Page 51

SKYE

Since my heat, I was aware of a completely different energy all through the house. It was comfortable and fulfilling, like the contentment a person might feel after a wonderful meal. Like everything was as it should be.

A new morning routine had developed. Halo would make us all breakfast smoothies, then she, Rowan and Tracker would go for their morning run together, which I adored. Rowan fit in perfectly with our pack.

I perched like a mongoose by the front door, waiting all morning for the mail truck. I kept checking and rechecking the postage tracking app on my phone, obsessively stalking the package. It was twenty minutes late.

When the mail truck finally arrived I practically pounced.

“It’s here!” I yelled. I gripped the knob to the front door but forced myself to wait before opening, the delivery driver hadn’t even gotten out of the truck yet. By the time he was halfway up our steps to the front porch I couldn’t wait any longer and threw open the door.

“Hi, package for Severen He–?”

“I can sign.” I eagerly snatched the little digipad and scrawled my name, then took the manilla envelope from him. “Thank you.”

I closed the front door and went into the living room. By now, my alphas had gathered on the couches around the coffee table.

Careful not to damage the contents inside, I opened the package and gingerly removed the single sheet of paper.

Our pack registration certificate.

True, registration cards gave all the info we needed, and fit snugly in a person’s wallet. But the five of us felt it was the right thing to do for our pack. For our family.

Halo was already taking the back off the frame we bought to display it. She put the certificate in, snapped the backing shut and handed it to me. “You want to do the honours?”

“I have the perfect spot.” I hurried to the staircase.

On the wall hugging the railing was a gallery of framed photos.

Our wedding photos, candid shots, Halo’s magazine covers and professional portraits.

A faded picture of me as a child on my dad’s knee.

A big framed poster of Severen’s book cover.

Crux with his brother, Jackal, that I snapped at the barbeque we had with his pack last week.

A group photo of both the Heller pack and Jackal’s Ostray pack all gathered around the dining table.

Two of Rowan and Indigo, one of them hiking with Tracker, and one of them posing with a colourful toucan.

Memories of our life together, of connections that were thriving and of those we lost.

The certificate fit perfectly in an empty space that had just been waiting to be filled.

Rowan came up behind me, and circled his arms around my waist. I leaned back into his chest.

“It’s perfect,” he whispered in my ear. “Everything is right where it belongs.”

The end.