Page 42 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

I wrapped my arm around my mate’s shoulder, thinking about how different our lives would’ve been if we hadn’t met… if we hadn’t become pack. How alone I’d have been, how lost, how broken. My beast would’ve eventually turned feral and then instead of ignoring me, one of the packs would’ve taken care of business. It might’ve been in 20 years or fifty, but fox shifters didn’t do well in isolation, unlike their wild cousins.

We didn’t know what today or tomorrow would hold, and who might or might not cross our paths, but we all agreed that we wanted everyone to be as happy as we were now. Happy as a pack, as a growing family.

Being mated to my one true love, raising our family in a pack that was atruefamily had changed my perspective on everything. Back in my den, I focused on myself and my goals. Now? Now I lived each day making sure that those I care about have the community they need to thrive.

“Well, I’m glad that if there’s need for us, that we can be there for others.” I kissed my mate’s cheek, then took Oak from him so he could get up and grab another marshmallow. “Toast away.”

As much as he loved eating them, he also loved scorching them and then watching them turn black before going about enjoying the sticky goodness. Try as I did, the ones I made for him had never been quite right. He never mentioned it, being the sweet mate that he was, but I could feel it through our bond.

“You sure? There’s still half a bag left, I might be a while,” he teased.

“Go get a cavity or two.”

“Best mate ever,” he gave me a quick peck and set about the serious business of burning sugar over an open flame for he and Auden as I rocked off our sleepy boy.

Growing up in a den that embraced power and authority, I never knew it could be like this, but I did now? Now I couldn’t fathom anything else. This was what pack life was meant to be. I was finally home.

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