Page 94 of The Beta's Heart

Instead of answering, he pecked my lips, then moved his hands to cup my face, studying it as if to make sure not a single tear had escaped on his watch, and I never loved him more.

Once he found what he was looking for, he nodded to himself, then slid me back on my chair and kept his arm draped around my lower back. As we both went back to eating, Cole glared at Ty and Wyatt teased him about keeping his hands to himself at least during dinner, but Jay and Mase were watching me closely now, and Posy, Julia Price, and Mom all tapped on the link.

I’m okay,I linked them.Just didn’t realize how much I missed dinners together like this.

“You know, Mom,” Ty began before any of them could respond, “I never knew how much fun big families were. I think we should have meals together like this more often.”

“He didnotjust play the orphan card to get invited to dinner again!” Ash fake-gasped. “Come on, bro! You’re better than that!”

“Ash Loto Mitchell!” Mom and Julia Price both tore into him.

“Per, you should have just said you missed us instead of manipulating your mate into manipulating Mom,” Jay teased, relieved now that he knew I wasn’t upset over anything too deep.

“I didn’t manipulate anyone!” I protested. “Ty asked what was wrong and I told him and he said he’d fix it. End of story.”

“Well, I agree with Ty,” Dad chimed in. “Let’s try to have at least one meal together as a family each week. We can rotate houses, too, so no one feels like it’s a burden.”

“I love it!” Posy clapped her hands and bounced up and down in her seat, and that pretty much sealed the deal.

“To the weekly gathering of the … wait.” Ash paused with his glass in his hand. “Whatarewe going to call this family? We have more last names between us than there are colors of paint.”

“Ours,” I said as I gave Ty a giant smile. “Ourfamily.”

“Sounds good to me,” he murmured.

“All right,” Ash raised his glass again and waited until we each had done the same, “To the weekly gathering ofourfamily.”

“To our family,” we all echoed.

21. Common Courtesy

Peri

“Let’s invite Grace Turnbull out to eat at Roger’s Diner,” I suggested.

“Sounds good.” Ty shrugged. “I haven’t met her yet, and I’m curious about that prison she was rescued from.”

“I know I don’t have to warn you to be considerate. She’s kind of shy and quiet, and those must be some pretty awful memories.”

“You just warned me to be considerate while telling me it was unnecessary to do so,” he laughed, and I chased him out to our car.

At the same time Cole was being infected by a supernatural parasite, Jayden and Angelo del Vecchio were raiding a prison in which human hunters had been storing quite a few shifters for some nefarious reason. Among those they rescued, only two didn’t have a place to go right away, and Grace was one of them. There was also a half-dragon named Konstantin Russo, who I hadn’t had a chance to meet yet, but Cole had asked me to make friends with Grace while she was staying in the pack, so I did.

My brothers had been trying to contact her alpha to arrange a way home for her, but White Pelt was one of those isolated, primitive packs in northern Canada that couldn’t even offer reliable cell or internet service. Until Cole could contact Alpha Rimsky, Grace was stuck here—and she was fine with that. She was only nineteen and liked the modern conveniences that her pack lacked, and I had half a mind to talk to Cole about letting her transfer here. She was sweet and kind and good-natured, plus she wanted to go to a “real” school, which wasn’t an option at White Pelt.

Neither were restaurants, apparently, because she told us she’d never even been to one as Ty drove us over to Roger’s.

We’d just sat down at a table and picked up our menus when four of the five the gammas walked in, and I didn’t need more than Ty’s happy smile at seeing his best buddy, Gamma Landry Benson, to know they’d be joining us.

Sure enough, gammas Nick Sylvestri and Reuben Ford each pushed a table against the sides of ours as I chatted with Gamma Adam Bishop, who I knew well since he was Sophie’s big brother. As Gamma Landry plopped down on Ty’s other side, the guys settled themselves across from us, and Grace shrunk against me a little.

“It’s okay. None of them will be mean to you,” I assured her.

“They’re scary,” she turned her head to whisper to me. “Especially the one with all the tattoos. He even has one on his throat!”

“Well, they’re gammas. They were literally born to fight, but they’re not bad or evil. My Ty wouldn’t be friends with them all if they were, nor would my brothers have elevated them to official positions in the pack.”

“Okay, but it’s hard to believe they’re harmless—”

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