Page 31 of Family: Posy 4

"You did?" she squeaked with surprise.

"Yep. Even designed the top floor as a beautiful apartment for him, but then Ev Breckenridge was killed and Ash needed a beta and Ty was next up. He's happier, anyway. As much as he likes it here and likes to read and research, he would have been bored after a while."

"So you still need a librarian?" She tilted her head as her eyes went far away, and I wondered what she was thinking. "What about Grace? She'll want a job, and she told Mason she wanted to go to school because she didn't have that opportunity at White Pelt."

"Hmm. Maybe. I don't know if she'd be interested." I frowned as I thought about it. "And I don't know if Landry would like living in an apartment, even if it is luxurious. I pulled out all the stops when I designed it because I wanted Ty to have everything he never did."

"You guys really love him a lot, don't you?" She pressed kisses all over my chest, and I wished I wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Yep. He's our kid brother, too." Almost bursting with excitement, I grabbed her hand. "Come on! I want to show you around!"

Giggling, she took my hand in both of hers and told me to lead the way, so I did. We spent three hours wandering around the bottom floor, and I showed her how each of our original packs had a room packed full of books, maps, paintings, journals, ledgers, loose documents, and so much more. Dark Woods' collection was the sparsest by far, as the hunters had burned a lot of buildings, including the alpha office, but Ash, Wyatt, and I had spent several summers scouring the territory and salvaging everything we could.

"Eventually, Ty and I want to organize the research books by topic on the second floor. It's dead stupid having to go from room to room and search for books on dire wolves rather than having them all located in one area."

"Makes sense," she agreed. "Is there any fiction, or is it all research?"

"Ty and I started our own collection of our favorite novels and books. Let's go up to the second floor and I'll show you."

"Can I see the apartment on the third floor, too? I'd like to see how you designed it. I'm sure it's incredible."

"Of course you can!" I beamed down at her, proud that she was interested in what I created. "Let's do that first."

Ash and I set up our bed for the night on the second floor, and I wanted to save that until after dinner, which I'd set back an hour because we'd had lunch so late.

So I took her on a tour of the apartment, my heart swelling with each exclamation of amazement. I'd spent months making it as appealing as possible. There were floor-to-ceiling windows, two full bathrooms with rainfall showers and spa tubs, three spacious bedrooms, a kitchen equipped with every labor-saving device known to man, and balconies off the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom.

I'd also included a stargazing area on the roof with Edison lights strung everywhere and comfy outdoor furniture. I refrained from showing her that, though, because Ash wanted to stargaze with her tomorrow night and I didn't want to steal his thunder.

By the time she was finished exploring the third floor, it was dinner time, and Ty linked me right on cue.

Alpha, it's ready.

I rolled my eyes.

I wonder how long it will take to call us brothers-in-law again, I muttered to myself.

If he were still pissed, he wouldn't have agreed to help Peri set up your feast, Quartz muttered back.

True.

As we started to walk down the spiral staircase to the first floor, a delicious variety of smells wafted to our noses. Thank the Goddess that the human city our pack bordered was diverse enough to include several ethnic restaurants.

"Jayden?" she murmured, coming to a stop three steps from the bottom. "Is someone else here?"

"Ty and Peri helped me out and dropped dinner off. Want to take a taste tour around the world with me?"

She gaped at me, then bounced around so much, I had to catch her so she didn't fall down the last few stairs. Chuckling, I swung her up in my arms like a bride and carried her to the Five Fangs room, which was mostly empty as we hadn't accumulated very much as a pack yet.

Ty and Peri had done a fine job. Ash and I had stashed some blankets and a pile of pillows in the closet, and they'd spread them around like we were on a picnic indoors. Posy stared up at me with star-struck eyes, and I smiled as I sat her down.

I'd stuck with water, which Ash said was too bland and boring and wanted me to try some different wines and mixed drinks. Posy preferred water, though, well, besides Pepsi, and she wasn't getting any caffeine this late in the evening. Been there, done that, been awake half the night with a hyper little bunny.

You weren't complaining at the time, even if it cost you a three-hour nap the next afternoon, Quartz smirked, and I grinned at the memory.

"What is all this?" Posy asked. "I don't recognize any of it specifically, although I can tell this is some kind of salad and this is a soup."

Getting focused, I served each course and explained what it was and where it was from. We munched our way through Greek salad, French onion soup, gyoza dumplings, taquitos, gyros, and baklava for dessert. None of it really went together, but Posy was so very interested to learn, and she enjoyed it all, although she said the taquitos were a bit spicy for her. That only reinforced the fact that she had little to no spice tolerance, which we'd discovered the first time we ate Chinese.

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