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This is good, right? Please tell me this is all right because I’ve never done this before and I’m a little bit nervous.Rory was damn near vibrating beside him.

Be at ease, mate, you’re amazing. You did perfectly.

Perfectly is good. I like that.

Was I ever that young?Jameson rolled his eyes, then nudged Rory with his head just a little hard. Rory went stumbling back, then came rushing back to jump and play. It was an amazing thing to see alphas playing. Letting their inner wolf be joyous and open instead of closed up and stern.

He was lucky to have found this pack, and he knew it. But he also knew there were some wolves out there close by, and they were not kind. It bothered him deep in the wound on his shoulder.

That was for another day though. Today was for Rory.

Today was for the first shift and the beautiful, fuzzy laughing wolf that had come to stay.

His mate.

Today was for celebrating his mate.

Rory came rushing up to him, running so fast that he was a blur, and Fen braced himself for impact, but just before they slammed together, his mate leapt, soaring over the top of him. He whipped around to give chase.

Fen felt the alphas’ approval wrap around him like a hug, and he knew he’d done right. They could worry another day.

Today was for Rory now.

Chapter

Nine

Rory woke up all naked and not hairy. Which, these days, on any given day, was a good thing. He was having a bit of trouble with not wolfing out whenever he got emotional.

And goddess, he was super emotional all the damn time. He was sure it was because everything was a little overwhelming now that his wolf senses were one hundred percent awakened.

He grinned at John as his friend met him in the kitchen of the big alpha house, where he was icing cookies with a batch of tween wolf kids. “Hey.”

“Hey. You got a little fuzzy ear there, man,” John told him.

“Oh.” He batted at it, glad that the kids hadn’t started teasing him.

“Hey, you’re not nearly as bad as I was.”

“No?” Rory remembered vaguely that John’d had a really hard time when he started shifting, so much so that he’d been locked away. “I just feel so damn emotional all the time.”

“Well, it can do that, the whole wolf thing.”

“Sure.” Rory shrugged, mixing up more pink icing. “I mean, I’ve read all about shifting rage and all that. But I’m never mad.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And I keep bursting into tears.”

John frowned at him, head tilting. “Is something wrong? I mean, are you sad?”

“No!” Rory chuckled, then looked at the mangled icing bag in his hand. “No. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. But all I can do is shift and cry and be really damn horny.”

“Oh. Uh…is it possible that you’re with child?”

“With what?”

“Preggers, man.” John grabbed a cookie, dunking it immediately in his cup of coffee.

God, that smelled like bitter death. “No. No, I don’t think so. No way.”

“No? I mean, you guys have been together long enough. Does he knot you?”