Page 43 of Wolf Bound

A laugh escapes and I quickly try to hide it, but it’s no use. Helen pulls back from the hug and shakes her head at me with an exasperated sigh. A smile pulls up her lips, however, before she can hide her own amusement. Helen wipes the tears from her eyes and grasps both of my cheeks.

“You sweet, cheeky girl. The goddess couldn’t have picked a better mate for my son.”

“Mom,” Penn whines from behind me. “Please release my mate and stop getting all sappy with her.”

“Only if you promise to come to dinner tomorrow night,” Helen responds, her hands not moving an inch. I awkwardly stand there, my cheeks being squished as everyone talks around me. “That means all of you!”

“Unfortunately, Alaric, myself, and Wes all have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with some of the local packs which means we won’t be available,” Drayton speaks up from somewhere over my shoulder. “The others should be free, however.”

“I will wrangle Forrester and Talia to your place, Mom. I promise,” Penn says and I can hear the almost inaudible groan of Forrester somewhere on the opposite side of the room. “Now please release Talia. The poor woman looks like she’s being turned into a puckering fish with how much you’re squishing her.”

“Oop! I’m sorry, Talia.” Helen releases my cheeks immediately. Embarrassment tinges her cheeks pink and I can’t help the explosion of laughter that comes out at the sight.

“That’s okay. I didn’t mind being smushed. At least not the whole time,” I say between bouts of giggles. “We will see you tomorrow for dinner. Thank you for coming to check up on me.”

“Of course,” Helen replies with a clap of her hands. “Tomorrow! Dinner will be at six, don’t be late!”

After she rushes out of the house, Penn pulls me against him and nuzzles into my hair. “Has anyone ever told you how perfect you are?”

“Only all of you almost all the time,” I tease with another giggle.

“Good,” Alaric grumbles from beside me before leaning in to kiss me softly. “That means we’re doing right by you. You should always know how beautiful, special, and perfect you are.”

“Hey! Way to steal my moment, asshole.” Penn smacks Alaric in the arm and pushes him away from me.

“Now, now. No fighting with our mate in the center,” Drayton chastises them with a shake of his head. He pulls me away from the two of them which gives Alaric an opening to playfully tackle Penn and put him in a headlock.

Drayton just shakes his head once more and carries me out of the living room and into the kitchen where Forrester and Wes are chatting quietly. He settles me down on the counter and I can’t help the happy tear that falls from my eye at how chaotic and amazing it is to have a family like this.

My peryton brushes against my mind with a feeling of euphoria at the thought. Our world is full of danger and we still don’t know the whole picture, but I know that we absolutely have something worth fighting whatever is in store for us. These men, this life; there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect it at any cost.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Talia

Icuddle into the warmth of my mate, wrapping a soft blanket around my shoulders and watching the midday sun stream through the living room window. Drayton sits behind me, keeping me warm and cozy in the cool breeze of the open window. He tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear and nuzzles his nose into the crook of my neck. I hear him inhale deeply and a shiver of satisfaction runs through my body. I don't think I'll ever get used to how much my body reacts to these men.

My head falls backwards, exposing more of my neck to Dray. He takes the opportunity to nuzzle in more, his fingers playing with my teal wavy locks as he lightly grazes my skin with his nose and lips. It's quiet in the house at the moment with all ofmy other mates out with the pack, trying to put everything back together from the attack yesterday.

Drayton was out almost all night coming up with a plan for how to best fix everything and how to do it as quickly as possible. While the packlands are mostly safe out here, it wouldn't be wise to leave the destruction for very long. All it takes is one unsuspecting human stumbling on the packlands to have everything go even more to the dogs. Or whatever the expression Drayton used was. Wes explained that it meant to get even more chaotic, but I still haven't figured out what that has to do with dogs.

"Talia?" Alaric calls, his footsteps moving towards the living room.

"In here!" I yell back, elbowing Drayton when he growls lightly and pulls me tightly against him. "Hey! No growling at Alaric."

Drayton pulls back and grimaces at me. "I don't want him to steal you from me."

"You need to learn to share, Dray," I lightly chastise and lean in to kiss the tip of his nose, while pushing myself further out of his arms. "You've been sitting here snuggling me for the last two hours. You should probably go lie down and get some sleep, anyhow.”

“Sharing is caring, alpha,” Alaric teases with a cheeky grin. “You’ve had our girl all morning, time to give her to me.”

“But she’s so warm,” Dray playfully mumbles into my shoulder. “And she smells so good.”

My cheeks heat up at his sleepy compliments, and I giggle at the soft sensation of his lips moving against my skin. Alaric makes a tsk tsk sound as he walks over to us and lifts me off the couch and into his arms.

“No hogging our mate, no matter how good she smells,” Alaric chastises Drayton, who just flips him off in response. It’s not long before Drayton is snoring away on the couch, slumped overin the same half seated position he was in when I was there with him.

“Let me down for a minute,” I whisper to Alaric who immediately releases me.

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