Page 22 of Wrong Number, Right Valentine

The Alpha called the pack to order and introduced us as mates. The pack cheered, welcoming him with open arms. Then it was time for the run.

We all shifted, except for some omegas and young children. Before I darted off into the woods with the pack, I made sure to snuggle against my mate, pressing my nose to his neck for a moment to ground myself. I felt bad leaving him alone, even for a short time.

I shouldn’t have. When I returned, I found him sitting in a circle with some of the omegas, holding one of the babes and laughing. The sight stopped me in my tracks. Seeing him with a baby in his arms stirred something deep in me, making me wish for one of our own. If the goddess deemed it the right time, it would come.

But for now, having him—just him—was enough.

After shifting back and getting dressed, the Alpha proclaimed it time to feast. We ate until we were full, chatting with the pack and devouring our non-wedding cake like a boss. It was one of the nicest times I’d ever had at a pack event, and I owed that 100% to my mate. With him by my side, everything was brighter, happier, simply better.

“I love you, omega mine.”

He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. “I love you, alpha mine. Thank you for sharing your pack with me.”

“Our pack. This is our pack now.” We wouldn’t live here, our lives already so entwined with our careers far from this place, but it would always be a second home to us, and if one day something happened to me, I knew without a splinter of a doubt that the pack would be there for him, and that was everything.

17

BANKS

“Damn!”

I’d left some notes I’d printed out for today’s meeting at Reg’s place yesterday. Not that I couldn’t print them out again here at the office, but I’d scribbled notes in the margins.

We’d been going back and forth between each other’s places, and while we both had clothes and toiletries at each apartment, neither mine nor his was ours, and we’d been talking about moving in together.

“Can we afford it?” We were at my place as it was Reg’s day off, and he’d pulled up a shifter realtor’s site. Giving up my apartment wouldn’t bother me. It didn’t hold any special memories, and I wanted to live with my mate.

But I didn’t want Reg to agree to finding a together home when all of his available cash had been put into the restaurant.

“You mean me?” He didn’t look up from the laptop. “Yes, we can. The restaurant has been profitable for quite a while, and I’ve invested well.”

He’d mentioned wanting to, but this was the first that I’d heard that he’d actually done it.

“This is exciting.” I snuggled beside him as we scrolled through houses with tiny yards.

We’d agreed we wanted a family, including pets, so an apartment wasn’t suitable. But the places we could afford in town were so close to their neighbors and had a tiny strip of grass front and back.

“What if we looked a little further out?” Reg’s finger was moving over a button on the website.

“It’s fine, but I’d prefer nothing more than a thirty-minute commute.” That was asking a lot, but if we bought a house outside town and we spent hours in traffic, we’d resent the purchase and maybe each other. Plus the time we could have spent together would be sitting in our cars, checking our watches, and complaining we were going to be late.

And it’d be worse for Reg. I could work from home a couple of days a week, though with his newly hired assistant manager, perhaps he could work a four-day week.

We decided to make a list of everything we wanted in a home.

“Three bedrooms.” Reg tapped on the keyboard.

“Make that four.” My reasoning was if we had two kids, there’d be no room for guests. “Or three bedrooms and a den.”

By the end of the night, my vision was blurred from looking at and rejecting so many houses. One of my must-haves was a huge swing in the back yard and a hammock.

“Our dog will love it.”

Reg clicked his tongue. “The one we don’t have yet.”

My mate wasn’t sold on having a pet, saying we’d be out of the house most of the day and the dog would be alone. But with a large back yard and a porch, I figured a four-legged friend would be plenty occupied sleeping, eating, and sniffing.

Over the next few days, we looked at more sites and made a short list of homes we wanted to inspect. But getting a day when we were both free wasn’t easy, and when we finally coordinated, some of the houses were off the market.

---