. I tried to tone it back before speaking again. “Luke confirmed he was cleared to work here for six weeks, it’s only been two. What the hell happened?”

Peyton looked confused for a minute, and then burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I can see how that must have sounded. It’s not like that. Thomas is, um, well, he’s my brother. I needed his truck so Kenneth could pick up some bags of soil for me, and he volunteered to go along and help. They should be back soon. I promise you, nothing bad is going to happen to Kenneth here.”

Peyton wasn’t just from Collier, shewasa Collier. That knowledge didn’t sit well with me, and the sheer disappointment of her declaration bothered me more than anything. It meant that no matter what my wolf was feeling or trying to tell me, absolutely nothing would or could happen between me and Peyton. We were from two totally different worlds.

Until that moment of realization, I didn’t even know I was thinking about her like that. When I looked over and watched as she checked her watch and then prepared a bottle for my daughter, how could I not?

With the bottle in the warmer, she pulled Eve from the pouch she’d been in and, while holding her in one arm, pulled out a changing table board leaning next to it that fitted to the Pack 'n Play she had set up in the corner of the room and began changing my daughter’s diaper like a pro.

I looked around the small room that sat just off the greenhouse area. From the Pack 'n Play to the foam ABC flooring and the kid friendly DVDs, everything about the room was outfitted for a baby. Even the outlets were all plugged and cords all secured. There was a small desk pushed to the side, but everything else in the room was for a baby—not just a baby, I realized, but my baby.

“Did you set all this up for Eve?” I asked.

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