Page 55 of Taken By The Wolves

I crack up. “That’s a code brown!”

“How does something that small make that much noise?” She’s laughing, but she’s already standing, shifting Ahya into the crook of one arm and grabbing a clean diaper with the other.

“Miracle or not, Ahya’s gonna test our capabilities.”

We spread out the supplies on the couch. I help peel off the onesie while Scarlet wrangles the wipes. It’s clumsy, awkward, and wildly endearing. The smell hits us both at once, and we recoil, then burst into shared laughter.

“Is this our life now?” she says, barely containing her giggle.

“It sure looks that way.”

Scarlet glances at me, eyes shining, and my heart achesat the hope that’s so clear in her pretty eyes.

Once Ahya’s fresh and clean, we tuck her back into the basket. Scarlet curls up next to me, and I sling my arm around her, pulling her close.

“She’s so perfect.”

“You both are.” I kiss her temple, inhaling her scent that relaxes me to the core.

She turns her face to me, forehead resting against mine. “Do you think it’s weird?” she asks. “That I’m already this bonded to Ahya?”

“No,” I say. “I think it’s fate.”

She presses a soft kiss to my lips, then lets her head rest on my chest, melting against me as the baby settles nearby. The house is still again, full of possibility and growing love. Full of questions, truths, and complications, too.

“We need to talk tomorrow,” I say gently. “All of us. My brothers should be there.”

She looks up, searching my face.

I cup her head and pull her to my lips, pressing another kiss to her temple, unable to get enough of the sweet scent of her hair. “Don’t worry. It’s good. The best. I promise.”

She rests against my chest, wrapping her arm across me. “You ever think about what youreallywant out of life?”

“You mean like… hopes and dreams.”

“Yeah.”

“All the time,” I admit. “There are things I want, and things I know I need. They don’t always fit together.”

“So what do you do when they don’t?”

I exhale slowly. “You make a choice. Sometimes you give up what you want to keep what you can’t live without.”

I think about the furniture I’d build if Nixon didn’t need me at the lumberyard. The places I’d travel if my wolfweren’t a liability in unknown territory. The family I lost, whom I’d trade every dream to see again.

She sighs. “I think our generation believes we can have it all. And in chasing everything, we let the important things pass us by.”

“What do you want, Scarlet?”

She doesn’t answer right away. When she does, her voice is too practiced. “I love my life.”

But then her mask cracks.

“The truth is… I want to be a momma.” Her words are a whisper.

Maybe she fears that admitting the truth too loudly might shatter something inside her. “Maybe it’s because I can’t have children. Maybe if the choice hadn’t been taken from me, the need wouldn’t burn as much as it does.”

I gather her into my arms, holding her as tightly as I dare, as if I could shield her from the ache, as if my touch could rewrite the years of heartbreak and grief she’s buried beneath that quiet strength.