Page 30 of Alpha Wolf’s Nanny (Silvermist Wolves #2)

Felix gave a contented sigh, stretching his legs out in front of him, enjoying the heat from the fire.

Well, trying to enjoy it, at any rate. It would probably be much more relaxing if Rick weren’t pacing in front of it like a caged tiger, clutching his phone with enough force that Felix was surprised the damn thing didn’t break.

“There’s another cell,” he hissed, “they keep popping up every day, like fucking rodents! I’ll exterminate every last one of them!”

“Just say when and where, and we’ll be there,” replied Felix, with a not-so-subtle grin of pure savagery.

As it turned out, the debt collectors who had captured Cassie weren’t the only ones in the organization.

Felix had suspected as much. A group powerful enough to take down a shifter, with ties all over the country, and their fingers in about as many illegal pies as was possible… of course there were more of them.

And Frederick Reinhardt was raining holy fire of retribution down on them all.

He had taken it extremely personally that they’d been able to capture and cage him.

Felix didn’t mind unleashing the full force of Rick’s brutality on them.

It was no less than they deserved, after all.

And while he could magnanimously feel good that they were protecting innocent lives by wiping out the organization, he couldn’t deny the satisfaction it brought his wolf to keep Cassie safe by tearing her enemies limb from limb.

It had even helped with relations with other packs.

While Rick was free to hunt the bastards down in neutral territories, he could hardly go storming into pack territory.

But when Felix had alerted the US Alphas to the threat, one that could very realistically impact them, as the group was apparently shifter poachers as well as launderers, thieves, and cut-throats, they had been only too happy to join in on the bloodbath.

It was rather a deft piece of diplomacy.

The human government and law enforcement naturally turned a blind eye. It was, after all, also in their interest that the threat was neutralized.

“Fucking animals,” Rick snarled, finally collapsing into the chair opposite Felix, his jaw working as he stared into the fire. “I’m considering bringing Evangeline back. If they’ve got ties in Europe, then—”

“She should be with the pack,” Felix finished.

“If only it were so simple,” Rick said, eyes narrowing. “Her bitch of a mother insists on proper education. It’s in the court documents. And given she’s a fucking shifter, there are no clever little loopholes to exploit.”

Felix held his tongue. Eva’s mother was an extremely sore topic. She was a socialite from another old, powerful shifter family who had very foolishly tried to trap Rick into marriage by lying about the birth control she was on.

She had underestimated Rick’s capacity for cruelty when he felt he’d been made a fool of.

“Bring Eva back,” Felix said. “It’ll do you good to have her near you, where you can keep an eye on her. If Zara protests—”

“If Zara protests about one more thing…” Rick trailed off, glowering into the fire.

Felix sighed. Eva was such a gentle, sweet little soul. He only hoped that Rick’s nature wouldn’t smother that entirely.

There was a gentle knock at the door, and Felix called, “Come in!”

It was Cassie, grinning widely as she ushered the boys into the office, the sounds of merriment from the rec room of the Pine Shadow Club drifting up the stairs.

Felix rose to greet them, pressing a kiss to Cassie’s lips and ruffling the boys’ heads. “Hello, my love. What can I do for you?”

“The boys want your help picking a movie tonight,” said Cassie, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “they’ve had another argument with Thea.”

The boys instantly clamored that they had not had an argument; it was simply a case of Thea being wrong . As Cassie countered their points and the three exchanged good-natured teasing, Felix smiled.

Family. His family.

It had been nearly a month since he had rescued Cassie from the debt collectors, since they had finally admitted their feelings for one another, and he could truly say he had never been happier.

He was well aware that they were in the throes of the honeymoon phase, but he didn’t care.

As far as he was concerned, the honeymoon phase would last forever.

How could it not, when she looked so beautiful? Her freckled face was flushed with happiness as she hugged the boys close to her, her soft chestnut hair falling in loose waves around her shoulders. She was perfect. Perfect .

They’d had a lot of long conversations about their relationship. They both had a lot of crap to deal with, after all. Cassie was still prone to isolating herself, shoving her feelings deep, deep down because she was afraid that they would be too much for him to handle.

They never were.

And he…he still had a lot to unlearn about his attitudes towards humans.

At least, when it came to being in a relationship with one.

He was scared sometimes, of course, he was.

He had so much to lose. But when he looked into her eyes, he knew he would rather spend a lifetime fighting stupid fears with her by his side than he would anything else.

They were going to wait a while to get married.

Cassie was still only twenty-two and had shyly admitted to him that she had once wanted to go to college to study astronomy.

He had kissed her soundly and told her he would support her in anything she wanted to do.

They were already looking at courses together, something in Portland perhaps.

She didn’t want to have to travel too far away from the boys.

As for the boys…well, it was safe to say they were overjoyed at learning that Cassie and Felix were together.

They still called her Cassie, and Felix had made it clear that they could have whatever sort of relationship they wanted, give it whatever label they chose.

He needn’t have worried. Cassie adored them, and they adored her, and that was that.

“If you two keep arguing like this,” Rick said to the boys, interrupting Felix admiring his family, “Thea’s going to sweep the entire pack out from behind your backs. You’ll be calling her Alpha.”

The boys looked utterly horrified as Felix threw his head back and roared with laughter.

“Come on,” Rick said, rising from his seat, his scowl melting into something close to gentle resignation, “I’ll help you sort this mess out. It’s high time you two learnt about diplomacy . Cassie,” he nodded to her on his way out, and she gave him a smile.

The two weren’t exactly what Felix would call friends , but there was a sort of mutual respect.

Cassie had been charmed by Rick’s gruff thanks when she had indeed baked him muffins to say thank you, and Rick…

well, Rick had a savage sort of gratitude that she’d delivered him a group of criminals he was free to hunt.

However much he complained about their reach and power, Felix knew he was enjoying the challenge.

“Oh God, he’s going to have them talking like little government officials by the end of the night, isn’t he?” Cassie said, stepping into Felix’s welcoming arms.

Felix chuckled. “If anything, I reckon they’ll teach him a thing or two about lightening up.”

Cassie snorted and then reached up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. “Any news yet?”

Felix shook his head. “I haven’t heard from Nicolas. It was as you predicted, he’s absolutely beside himself with panic. It seems unreasonable that Daisy has to be the articulate one when she’s in active labor.’”

“You know how she is,” Cassie said with a fond smile, “she'll face the world with a charming smile and gentle acceptance.”

“I don’t know what he’s so worried about,” Felix said, “she’s a shifter. The chances of there being complications are next to nothing.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Cassie said, looking up at him through her lashes, “I quite like it when a guy is all protective.”

He grinned, his grip around her waist tightening as he pulled her closer into his body, “Is that so?”

“Maybe,” she replied, wiggling her hips suggestively.

He leant down, capturing her lips in a bruising kiss, and she sighed into his mouth as she melted against him.

Fuck. He’d never get used to that.

“Not here,” he said, pulling back. “If any of the others catch a whiff of my pheromones, I’ll be in for absolute mockery.”

She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes, though her smile was cheeky, “You shifters. Surely those noses of yours are more a hindrance than a help.”

He buried said nose into her neck, snuffling and biting as she shrieked with giggles. “All the better to smell you with, my dear.”

“Felix,” she shoved him off her with a laugh, but he didn’t let her get far; instead pausing to rest his forehead on hers.

“How did I get so lucky?”

She shrugged. “Took you a while to work it out.”

“That’s because I can be an absolute idiot.”

“My absolute idiot,” she said, hugging him close.

A loud, crashing commotion from downstairs drew their attention, and Felix took Cassie’s hand and led her down the stairs to the sounds of whooping, exclaiming, cheering, and celebration.

“A boy!” Dane roared, standing on top of the pool table, a bottle of very expensive champagne in his hands, “Nicolas just messaged, Daisy’s given birth to a healthy boy!”

The pack cheered as one as Dane popped the bottle, spraying it over the assembled crowd, and Felix’s heart swelled with joy.

A healthy baby. A true blessing for the pack.

Beside him, Cassie was practically jumping up and down in celebration, clapping her hands together and running towards the boys. “Did you hear that! You’ve got a new baby cousin! And Thea! You’ve got a brother!”

“Aye, she does,” Dane said, swooping down and lifting Thea onto his shoulders, parading her about the room to her delighted laughs, “one more to add to the very long list of boys at her command!”

Somehow, Rick had ended up with Gracie in his arms and was looking down at her with a confused frown. Felix walked over, clapping him on the back and taking her from him, swinging her up and down. “Absolutely brilliant news!”

Rick nodded solemnly, “Sul’han draaka.”

“Christ,” Dane said, swinging Thea down so she could run off to her excited friends, “is that the old tongue?”

“It’s proper to give thanks and say the words when a pack is blessed with new— oof —”

Dane had pulled Rick into a bear-hug, near lifting him off the ground and shaking him about, “Then Sul’han fucking draaka to Nicolas!”

Felix grinned, pulling Dane and Rick into sideways hugs, relishing his friends beside him as the pack came together.

“Just you wait,” Rick said through gritted teeth, “when you have kids, I’m going to insist on all the proper tradition and form. Felix and Nicolas may have wriggled their way out of it, but I’ll be damned if I let you blaspheme, too!”

Dane snorted. “Good thing I’m far from having any kids.”

“Oh?” Felix asked, raising an eyebrow. “What about your contact in the Ashford pack?”

Dane rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, she kinda told me to get lost. Got other things to do than settle down, apparently. Not that I wanted to settle down with her,” he added quickly at Felix’s curious look, “Christ, no. Not my type at all.”

“Clearly,” Rick muttered.

“I just meant, she’s hard as nails, you know? That’s very much run its course.”

“Well, watch yourself,” Rick said, his voice silky smooth, “according to the legends, a new birth brings prosperity to all. Maybe you’ll find yourself with your own little bundle of blessings soon enough.”

“Nah, not me,” Dane said, “nobody’s tying me down any time soon!”

Felix exchanged a look with Rick, who rolled his eyes and grabbed Dane by the shoulders. “Come on, you’ll be pleased to know that tradition dictates we raise a drink.”

“Now that I can get behind,” replied Dane with savage glee, and both of them wandered off to the bar.

A small hand slipped into his, and he looked down to see Cassie smiling up at him, her face so full of love.

“Hi there,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Enjoying your first birthing celebration? Sadly for Rick, it’s not very traditional, but it is a hell of a lot more fun.”

“It’s wonderful,” she said, her eyes shining as she looked around the room. “Are you sure it’s okay that I’m here?”

He pulled her in close, tucking her against his side, his heart so full of happiness he didn’t know where he could possibly put it all. “You’re family, Cassie. You’re pack. Where I go, you go. This is where you belong.”

Cassie sighed, snuggling into him, and both stayed in that one small moment, with their friends and family joyous around them, reveling in everything they planned to build together.

*****

THE END