Page 48 of Wolf Reborn

It was still proving difficult to keep the goofy smile off his face. Not that anyone minded, but it was a strange feeling, walking around with his emotions all over his face.

He’d always thought it was part of why everyone called him “a good leader,” his tendency to keep his own feelings in check. The last few days had made it clear no one expected or wanted that.

Every day, his pack kept teaching him.

Inexplicably, he found himself humming a boy-band song from his youth. Okay, maybe not inexplicably.

He and Miles had been dating for nine months, sure, but the last month of that time was everything. The last week. The last day, when neither of them had wanted to leave the bedroom, even when Miles’s heat had receded.

It was better than the best life Gavin had ever envisioned for himself. Maybe things were going to be hard, especially if people expected him to be, as Dez so (dis)respectfully put it, “Werewolf Jesus.” But for the first time, Gavin was starting to think maybe they could handle even that, as long as they were all together.

Even if he was only half a werewolf, Gavin the mostly human guy wasn’t too awful.

“Cap.” Dez’s voice broke through Gavin’s happy haze, and the tightness of it made the hair on the back of his neck raise. Something had Dez on alert, and that was rarely a good sign.

He snatched up the closest towel and dried his hands as he headed out of the kitchen.

Dez was sending the young barista off to wipe down the tables as he came out, but their conversation was lost on Gavin.

All he could see was Gwen.

His little sister, standing there in his shop, looking at him like he was back from the dead and a bona fide miracle. Were there tears in her eyes? She opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to get words out, and closed it again.

With hardly a thought, Gavin leapt over the front counter and took his sister into his arms. “Gwenny.”

“Gabby,” she whispered back, the ridiculous nickname that his mother had always detested. It was how one-year-old Gwen had first managed to pronounce his name—her first word—and he’d thought it was the best thing ever. He’d always thought everything about his little sister was the best thing ever, though, so maybe his judgment was suspect.

Nah.

She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed while he rocked her back and forth. There was no reason to shush her, since their mother wouldn’t find them and remind them that Lloyds did not cry. Crying was for the weak, after all.

Gavin wondered if his mother would appreciate how many times he’d seen soldiers break down in Afghanistan. Would she think all of them weak, for needing an emotional release while going through hell?

Probably.

Fortunately for Gavin, he’d long since realized this was proof his mother’s whole worldview was wrong, not the other way around.

“What are you doing here, sweetheart?” he asked, when her sobs tapered off.

“Seriously? The first time you see me in a decade, and all you can do is ask why I’m here?” She pulled back and smacked him across the chest, then shook out her hand and stared at his pecs. “Ow. When did you become super-Gavin? You didn’t used to be made of steel.”

He chuckled, then wrapped an arm around her waist and led her toward the overstuffed chairs in the back of the shop floor where they held meetings after hours. Something about adding the scent of his sister to the scent of his pack appealed on a deep instinctive level. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Dez snorted from his spot behind the espresso machine. “Yeah, hard to believe a soldier spent years doing a ridiculous workout routine.”

Gwen looked over at Dez and bit her lip. “You’re one of the men who owns this place with Gavin, right?”

Without hesitation, Dez dropped what he was working on and came over to the back counter, holding his hand out. “Desmond Sullivan, and yes. You must be the baby sister he used to talk about all the damn time.”

“I did not!” Gavin protested.

Dez scoffed but ignored Gavin in favor of leaning toward Gwen as she clasped his hand and shook. “All the freaking time. Little Gwen, baby genius, gonna be a biologist.”

Huh. Okay, maybe he had done that. Once or twice. While drinking. He’d tried not to bring his family into anything, but it was hard to bond with people without offering stories of shared experience—like having a little sister he was proud of.

Gwen practically glowed under the praise, and for a second, Gavin worried he was going to have to warn her Dez was taken. Instead, she turned and hugged him again, smooshing her face against his chest. Her voice was tiny when she said, “I thought you forgot about me.”

Forgot? Oh hell. Dez shot him a hard look over Gwen’s shoulder, and Gavin cringed. He had a lot to make up for, clearly. It had seemed simpler for everyone if he broke contact altogether. He hadn’t wanted to secretly contact Gwen and give her something she had to keep from their parents. Their parents were hard enough to live with when one wasn’t keeping secrets; that was why Gavin had come out to them when he was fourteen. His mother had immediately started looking into surrogacy—being gay was fine with her, provided he was still willing to father and raise the next generation of Lloyds.

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