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She sags against me in my arms, seeming just as relieved as I am to be reunited. I take her face with my hands, and I kiss all the distance out of us. I erase the days I’ve spent without her, the days I spent worrying about how she was doing, how she was feeling, what she needed. I try to make us both forget all the crap that went down last week, forcing my lips onto her in a reminder of all the ways I’ve needed her these past few days.

And she gives as good as she takes. It’s not long before she’s pulling herself higher using my shoulders so that I can hold her, her legs wrapping around my waist. I have just enough coherency left in my brain to remember that we’re in public, and that I can’t just take her right here like I really want to. I can feel August getting worked up watching me kiss her, and it just elevates the experience.

He has given no indication that he’s at all interested in mating with me and the other alphas, but that’s not something that we need. However, adding him is certainly a new dynamic that I’m excited to explore. I’m dying to see how the two of them look and sound and feel when they’re together. I need to know if he makes her look a different way or sound a different way when he’s inside her. If she clings to him just as fiercely as she’s clinging to me now.

“Fuck I missed you,” I tell her with a raspy voice.

She clings to me tighter, pulling away from my mouth to bury her face against my neck. And then I hold her. Feeling her against me again sets everything right in the world.

“I'm so glad you're here. I didn't know how badly I needed you until I was able to touch you again. I'm sorry for cutting you out too when you did nothing wrong.” Even her voice hits me in strange ways, heating my blood.

“No. You don’t get to apologize. I won’t hear it. You did what you felt you needed to, and that’s all there is to it. Are you doing any better?”

She turns her head away just a little bit to smile at August. “I am.”

She gets lost in his eyes even as I’m holding her, then I wait for the jealousy to rise up within me, to beat at my chest and demand that I stake my claim; except it never does. All I get is a low frequency buzz coursing through my chest warming me up. Because my girl is happy.

“August has taken excellent care of me,” she tells me. August steps forward, brushing a wisp of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. Such a simple gesture, but it tells me that they’re comfortable together. That their bodies are intimate in more than just the obvious way.

She signs every little thing either one of us says, taking time to make sure that August can keep up with the conversation, that he’s not left out. And I admire that. I love that she has this big heart, that even after everything she had to deal with at the compound, she still has compassion, and isn't afraid to love.

“Oh, he has, has he? For curiosity’s sake, would you say that he…took excellent care of you on the couch, the bed, the table, or the shower? These things are important to know,” I say as I start getting worked up imagining all the possible ways he could have taken my woman.

Is that weird? No, it’s not. Because I say so.

August looks a little flummoxed at being put on the spot, realizing the double entendre that our shared girl just put down.

She shoots me that feisty little face I’ve missed so much, signing furiously to make sure I know what’s up. “That is not what I meant, and you know it. You purposely made that sound sexual.”

“God, woman. You can’t go throwing around words like that. Haven't we talked about that? Now look what you did,” I say as I point to my excellent looking boner that's poking against my jeans.

The feisty look intensifies and then she stomps her freaking cute little foot. “You are a child!”

In the midst of this conversation, she has removed herself from my person and is now standing a few feet in front of me, between me and August. With a deliberate step forward, I take her hand and place itexactlywhere I want it to be. “No baby, I'm definitelyallman.”

I hold my hand up for high five from August, and I think he might actually want to, but one look at Calai and his hand goes firmly into his pocket even though he’s definitely fighting a smile. When she faces away from me, I wag my eyebrows at him making sure he knows I’m aware that he’s in on my little joke.

“In all seriousness though,” I say, waiting for Calai to interpret my words, “thank you for taking such excellent care of my mate. Even though it killed us all to be away from her, I love that she had somewhere safe to go. You were her safe haven when we weren’t. I hate that that’s the situation we put ourselves in, but I don’t know what we would have done without you. She needed this time to decompress and heal a little bit and you gave that to her. You kept her safe. You have no idea how much gratitude we have for you.”

“I didn't do it for you,”Calai interprets. “I saw a need in her, and I fulfilled it. That’s all there was to it. It was no hardship on my part.”

I reach my hand out for a different gesture this time and he complies. His hand lands in mine and I shake it then pull him in for a hug. He’s as good as in our pack at this point, and if he really wants to be there, he needs to know that we are a touchy-feely bunch. He seems to relax a little bit under my arm, as if he wasn’t sure how this meeting would go. From what I gather, he’s kind of used to being on the outside, never quite having a spot to be in. That changes now. Time may be the only thing that proves it, but we want him in our pack. I think he’s going to be really good for all of us.

“Well darling, are you ready to go eat an endless supply of pancakes?”

She looks back and forth between the two of us, as if unsure what to do about us parting ways with August. I nudge her in his direction, smiling when she goes in for a kiss. He holds her, and while his arms are wrapped around her waist, he glares at me. Subtly warning me that if anything happens to her, he’ll avenge her himself. Yeah, he’ll do.

“I’ll uh… see you when you get off of work, I guess?” She asks him.

He nods. “We still on for dinner tonight then?”

“For sure man. You are not getting out of that.”

With one last kiss, we both exit the little waiting area and head towards our vehicles. August is sure to keep an eye on me the entire time until he has to drive away, his protective instincts proving to me even more that she's meant for him. Betas don't usually have such tendencies, so I know that what he feels for Calai is real.

As Calai settles into my car, I soak up the fact that my car is going to smell like her long after she’s gone. I look forward to the fact that I’m going to have an almost physical reminder that she exists in this world, even if she’s not ready to stay with us at our house.

We link hands as we drive, and it’s heaven. It doesn't take us long to get to the restaurant, where I proceed to order about half of their menu. We’re still on the mission of introducing Calai to all the foods and things she’s missed in this world, and it’s so damn fun to watch her eat. Every bite is like a new little discovery, making her eyes light up as she tries to look demure. But sometimes, it’s just too good and she loses face. Her mouth will split into this wide toothy grin, and she’ll bounce up and down a little bit in her own version of a happy dance. It’s times like those where I know that I’m getting the real authentic version of Calai that the compound tried to suppress.

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