Page 62

“Hey,” I said to Slade.

The preparations were in full swing. There were people bustling about everywhere, setting up, cooking, prepping, and decorating. If I thought about it too hard, I’d have a meltdown or start ripping off faces, so I pretended this was someone else’s house, and I was here to help set up their party.

“Hey,” he replied.

I hated the shuttered look on his face. All that wide-eyed joy had been packed up tight behind that very nice manly facade again, and I wondered if it was ever going to come out again.

I had fully intended to follow Brandon’s advice.

He might not be the ‘doctor’, but he did have a good handle on the group dynamic.

But instead, I felt that same aching-chest feeling I’d felt when Brandon was quizzing me, so I reached out and touched his arm.

Watching his face transform as he felt what I did down the link of our bond was like watching the sunrise.

It was gradual, beautiful, and heart-stopping.

“Hey,” he said again, and he pulled me close, burying his head in my hair and breathing me in.

For a moment, it was just us, reconnecting. “How’d it go with Brandon?”

“We talked, it helped me process what happened. I’m sorry, Slade. I’m trying to catch up, really. I haven’t spent my whole life building towards this. I didn’t even know what I was doing.”

“But you don’t regret it, right?”

The fact he could say that, while sending a stab of fear down our bond, said a lot about what was simmering below the surface with Slade. I was realising there was more to him than I’d imagined.

You are pack , my Tirian said, implacable as stone.

He nodded, looking away abruptly, his eyes suspiciously shiny before he grabbed his beer and took a long swig.

“I nearly added Brandon, as well. My beast is a bit out of control.”

He stopped mid swallow, eyeing me over the bottom of the bottle.

“He said no, that this was your day.”

“Fucking Doc,” he replied, shaking his head. “He’s got everyone’s numbers. You’re going to have problems with him. He tops from bottom.”

“What?”

“He’s all nice and reading you romance novels and stroking your hair, but all the while, that brain of his is ticking away, manoeuvring you into the right position.”

“You mean like us talking about him on the eve of your big party?”

Slade shook his head. “The little fucker. C’mon, let’s get you some food and somewhere to relax. These things are often long, drawn-out affairs. There’s speeches and ceremonies...”

“Ceremonies?!”

“It’ll be fine, princess. I won’t let it be anything else.”

So there I was, standing in the backyard of a house I’d barely even looked at but could now apparently call home, dressed in a pretty purple frock Slade’s mum had produced, watching what looked like every bloody person in Sanctuary come out through the door.

“Hi, I’m Jaz and this is Sheila,” a woman with a close crop head of hair said, holding out a square hand. Her other was linked to Sheila’s hand. “That’s Nick, Mel, and Joe. We’re down on Jakers Street, up the end.”

“Hi, guys,” I said with a lame wave. I felt hopelessly awkward, and doing this over and over tonight hadn’t seemed to alleviate that. It didn’t matter, Jaz turned to Slade with a broad grin.

“Slade, you fucker! I never in a million years thought anyone would willingly choose to put up with your shit, and on a permanent basis?” She looked over her shoulder at me. “You know what you’re getting yourself in for?”

“Pretty sure,” I replied.

“Ah well, too late now, I guess.”

“Hey, if Sheila’s prepared to put up with your crap—” Slade spluttered, but the woman yanked him into a hug, slapping her hands on his back, and he returned the gesture with gusto. “Thanks, mate.”

“Best of luck to you, and if he gets too much, just let us know,” she said to me with a cheeky grin. “We’ll sort him out.”

“But seriously,” Sheila said with a roll of her eyes. “We’d love to have the two of you over for dinner one night.”

“Sure,” I said. I needed to start making some friends, now that I was apparently staying here for the rest of my life. “That'd be awesome.”

“I’ll give you a call,” she said with a smile before her group moved to place a moving-in present in a pile with the others.

When I turned back to greet the next person, I thought it’d be more of Slade’s family or our new neighbours. I hadn’t expected to see Aaron, still in khaki fatigues, with several of his similarly dressed colleagues at his back.

“Aaron! You’re off rotation? I thought you weren’t on break until tomorrow.”

“Princess,” Slade said with a nudge. I watched, my mouth dropping open, as Aaron and his guys all dropped down to one knee. “I told you there would be ceremonies.”

“Julie, daughter of Marian, I ask that you accept this token as a symbol of my regard for you. I wish to start the petitioning process to join your pack. My deepest wish is that I will prove worthy, and that I will take a place by your side. As part of my offer, I gift to you the arms of my brothers, so that they might fight for you in any conflict and protect you from those that would hurt you.” I scanned all eight of the men, then darted a quick look at Slade.

He just shook his head slightly. “I believe I will bring strength and security to your pack.”

Apparently, that was the end of that, as he got to his feet, the guys behind him following suit.

As the crowd clapped, he fished something out of his pocket.

It was a small carved pendant, made from a gorgeous jade green stone, that hung from a leather thong.

“I’ve been making it while on roster,” he said in a lot less formal tone, stepping in closer so only I could hear him.

“You don’t have to take it. It doesn’t mean anything at this stage, just a gesture, that I’d like to see where things might go. ”

All of a sudden, the noise and the people around us fell away.

Aaron and I didn’t have the same relationship as I did with Slade.

If anything, we weren’t much more than fuck buddies.

I liked him well enough, that which I had seen of him.

He’d been called back to active duty quicker than the other guys, and when he got home, the need to touch each other was so strong, it crowded out everything else.

I felt that same hunger now, my fingers going out automatically to brush against his chest. He saw them, grabbing them with his own and pressing them against the broad muscle there.

When I turned to answer him, he’d bowed his head, his lips only inches from mine.

I could feel the fan of his breath on my skin.

“Yeah, of course,” I said, feeling the need to slide my hand between those buttons to the warm, hard flesh beneath it.

His grin was lighting quick, then he darted forward, sealing whatever this was with a kiss.

It was probably supposed to be some nice, neat, social thing, but as soon as his lips touched mine, both of our mouths parted, and his hands slid up into my hair as his tongue flicked out.

I was dimly aware of cheers coming from the crowd as we kissed, something that forced its way into my consciousness when we finally pulled away.

Aaron looked inordinately pleased, while I just glanced around, blinking.

Slade grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze, which helped me to focus back on the here and now.

“God, I’d love to see him fill you with his cum,” Slade said in a low rasp. “Then I could slip in afterwards, and you’d be fucking drenched.”

“Can be arranged,” Aaron rumbled. “As soon as your announcement was made, I was put on leave a little earlier. Some of the married guys are cursing us but...” he shrugged.

I felt a throb deep between my legs. “You have no idea what it’s taking to stop myself from walking you two over to the bedroom and doing exactly what you described.” I smiled when the two of them groaned.

“We know how she feels about it,” one of the older women holding court under a large tree shouted. “But what about him?”

Aaron grinned at this. There was something almost shy about the big man’s smile that I loved. He had hands like massive rocks, looked like he could flatten the both of us with minimal effort, but he still smiled like a little boy.

“Better do this right, so the Nanas don’t get pissed. Slade, son of Cheryl, do you approve my request to pursue your mate and to petition to be a part of your pack?”

My eyes flicked between the two of them, confused.

“I get a say as well, seeing as I’d have to share a house with the bloke,” Slade whispered.

“Not as much as you, but some. Most blokes would find it difficult to say no to their mates, but there have been instances.” He turned back to Aaron, who waited patiently.

“Of course, mate. Good to have you in the running.”

The two of them clasped arms in what looked like some kind of Viking handshake, and then pulled each other in for a hug.

“Now, you’re going to meet some of the other matriarchs,” Slade said when he pulled away, and sure enough, the catcalls began.

“Bring that boy of mine over here!” one said.

Slade rolled his eyes. “That’s my Nana, Nancy.”

“Well, he’s no match for my Aaron. He’ll be shouldering your boy to the outskirts within the week, you mark my words.”

“And mine, Rhoda,” Aaron said with a shake of his head. “C’mon, we may as well get this over and done with.”

“Well, look at her, pretty as a peach she is!” an older woman in a long green dress said. “Much better presented than that last girl from the outside. What was her name?”

“Do you mean Carissa? I thought she was very fetching.”

“Because she took your Rafe as part of her pack. No, no, she looks just fine. Her name started with an H...” another matriarch said, leaning forward on her knees.

“Hazel?”

“Gods, yes, Hazel! That horrible magenta monstrosity she was wearing at the spring do.”

“Um...Nanas?” Aaron said.