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The backyard was crammed full of people.

“Congratulations, maaate…”

Yet another person came up and slapped Aidan on the back. He was obviously a popular guy, if the party was anything to go by. A lot were his cousins and extended family apparently, and there were workmates, friends from school…

“Will you guys be going back to work soon?” I asked.

Peter arrived at my elbow with a drink.

“No, not for a bit. The newly mated, well, they get a bit of leeway, if you catch my drift,” Aidan replied.

“They always want babies,” Peter said, eyes burning into mine as I looked at him. “And anyway, you’ll be going into your heat soon.”

“And then this’ll be…” I surveyed the house, seeing it locked up and empty. Except for us. We’d be spread out on that massive bed in our room, clothing well and truly optional, the boys aching…

“Stop talking about that,” Aidan groaned. “I can’t go and say hello to my Nana with a fricking boner.”

“So how will that work?” I asked regardless. Rick was well and truly a one and done kinda guy. The thought of me panting in our bedroom, desperate for more with none coming was kind of depressing.

“You’ll have no worries there, Flick,” Peter rasped into my ear. “Your scent will keep us coming and coming…”

“And we’ll rope in more guys if needed,” Aidan said.

As if summoned, Sen came in through the side gate, which was apparently a work around to stop me from having to stand at the door and give permission for everyone to enter.

He walked through the crowd, weaving his way like some kind of shadow, his eyes pale as smoke against his bronzed skin.

Eyes that searched until they zeroed in on me.

I felt kinda squirmy as he made his way over. He moved like a bloody panther, containing a kind of feline grace I could never aspire to. I felt like I was looking at a male model or something, like I should look away out of politeness.

But he didn’t. He came to a stop before us, inclining a head to the guys.

“Fellas,” he said. “Congratulations, Aidan. You’re bloody lucky to have found your mate.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “Hope you’re just as lucky.”

“Me too.”

Those grey eyes came to settle on me and seemed to catch every fidget with a predator’s quiet restraint.

God, don’t think about restraints! Immediately, my mind was flooded with scenarios where we transformed the silence of our house with gasps and sighs, the guys holding me spread-eagled on the bed as they?—

“I would give anything to know what you’re thinking,” Sen said in a low growl as he stepped closer. The guys moved in at the same time, sheltering me with their bodies. I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs caught on the musky male scent that seemed to cover me.

“I—”

“Now, I’d like to thank everyone for coming…”

Our heads whipped around to see Renee, complete with a microphone, had taken a spot in front of the crowd. She smiled when everyone turned, Aidan’s dads moving through the group to take a spot by her side.

“So, tonight is the one night my mum has to be even more extra…” Aidan muttered. “There better not be a slide show.”

“Ohh…I would pay good money to see baby Aidan projected on the side of the house,” Peter said with a chuckle.

“We’re packmates now,” he replied, shooting him a dark look. “One in, all in.”

“Aidan, baby? Come up, love. Don’t be shy,” Renee said. “He was always the more retiring of my boys. Even as a little boy…”

“Bro, we ditched the projector,” a teenage boy with Aidan’s eyes said, running up to us. He grinned and winked at me. “We stashed it in the next-door neighbour’s yard.”

This was Aidan’s brother Jared.

“Yes!” Aidan replied, performing a complex handshake with the boy. “Is Rexy on the PA?”

“As we speak. Hey, Flick,” the boy said, giving me a smile and a once over.

“Do not check out my mate, you little shit,” Aidan said, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him forward.

“Calm down, pops. I was just looking. Damn, you are lucky getting that on the regular, because she is?—”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll remove your teeth. One by one.”

“K. You need to chill. Plenty of other babes on the loose. I’m gonna go and check out Mrs. Keely’s daughter because she’s due to come into season soon. Me and you, bro, could be coming up, starting our packs at the same time.”

“Jared, you are fifteen. You are not joining a damn pack, and you better hope Mrs. Keely doesn’t bloody hear you carrying on, because Mum will…”

Their words faded away as Aidan hauled his brother through the crowd towards his family.

My family , I realised. I knew what living in a small town was like, how it could get cramped and insular, but as I looked around the crowd, I realised something that was small for most but revolutionary for me—I could be happy.

The idea of it took my breath away with its magnitude.

To have a home to come down to every day without having to worry about whether there were coffee cups on the table or if the sheets had been washed and replaced.

For Kade to have a safe space to spread his crazy toy empire, building increasingly complex scenarios that would only earn him a fond nod.

To lie in peace at night, entwined in the bodies of people I loved and cared for, who loved and cared for me.

To feel wanted, needed, recognised, and desired.

This was heady, heady stuff. I’d spent more than a decade in hell, only to end up here.

How , I wondered as Renee and the dads all embarrassed the hell out of their son, while Jared and the other brothers snickered as the stories went on and on.

“Flick?”

My head jerked sideways to see Sen had moved closer.

“I…” He smiled, shaking his head. “I’ve never bloody done this before. Look, I’m gonna offer you a token later, and I just wanted to check if you liked it.”

He grabbed my hand and placed a small carved stone in my palm. I rolled it over and saw it was a small stone wolf, carved from a black and white flecked rock. It even had little chips of green glass for eyes.

“It’s beautiful, Sen,” I replied.

“Flick? Peter? Where are you?” Renee called out over the crowd.

“I’ve gotta go,” I said. “Mother in law is calling.” I placed the stone back into his hand, his fingers tugging at mine for a moment before I pulled free, and that heat washed over me, making my skin tingle when he took it back.

“Good luck, mate,” Peter said, slapping Sen on the back, and then we walked through the crowd.

“…And I just want you to know how proud I am to have you in our family, Flick.”

Renee was in full flight, her skin glowing, her eyes starting to shine with tears, and I found myself doing the same.

Her pack was all around her, her kids as well as her mates, and she was just so bloody happy and she wanted to share it with me.

She was already tousling Kade’s hair and patting his shoulder like we did, like he was her biological grandkid.

Which I guess here didn’t matter. With all those dads, only one was likely to be the sperm donor, so I guessed here, blood wasn’t thicker than water.

Kade, like many kids, just liked the attention and the spotlight.

Renee finished her speech and looked at me expectantly. I should have been listening, staying in the moment and participating in what this family had going on. The expectant pause seemed to stretch out, asking me over and over to say something, anything. So I did what I could.

I grabbed Peter by the hand, stepped up to Aidan and Kade and Renee and the dads, and I put my arm around as many as I could, resting my head on Aidan’s shoulder, the weight of Peter’s arm across my back letting me know he’d joined us.

I was still working out what the hell this whole pack thing was, but perhaps it was this—a group of people prepared to open themselves up to others and let them in.

“Thank you,” Renee whispered.

“Now, as alpha, it's customary for me to say a few words about the happy pack.”

We were down to my immediate pack now, standing in front of everyone as Ophelia regarded the crowd.

“I’ve known both Peter and Aidan since they were young cubs, and seen them grow into the strong men we see today. It’s impossible for us to predict the Great Wolf’s path, but even as younglings, I could see they would honour her in their doings and grow to become good prospective mates.”

“Flick,” she turned to face me, “I have known for a much shorter time, though no less well for that. She came to us wearing the evidence of another’s cowardice, his pathetic attempts to break her and her child upon them.

But just as the bruises have faded and their bodies healed, so have their souls.

It’s a long path out of abuse and into healing, to shift from surviving to thriving, often one we spend our lives walking.

” Ophelia’s eyes stopped roaming the crowd and settled on the woman I knew was Kiralee’s mother and her friends.

“I am honoured you have taken me on that journey with you.

So let's raise our glasses. To Kade, Flick, Aidan, and Peter!”

I felt it rise as the beer cans and goblets went up into the air, a huge thing, filling my chest. It made my eyes prick and my lip tremble.

“Flick?”

My hands went to my eyes, dashing away the tears before they could fall, but that just smeared them over my cheeks.

“Are you OK?”

“Mum?”

“I’m just happy, baby,” I tried to say, but to my complete and utter shame, it came out as a garbled wail. To make things worse, people made soothing noises, the crowd responding with a chorus of platitudes.

“Mummy!” Kade said, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tight.

“Oh, Flick…” Ophelia said. “It’s all been a bit too much. Boys, take her inside, give her a moment, and help her wash her face. I’ll settle the crowd down. We’ve got quite a few for the petitioning ceremony. Do you think she’ll be up for it? The men have been very restless.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, my words a distorted mess.