Page 27

Vargas

I was hitting up the herb garden, grabbing some basil for dinner tonight, when I noticed a new rock in the bed. This one was painted like a little house—but the roof was made of flower petals. I didn’t know if it was a gnome home or a tiny fairy house, but Rumor did a beautiful job.

I loved finding her rocks in random places. I thought of them as little messages to let us know she was thinking of us. It was so good to have her back. Just thinking about when she was gone—even for that short period—made me shudder.

And now that she was here, marked, ours, I wanted to keep her in a bubble.

It wasn’t fair to her, of course. She wouldn’t want that. She told us as much. But that didn’t stop my wolf from thinking it was the safest option.

We’d built a little cabin behind the main house for Lily. She was always welcome in our home, too, but she never really had a place of her own before, and we wanted to give her that. We thought it had been hard getting Rumor to realize she didn’t have to do everything around here—but with Lily, it was triple the challenge.

She was getting there, though. And it was nice to see Rumor have a friend—someone to laugh with, to do each other’s hair, probably to talk about us… Whatever it was girls liked to do.

They were both happy. And, consequently, so were my mates and I.

Back in the kitchen, I started assembling the caprese salad—our mate’s favorite. The tomatoes were especially good this year. I sliced and layered them with the basil from the garden. It was the perfect combination.

We were throwing a birthday party for Rumor.

Only she didn’t know it yet.

Calling it a party might’ve been a stretch—it was just us. But I’d baked a cake and made all her favorite foods. We had presents. Not as many as I wanted to give but three very important ones. The ones we had for her before she even came to us. The ones that told her we’d been waiting. That she was ours.

She and Lily came in first, wearing matching sundresses Lily had made out of a bolt of fabric she’d picked up at the farmer’s market. They looked radiant.

Rumor crossed the room and pulled me in for a searing kiss. I didn’t think it was possible to ever get enough of our omega. When our lips came apart, I noticed Lily looking away, trying to give us some privacy. She was shy like that.

Wilder arrived next, holding a huge bouquet of flowers. He cut them and placed them in a vase on the table while Rumor and Lily set the table.

I wanted to tell Rumor not to help—but she didn’t know this was her surprise dinner yet, and even if she did, Rumor tended to get pushy if we told her not to do anything. Even now.

Penn was the last to arrive.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, kissing Rumor on the cheek. “I lost track of time trying to fix the truck. It was making a weird rumbling sound.”

At least he was freshly showered. Rumor did not love the smell of grease. I didn’t either, but Penn didn’t care about my preferences. He used to come to dinner covered in grease. But then again, a lot of things were different pre-Rumor.

We all sat down and ate the meal I’d prepared, talking about our day, sharing laughs. Then it was time for cake.

The look on our mate’s face when I brought it out, candles lit, and we all sang “Happy Birthday,” it filled my heart to the brim.

When it was time to blow out the candles, she looked at each of us and said, “I don’t have anything left to wish for. They all came true when you came for me.” She smiled. “Lily, I want you to have this one.”

Lily didn’t need to be asked twice. She took a deep breath and blew out all the candles, and we all cheered.

The cake was strawberry layered with fresh whipped cream. We ate most of it and would probably regret it later with stomachaches, but it was that good. Yay, good strawberry harvest.

Then it was time for cleaning up and presents.

Presents we were doing upstairs, just the four of us. We had things to say, things meant only for our mate. As much as we loved having Lily around, sometimes privacy mattered.

After the dishes were cleaned and Lily had left for the evening, we asked our omega to go to her nest and wait for us. We came bearing gifts only a few minutes later.

“I thought you were the gifts,” she said, crooking her finger at us.

“We are.” I grinned. “But there’s also a free gift with purchase.”

Wilder laughed. “The day we met you, we knew you were ours. Our only regret is that we didn’t mark you sooner. That we didn’t tell you how we felt.”

“You don’t need to apologize for that,” she said softly. “You gave me the space I needed. And everything turned out exactly how it should. If Reyna hadn’t taken me, Lily wouldn’t be here.”

She was so gracious and kind, even with all she’d been through.

“This is my gift.” Penn handed her his gift bag. “When I first heard there was an omega who needed rescuing—who needed to come home—I made this for you. I didn’t know then what I know now. That you were our mate. But I hoped.”

She pulled out the tissue paper and found a beeswax candle inside, the kind created by wrapping thin, thin wax sheets that looked like a honeycomb. He had shaped it like a hive.

“It’s beautiful,” she said and pulled him in for a long kiss. “Thank you.”

“Here’s mine,” Wilder said, handing her a larger gift box.

Inside was a pillow. At first glance, just a pillow—nothing special. Only this one was special. It had been made with down from the geese we used to raise. At the time, we thought they were a good idea. Turned out, they were mean as hell. No love lost when they became dinner.

He told her the story, and she hugged the pillow close. “I’m not sharing this with any of you,” she warned. “So don’t even try it.”

She tossed it to her side of the bed, which was technically the middle, and looked sternly at us once again. “I mean it. It’s mine.”

It was finally my turn.

“My gift’s not as practical as a candle or a pillow,” I said. “But it leans into my strengths.”

When she opened the box, she looked at me with confusion at first.

It was a little model—a miniature greenhouse I’d built.

“Thank you,” she said.

“That’s the small one,” I explained. “The full-sized version is yours. When you show me where you want it, we’ll build it. It can be your studio, a place to paint your rocks, where the light comes in from every angle. I didn’t know you when I made it, but I figured maybe you’d want to make teas or something—but now… I think you need an art room.”

She threw her arms around me and held me tight.

“I suppose I should probably give you your present now,” she said with a mischievous little smile.

“It’s not our birthday,” I teased.

“That’s true. But this is a pretty good present. I didn’t want to wait until Christmas. Pretty sure I couldn’t actually hide it that long.”

She reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a long piece of plastic.

It wasn’t until she turned it over that I knew what her gift was. It had two blue lines.

“Are you…are you having our young?” Wilder’s eyes never left the pregnancy test.

“That’s good, right?” she said.

My heart nearly exploded.

“Oh my gods,” I whispered. “That…it’s everything.”

All three of us wrapped our arms around us, tears flowing freely. We were going to be fathers.