Page 62 of Coming Home

“What are you waiting for?” she asked.

I growled and kissed the spot I wanted to mark her. Seconds before my teeth were about to sink into her, my phone rang. I wanted to ignore it, but I couldn’t. With a frustrated sigh, Shelby leaned over and checked it.

“It’s the Alpha house number,” she said, recognizing it immediately. She slid to answer. “Hello?”

“Tell me the boys are there with you,” I heard Maddie say.

I grabbed the phone from Shelby and put her on speaker. “They’re not here. I dropped all three of them off at the house last night,” I told her, my heart jumping into my throat. Where the hell could they have run off to?

“Calm down, I’m sure they’re fine,” Shelby told us both. “We’ll head in that direction and check a few places out.”

“Thanks, Shelby. This really isn’t like Oscar to just leave without telling someone.”

“I know, it’s not like the twins either,” she said.

“Guess the wait continues,” I said as she pouted. “Let’s go find my brothers.”

We left and got into the car. I drove slowly while Shelby’s head was out of the window yelling for the boys.

“Stop,” Shelby yelled as we passed the cemetery.

She was out of the car and running up the hill before I could even get the car in park. I channeled my wolf speed and easily caught up to her. We found the boys pulling weeds from around Annabelle’s headstone.

“It can’t be, he would have told us,” Will insisted.

“Hey guys, you have a lot of people worried and out looking for you,” I said.

Troy turned and glared at me. “Do you want to explain this?” he asked, pointing at the little grave.

“Do you want to explain why you guys are out here and not back at the Alpha house where I left you?” I countered.

“We didn’t mean to be so long,” Oscar said. “We were playing truth or dare, and I dared them to walk through the cemetery at night. It was my fault.”

“Then we stumbled across this. Why does it have ‘Shay’ carved into it like this?” Troy asked.

Shelby pulled out her phone and called Maddie. “We found them. Everyone’s fine. Give us a few minutes with them and we’ll bring them home.” When she hung up, she looked down at my brothers. “What do you want to know about her?”

“This is the Collier family section, so why does it say ‘Shay?’” Troy demanded.

Shelby smiled sadly and kneeled down next to them. “Because Annabelle was my daughter,” she said.

“And yours?” Will asked me, looking hurt. “How come you never told us? Is that why you left the way you did?”

I started to talk, but Shelby cut me off. “It’s not his fault, Will. Until a few days ago he had no idea she even existed, even if only for a short time. And the new carvings were made when I finally told him.”

“What happened, Aunt Shelby?” Oscar asked sadly.

“She died in a car accident while I was still pregnant with her. Until this week, no one but Doc ever knew.”

The boys all hugged my mate. “I’m sorry you went through that all alone,” Troy said.

“You know you’re not alone anymore, right?” Will asked. “We’re a family now.”

“And we would have sealed that officially if you goons hadn’t snuck off and scared everyone half to death,” I grumbled.

“Oops, sorry,” Troy said.

“We’ll head back to the house if you want to go home and finish it,” Will offered.

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