"He is our Omega," Holt adds, stepping up next to me.
"You missed the battle,Jefe," Carmichael spreads his hands out wide in a gesture of helplessness. "Now they are mine, and the LoboGris is theirs,sí?"
Teague growls, fur spiking along his shoulders. Alize steps in front of me. "Cassie?" Teague snarls.
"Our Luna is tired and needs to rest for the pup," Nico announces from Holt's other side.
I start to cry as our pack forms up. Teague looks at the LoboGris and sputters, "fuck me! You... fucking mongrels. I'll... fuck! I'll mother-fucking Challenge-"
"Don't you dare, Teague Grim!"
"Mina!" Mattie and I crow with delight at the sight of our big sister sailing across the lawn with her belly leading the charge.
"Doll!" Teague's attention immediately turns to his pregnant mate with a look of sheer panic crossing his face.
"I tried to stop her," Blu says as he walks up with her, holding her steady, "but we were invited to the mating ceremony?" He gives Teague a significant glance.
Teague freezes mid-grasp, Mina clutched to his chest and Blu toppling against them from Teague's hard pull. "Mating ceremony?" he rasps out. Comically slow, he turns his head to thehacienda. The lights are all on, and someone has gone to the trouble to string fairy lights all around the porch and yard. Those weren't there before, right? And, oh! Balloons!
"It's a fucking party," Teague rasps out. "You dick," he says to Carmichael flatly.
I break the line of LoboGris. Enough's enough; I want to hold my sister and feel that belly and then go inside and have cake. The pups are big enough now that I can probably feel them kick.
"I know of a really great den. If I can find it again," I whisper to Mina. Her eyes light up as Blu sputters next to me.
"Cassidy!" Mattie growls.
"It's perfect," I whine a bit. "You saw it, Mattie."
"You aren't having our pup in a cave, Cassidy Morgana Daschel," Mattie scolds me.
"Why would she do that?" José asks him. The pack has followed us protectively to the doors of thehacienda.
Teague breaks. His laughter booms out, with almost a tinge of hysteria in his voice. "Fuck you, Punk," he wheezes out. "I would pity you if I liked you." He mockingly spreads his own hands wide. "It's a fucking party, everyone!"
LoboGris moves inside, along with the ClearHowl wolves standing like silent, deadly sentinels around the house.
Mattie and I are swept up in the crowd, carried inside where it smells wonderful. Across the center hallway stretches a banner that reads "Congratulations!"
A thrill races through me, surrounded by my family and friends, my pack.
Sniffing back tears, I turn and hug Mattie, and for a long moment, we just hold each other tight.
---
Carmichael
The Beta and I stay outside while the pack goes to Miranda's party.
"This is Hugh,sí?" I kick the bag and hear a very satisfying muffled yelp.
"Yeah," the Beta scowls. "You let my Mattie fuck you?" he asks bluntly.
"Sí," I raise an eyebrow at him. "It is important that the Luna and Omega chose their alpha during the Claiming,sí? You said you knew the traditions,Jefe."
"I do," he grinds out. "How, exactly, did you convince Mattie to fuck you? You know what, never mind. Don't fucking answer that."
I smirk at him. "They are accepted by the pack,Jefe. Wasn't that what you were worried about?"