Page 84 of Nesting With My Three Alphas
As Charlie explored her updated room and chattered excitedly about the memory garden we would plant together, I felt something settle deep in my chest. This was what family looked like. Not replacing what came before, but building on it. Not forgetting the past, but creating space for new love to grow alongside cherished memories.
"So," Charlie said eventually, settling on her bed surrounded by the gallery of her mother's art, "does this mean Kit's really my mom now? Like, officially?"
"If you want her to be," I said, settling beside her. "We're all bonded now, which means we're really, truly a pack. A family."
"And families take care of each other," Reed added, leaning against the doorframe with satisfaction radiating from every pore.
"Forever and always," Micah concluded, his voice warm with the contentment that came from watching a child's world become more secure rather than less.
Charlie looked around at all of us. Her dad, her three new pack parents, the artwork that honored her mother's memory. She smiled with the kind of pure happiness that made everything we'd been through worth it.
"Then yes," she said firmly. "Kit's my mom now. My second mom. And this is my family."
We were the shape she'd always dreamed her family could be.
As evening settled over Hollow Haven and we gathered for dinner as one unit for the first time, I realized that this was what Sarah had always wanted for Charlie. Not just love, but the kind of comprehensive support that could only come from multiple adults who were completely devoted to her wellbeing.
Kit hadn't replaced Sarah. She'd completed the family Sarah had started, ensuring that Charlie would never lack for love, guidance, or protection.
And tomorrow, we would wake up and begin building the rest of our lives together, one perfect, ordinary day at a time.
Chapter 28
Kit
The crash from upstairs made everyone in the kitchen freeze. Charlie's art supplies tumbling down the narrow staircase in a cascade of glitter, colored pencils, and what sounded like half her dinosaur book collection.
"I'm okay!" came her cheerful voice from somewhere above the chaos. "But I think we need a bigger house!"
Reed snorted into his coffee. "Kid's got a point."
I looked around Jonah's kitchen. Our kitchen now, technically. Four adults were currently playing an elaborate game of human Tetris just to make breakfast. Micah stood at the stove, his broad shoulders taking up most of the cooking space while Jonah squeezed past him to reach the coffee pot. Reed sat at the small table that was really only meant for two, his long legs folded at impossible angles, while I perched on the counter because there simply wasn't anywhere else to sit.
Two weeks of this. Two weeks of stepping around each other, sharing one bathroom between four adults and a child, and trying to find privacy in a house where the walls were so thin I could hear Micah's heartbeat through the bedroom door.
"She's not wrong," Jonah said quietly, following my gaze around the cramped space. "This worked when it was just Charlie and me, but..."
"But now you've got three extra-large alphas cluttering up the place," Reed finished with a grin that didn't quite hide his concern.
"It's not that," I said quickly, not wanting anyone to feel unwelcome. "It's just…"
Another crash from upstairs, followed by Charlie's voice: "Found my backpack! It was under Reed's toolbox!"
"Why is my toolbox in Charlie's room?" Reed called back.
"Because there's no room for it anywhere else!" came the reply.
Micah turned from the stove, spatula in hand, his kind eyes taking in our increasingly ridiculous living situation. "We need to talk about this, don't we?"
The adult conversation I'd been dreading. Because talking about needing more space meant talking about money, and talking about money meant confronting the fact that I had absolutely nothing to contribute to any solution.
"I know what you're all thinking," I said, sliding down from the counter and crossing my arms defensively. "And before anyone starts being noble about it, I want to say that I know I'm the problem here."
"Kit…" Jonah started.
"No, let me finish." I took a deep breath, forcing myself to be honest even though it made my chest tight with anxiety. "You three all have established lives, established incomes. Jonah's got his construction business, Micah's got the bakery, Reed's gothis maintenance business. And then there's me, with limited savings, no job, and a fledgling art career that might never amount to anything."
The silence that followed felt loaded with all the things none of us wanted to say out loud.
