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ROWAN

Strangely, I didn’t feel self-conscious with Skye’s alphas standing around watching, listening. It was like having both a proper wake and a formal introduction.

“Hey, Winner,” I began. “Look at us. We found a pack.” My mouth curved into a bittersweet grin and I wiped my eyes again.

“Never thought it would happen, did we? But it feels meant to be. That, or you’ve somehow managed to trap me in one of your sappy romcom movies you love so much.

” That comment was rewarded with a faint chorus of tiny chuckles.

I parted from Skye and walked to Halo’s side.

“This is Halo. She had my back as soon as we met. You would love her. She does yoga, and works out. She’s a model.

You would have spent hours going through her closet.

You two, spotting each other at the gym, then going out after for a snack.

Those tiny perfect moments you always liked to point out and notice and memorize. You two would have been good at that.”

Halo squeezed my arm and rubbed my back, a silent comfort. I gave her a nod of appreciation, then moved on from her.

“This is Crux,” I said, dropping my arm across his shoulders.

“Fuck,” said Crux, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away with a scowl.

“He acts tough but he’s the most observant, and one of the most caring people I’ve ever met.”

“The flowers were his idea,” Skye said.

“This entire visit was,” Halo added.

I closed my elbow, squeezing my arm around his neck softly. “He’s my best friend.”

With a scoff, he pushed me away. “C’mon man. Enough.”

Grinning, I let Crux go. As if one cue, Severen stepped a little closer to the grave, knowing it was his turn to be introduced.

“Don’t tell him you saved the best for last, it might go to his head,” Halo teased.

“And this is Severen Heller, our pack lead. He has the thankless job of making sure the pack is safe and happy. Healthy.” That last word almost stung to say.

After these few months with Skye’s health scare and what he admitted to me, I knew it was a responsibility few could actually take on.

I know I could never be a pack lead. Not like Severen.

“And he’s an author,” I added. “His book is really good. Something you would have loved.” I perked as one final point popped into my head.

“Oh, and most important of all, Tracker likes everybody. Of course, no matter what, that would have been a deal breaker.” I chuckled faintly.

But it was true, Tracker seemed to have no qualms about anyone in the Heller pack.

At worst he ignored them, but he loved Skye and seemed comfortable around everyone else, and inside the house, already curling up next to couches, or under the kitchen table, or claiming the spare bedroom.

“So, we have that stamp of approval,” I said.

Then the veneer of light hearted banter dissolved.

“I miss you every day,” I said quietly. “So much. I need to tell you that you’re not being replaced.

I don’t think you’d think that but I still have to say it.

” I looked at Severen briefly. “Recently I was told something by a very wise young woman. She said that sometimes things get a second chance. I think, in a way, you gave all of us that…”

My words drifted off into silence. I didn’t know what else to say. I took a deep breath in, chased by a ragged, chest-voiding exhale, my whole body exhausted.

Skye looked up at the lead alpha of the Heller pack.

“Severen. Please.”

Severen put a strong, solid hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. “Are you ready?”

I nodded.

Severen drew me towards him, and sank his teeth into my neck.

At first there was just the predictable feeling of pain that comes from being bitten.

I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t feel the rush of emotion, of being totally complete as I had when I had bit and bonded Indigo.

Was it because I was the one being bitten?

Was it because I had no romantic feelings toward Severen?

But then, my aura surged and drank up what Severen was flooding into me. My weakened and tattered aura, which I hadn’t realized until now had been so damn thin, became fortified with Severen’s steadfastness, Crux’s willingness to go on the offence, and Halo’s sly mind.

Threads from the bond wove through my aura, sewing the tears and rips closed, tying a tourniquet around it and patching it back together so I couldn’t break.

I opened my eyes and saw Skye, and my aura, my alpha swallowed the love she poured through the connection.

Metaphysical parts of me, the same parts of me that could imagine laying in clover fields for hours, lapped at her love like a kitten.

The fields of red clovers, which would always be there, in my mind, in my heart, were now lined with blueberry bushes, sweet and fragrant.

The loneliness and isolation was no longer there, replaced by feelings of belonging, of being chosen, of vows to protect.

I had a pack. I had… family.

I belonged.