Page 76 of The Devil's Ice

“As far as parting gifts go, I’ll take it.” Bones smiled, and suddenly Wolf could see him as a young man, maybe forty years younger, with bright blue eyes and wild, dark hair, not unlike his own. “And you’re welcome, Wolf. You’reallvery welcome.”

Chapter Twenty-three

The next day

Love isn’t just an emotion, it’s an act. It’smanydifferent acts. And sometimes, when people love you really hard and deep, those acts are loud.

Like when Dux and Drake walked into their home with Hannah and Joe in their arms, the sound that came from Briley’s throat wasdefinitelydeafening: all of her love, and fear, and dread came bursting out of her. She immediately shushed herself, because she didn’t want to frighten her babies – but her first and most true and honest reaction was to shout her love and relief and gratitude.

They were carefully placed in her embrace, and Briley sat next to Cheryl on the sofa, lowered her tear-stained face to their cheeks, and mouths, and foreheads. She kissed them until they squirmed, but she didn’t stop.

She finally looked up at the men, at their fathers, all of her questions written bright on her face.

“We swear that the doctors in Utah checked them over,” Drake said. “They’re totally fine, darlin’. Wolf did an amazing job with them.”

“They’re not dehydrated?” She stared down at them now, saw that they were pink and plump, their grips on Cheryl’s fingers strong. “He somehow kept them fed?”

“He gave them formula, babe,” Dux said. “He swears they ate every hour – or at least, that’s how itfeltto him.”

“Poor guy,” Briley said with the ghost of a smile. “I think he’s probably right, to be fair.”

“Yeah, me too,” Drake said. “He asked us to tell you that he did his goddamned best, and he’s sorry if he messed anything up, and he’s sorry that you’ve been so worried. He assured us that the babies were brought straight to him, so he had them from the very beginning, and nobody put a finger on them except him.”

“How’s Wolf?” Briley asked, feeling like she could draw full breaths into her body again. “Besides exhausted?”

“Nowhe’sdehydrated,” Dux said. “And looks likehe’sbeen starved, and likehehasn’t slept in months.”

He didn’t see any reason at all to mention that Wolfalsolooked like he’d been put through a meat grinder at least twice, with a badly-bruised face, and boot marks all across his chest and back. Wolf could take a beating better than almost anyone, and he’d havekepttaking them, if it meant that the children were spared being touched by the Hellions.

“He sacrificed himself to protect them,” Cheryl said in wonder. “He put them first.”

“That’s Wolf Connor,” Drake affirmed. “Defender of the defenceless, believe you me.”

“Oh, I do.” Briley smiled as Hannah and Joe looked into her eyes, their own so clear and blue. “I need to call him right away, say thank you personally.”

“There’sonemore thing that you need to know before you do,” Dux said with a grin that let her know that it wasn’t anything bad. “Onemore thing that Wolf did.”

“Alright.”

“Well, he didn’t know their names,” Drake explained. “He’d gone to Utah before we decided on what to call them, so –”

“Oh, boy,” Briley said with a huge smile now. “OK, hit me with it.”

And when she heard what Wolf had named them and why, she laughed again – her joy as loud as her love.

**

Scars returning to Zoe and Keira was just as loud as the twins’ return to their mother: when he pulled up to the farmhouse, Zoe came flying out to meet him, Keira right behind her, clutching Peach.

“Scars!”

“Daddy!”

He opened his arms wide and they both jumped into them at the same time, the force of it knocking him backwards, into the side of the rented SUV. Back they went in a tangle of limbs, all talking at the same time, Zoe kissing Scars, and Scars hugging Keira tight to his chest, and Keira holding his left arm in a death grip, and Peach at the heart of it all, smushed in the scrum.

Tank and Honey appeared outside in the middle of all of this, supporting Vixen between them on the icy driveway. The three of them watched the family reunion with sheer delight, thrilled to see such a noisy and obvious public display of love.

And when Scars and Zoe were alone later that night, back in their marital bed, with Keira fast asleep down the hallway, there was more loud love, love of a different kind: begging for more, moaning for deeper, gasping for harder, crying fornow.

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