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“That wasmonthsago,” Shawna proclaimed, squeezing his neck.

“Well, don’t fucking choke me over it,” Sloane growled at them.

“Love is pain,” Diana told him, adding her strength to the equation.

“Someone fucking help me,” Sloane wheezed.

“Don’t look at me,” Dean muttered at his side.

At his voice, Shawna brightened and immediately released Sloane. It left one sister clinging to his left side and the other immediately wrapping herself around a very startled Dean. Sloane wouldn’t publicly admit he was relieved Dean was taking half the brunt of the greeting, as he loved his boyfriend and didnotwant to end up in the doghouse, but he was quietly thinking it.

“Shawna!” Dean squawked as she managed to pick him up in the process of her bear hug.

“Oh God, I’ve missed you too. How the hell do you get cuter every time I see you?” Shawna demanded of him.

“Oi,” Sloane growled, swinging around to face her even as Diana held tight to his side. “Behave yourself. You get plenty of boys. Leave mine alone.”

“Did you just call me a slut?” Shawna demanded.

At the same time, Dean glared at him. “Did you just call me a boy?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Sloane snarled. “Mom!”

His mother appeared at Dean’s side, smiling her private smile. “Diana, let your brother go. He needs to be able to walk. Shawna, you know full well Sloane didn’t mean any such thing. He can be rude enough without you putting words in his mouth.”

“Thanks, Mama,” Sloane grumbled, half-meaning it as Diana disentangled herself from him.

Despite having seen her only months before at Easter, Sloane felt joy at the mere sight of his mother. Hell, even his sisters made him feel good, pain in the asses that they were. The two younger women retreated to their mother’s side, and for a moment, he realized just how much he’d missed them.

Diana had always looked the most like their mother. The same cascading waves of dark hair fell down to the middle oftheir backs, the same dark eyes alight with warmth and mischief. Shawna usually looked like them, though, like Sloane, she had inherited the hazel eyes of their father and was built thicker than Diana and their mother. All three of them had inherited their mother’s bronze skin and thick hair, though Shawna had done something with hers, keeping it short and spiking it up in a crazy mess, with a few streaks of what Sloane thought was aqua shot through it.

“The fuck did you do to your hair? Get in a fight with a stylist and lose?” Sloane asked her.

Shawna stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s cute, and you know it.”

His mother ignored them. She approached Sloane, brushing a hand along Dean’s shoulder as she passed and giving him a wink. But it was Sloane she reached up to, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down to her. Sloane had stood taller than his mother since he was thirteen and continued to dwarf her. That never stopped him from bending to her level to hug her.

“Ah, I’ve missed you, baby,” she whispered in his ear, low enough that only he could hear her.

“Missed you too, Mama,” he told her roughly.

She turned her head enough to see Sloane. “Is it everything you thought it would be?”

“Way better,” Sloane told her.

She sighed happily at that, drawing back from him. “Good.”

“You’re not going to leave it at that, are you?” Sloane asked.

Her twinkling eyes were all the answer he needed before she turned to Dean. “And you.”

Dean’s eyes widened. “Oh, uh, hi, Ana.”

Before he could say anything else, she drew him into a hug. Dean stooped into the hug just as Sloane had, though he admittedly didn’t have to bend quite as far. His arms remainedat his sides for a moment, slack with surprise. As Sloane watched, a slow smile spread over his face, and he reached up, wrapping his arms around the woman hugging him tightly.

“It’s so good to see my boys,” his mother said, loud enough for all of them to hear.

Dean’s face flushed, looking absurdly pleased as he hugged her. “It’s good to see you too, Ana. Thank you for having me over.”