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We have good news to share this time, and that is why I am writing you. Your father is sitting with Loraine at the doctor’s office. We’re having a baby.

Hayden jumped in a small circle while giggling and shaking the letter. She and Bodhi were going to have a sibling. She settled herself and continued reading.

The baby will be born in the middle of spring. We hope you can come home for break and meet the new addition to the family. We miss you. We love you. Call home when you get this.

When she finished reading the letter, she placed it in the notebook marked for that particular year and slipped it into its spot. She kept every letter and birthday card her family sent her. She kept the pictures and newspaper clippings Loraine sent her when her uncles solved high-profile cases. And, whenever she got homesick, she opened up the folders and read everything, including the questions only smothering parents—who were naturally curious about her time away—asked. While occasionally wanting to know if she’d seenhim.

Perhaps she still had a little crush on Nico.

She first saw him at the sheriff’s department the day she arrived in town, and her tummy had done a funny little flip-flop. He had been behind the counter, sitting in one of the chairs, hands cuffed behind him, a cocky grin on his lips.

Bad boy.

The Sheriff’s Department was too loud and smelled of people and stuff she probably didn't want to know about. The thought should have confused her more, but she'd been too much of an anxious ball of energy. Her aunt pushed the call button again while tapping her foot. They could be caught in the middle of nowhere with the PBH gaining on them.

Hayden looked at the boy again. His whiskey-brown eyes were alight with sparks of humor and freedom. She wondered what it would be like to be free. To run wild without hesitation. He winked at her, bouncing his knee as he sat there.

She looked away, embarrassed by her reaction to him. Her tummy warmed. Her palms were sweaty. She’d only ever had that reaction when she was scared, but this was different. She wasn’t scared. Sure, she’d been nervous about breaking down in the desert, but this place felt—homey. Like she was home. Like she belonged there.

Again, she stared at the boy unable to look away as her aunt began knocking on the glass partition separating them from those in the back. She wondered briefly why the place was built like that—like a vault. She'd been in a few Police Stations and Sheriff's Departments over the years, but none of them compared to the security in this place.

“I’m coming. I’m coming,” the deepest, darkest most richest voice Hayden had ever heard growled from somewhere unseen by her.

“H-Hayden?” She spun around as a man she hadn’t seen in years stepped inside the building followed by a woman. “Is that really you?”

She knew that voice. She’d only heard him once, but she swore she’d never forget him or the way he cradled her to his body and got her to safety. “Lucas?”

The boy handcuffed stood then, peering at her with open curiosity. She ignored him for the moment and stared at the man who’d saved her life all those years ago. “It’s you.” Her voice came out smaller than she intended before her feet carried her toward him. “I thought I’d dreamed you. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“What is all the ruckus going on in my station?” A man, bigger than a mountain, stepped up to the glass separating the lobby from the department. His cobalt blue eyes, eyes she saw every day when she looked at herself, peered at her in disbelief. “What...”

“Jace Raferty?” Holly spilled the name as though she too couldn’t believe who she was looking at.

Hayden frowned but the boy behind the man named Jace stepped forward, his hands still cuffed behind him, confusion written all over his face. “Hey, Kal, why did she call you Jace?”

Or was his real name, Kal?

This Kal or Jace or whoever he was, shook his head. “Don’t know. Better question is, why does the little girl look like us and why does Lucas know her?” He pointed to Hayden, his gaze boring into hers as if he could see down to her soul.

Lucas laughed, letting Hayden go. “I’d know her scent anywhere, Kalkin. Sunshine and cotton candy.”

Kalkin. Hayden liked the man’s name. He had curly black hair like hers, but different and a black beard shot through with white. The man could squish her if he wanted to and by the look on his face, he probably wanted to.

"Hayden, come here," Holly said, her gaze bouncing off of Kalkin and Lucas as she spoke. "I need to introduce you to someone." She looked up at the bigger-than-life man and licked her bottom lip. "This is your uncle. Kalkin Raferty. Your father's brother."

The world stopped at that moment. Hayden froze where she stood, and she knew no matter what came next, her life would be irrevocably changed.

“I’m Nico by the way,” the boy standing beside her supposed uncle said. “It’s good to meet you, Hayden.”

At eighteen, even for an adolescent wolf, he’d been all muscles and tall. Hayden’s fourteen-year-old heart had tripped a beat. Nico had been caught as a wolf chasing the chickens from Mrs. Jamison’s henhouse—or so she thought. Not completely out of character for a teenage boy, she’d rationalized later, after she learned what happened. Nonetheless, he spooked some of the hens and the stress from his “fun,” killed a couple of others. She’d pleaded with her uncle, even though she didn’t know the guy, not to let Nico be unfairly punished for his actions. Instead, she’d asked if he replaced the chickens, would he still be in trouble—irrational thinking for a girl who didn’t know Nico from a hole in the wall. Yet, her uncle must have talked to the judge because, a few days later, Nico came to her home and thanked her. Then she found out the truth. Nico had been helping her uncle. He’d been detained with a group of boys who’d been going around vandalizing property in the county. Nico’s “arrest” had been for show, but her instinct to vouch for him had endeared her to him.

After that, they’d become fast friends. Hayden and he would either watch movies or hike the canyons behind where they lived. Then as she grew older, he began to train her. He knew how fearful she was about being captured, and he wanted to help. Hayden didn’t want to be a victim ever again. They didn't do much, paintball at first, target practice once she got the hang of shooting the pellets. What they had figured out, after teaching her some mixed martial arts techniques, was she'd been a natural.Nope, don’t go there. Every time you think about the past, you remember all the reasons why you should forgive him and forget the reason you left home so quickly.

She couldn't help it. A part of her still loved him. Her father had called it puppy love, to begin with, but the day she went to Nico's apartment, she’d repeated the words she said when he found her in the warehouse. She loved him. Loved him with every bit of herself. He was her mate.

The growing bond between them spiked six months after she arrived in Window Rock. Even though it had been late in the year, her aunt and her uncles, even her dads believed she needed to go to public school to learn how to socialize. It’d been one of the hardest most rewarding things she’d ever done. Most of her friends were on some sport team which garnered a lot of unwanted attention from some of the girls, however, after learning who Nico was to her before prom, put into perspective some of the hate.

From that day forward, they were two peas in a pod, as her aunt Keeley would say. They spent more time playing video games and watching movies together. They hung out at their clubhouse, which was a masterpiece, went swimming when it was too hot and when they needed a study buddy they were there for each other, no matter what.