Page 69 of Mates: Posy

"You’re notbroken." Mason’s chest suddenly vibrated against my back. "You’re asurvivor. If you were broken, you wouldn’t keep getting up and going on."

"We love you, Posy," Ash said, and Wyatt and Jayden echoed him.

"We do," Mason said. "More than you know. More than you can understand."

"We’ve talked about finding you ever since we were boys," Jayden told me. "We’ve known for years that we’d share our true mate, our Goddess-given mate. Now that we finally have you, we are so happy."

"And the fact that our mate is beautiful and sweet and kind and so, so strong, well, it surpasses everything we dreamed of," Ash said.

Although they’d said it before, I knew I wasn’t beautiful or strong.

Someday, you see yourself through mates’ eyes,Lark said with a smug smile.Then you know the truth and not the trash Alpha Briggs put in your head.

"All right, everyone!" Peri rejoined us with a tray of mugs. "Hot chocolate has arrived."

With Luke and Lilah trailing her, she set the tray on the coffee table, which we had moved over to one side of the room. Except for Topaz of course, we each snagged a mug and sipped in silence for a moment.

"We’re going to fast-forward to the end." Ash picked up the remote and looked over at Lilah, who was curled up in Luke’s big arms on a couch. "It’s happy, I promise, and no more violence. Is that okay?"

When she nodded, he skipped to the last scene, and he was right: it was a happy ending. I enjoyed the "bloopers" immensely, and Lilah did, too, judging by her quiet giggles.

"I think we’ve all had a long day," Mason said. "Time for lights out."

No one grumbled because he was right. Ash turned off the TV, Peri turned off the lights, and my mates cuddled as close as they could get to me.

Peri huffed a little.

"Seeing how my brothers took my spot, I guess I’ll take a couch," she muttered.

"You can come down here with us, Periwinkle," Wyatt offered and held out one arm. "If you want to."

"Is your namereallyPeriwinkle?" Lilah asked.

"No. It’s just Peri. Doofus here likes to tease, that’s all."

"Doofus?" Wyatt scorned. "And here I was being nice to you. Sleep on a couch alone then."

Of course, she jumped on him with a giggle, which made me giggle, too.

Mason stuffed his face in my neck and kissed my throat, which made me shiver. He chuckled and his thick arm tightened around my waist.

"Good night, little flower," he whispered.

"Good night."

And so I fell asleep with a fluffy wolf on one side and Mason’s bulk at my back, surrounded by my mates and friends, feeling safer than I had in years.

17: Meeting the Betas

Posy

After breakfast and showers the next morning, we girls decided to wear floaty, dressier tops with shorts and sandals. My mates had bought me clothing in several different sizes, so I knew we’d find something Peri and Lilah could wear, but I still worried because Peri was six inches taller than me and Lilah ten! Once we discovered that my capris fit them like shorts, though, I was relieved and happy to loan them whatever they wanted.

My mates met me at the bottom of the stairs and showered me with compliments.

"You look amazing, honey."

"Gorgeous, sweetness. Just gorgeous."

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