“They’re going to be fine,” Nico promised.
“You don’t know that.”
“No, but I know Graham. Whatever happens, he’ll get through it.”
“I feel like a terrible friend for not realizing,” I admitted. “She never said anything.”
“I’m sure she didn’t want to talk about it. Most of the guys don’t after they’ve been rejected.”
We made it through the door, and Nico found his phone in the kitchen while I charged mine in the bedroom. The screen lit up quickly, and I scrolled through the handful of messages Stella had sent me.
She was checking in, then starting to worry. Then asking if Nico had hurt me, and telling me she’d been where I was and that she’d help me get out, no matter how bad things had gotten.
Her experience with mating must not have been a good one.
Nico came to our room and dragged me into his arms. What I was thinking must’ve shown on my face, because he said into my hair, “They’re both going to be fine. The pack’s going to give them space, and they’ll figure out their shit like everyone else who gets trapped in the mating process does.”
I nodded against his shoulder.
There was no other option for them except figuring it out, after all.
He tugged my phone out of my grasp and pinned me to the bed. “Do you know what you need?”
“A shower and a good book to distract myself with?”
“I was going to say cookies.”
“I have it on good authority that cookiesdomake tough times easier.”
“Exactly.” Nico kissed me. “We’ll shower together, and you can read while I make them. How does that sound?”
“Blissful.”
He kissed me again.
Then made good on his promise of a shower, followed by sugary baked goods.
They didn’t fix everything, but his grandma was right. It was hard to worry when you were eating cookies.
Especially when your life was pretty fucking perfect, like mine had become.
epilogue
NICO—TWO AND A HALF MONTHS LATER
“What’s the surprise?”Abby asked me for the fifth time since we’d driven away from her apartment for good.
I never would’ve asked her to stop teaching in person—but I was fucking glad when she told me a few weeks earlier that she’d decided to.
Not having to make the commute anymore would be great.
Not being apart so much would, too. Though we’d spent as much time together as possible since sealing the bond, I did need to work with my pack a few days a week. Which meant driving back and forth from her apartment to our land.
Over. And. Over.
But that was finished now, and I was determined to make my mate so happy that she only wanted to leave when she missed her friends.
Starting with her surprise.
