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AMAYA

" H i, Nana..." I greet the cold stone before me. I don't try to hold myself up as I crumble to my knees on top of my nana's final resting place.

It's not much, just a simple stone with her name and dates signifying her birth and death. She lived a long life, but for my heart, it never would have been long enough.

"There's someone here to meet you today," I tell her as I swipe my gloved fingers over the dusting of snow on her gravestone. "I told him I wanted some time alone with you first though, except now I'm not sure what to say," I trail off, my voice nothing but a puff of breath on the brisk wind.

My thoughts start tumbling out in no particular order. "When I asked him to bring me here, I thought I was ready, but seeing you, or I guess not seeing you, is something I will never be ready for. You were my favorite person, the one who loved me unconditionally from the beginning."

Pausing for a moment, I gather the courage to speak my struggles. "I wondered so many times why you loved me when my own mom couldn't. I really thought something was wrong with me."

My knees are freezing, but I pay them no mind as I continue to pour my heart out to the one person who was always there for me. Until she wasn't.

"I know you would tell me that Oli, Emmett, and Sammy loved me and to that I would have told you they were too young to know what love was." I huff a little laugh. "Nana, you'll never believe what my life has become. I didn't come here to talk about all that stuff, though..."

Why am I here, then?

'Love,' my omega whispers to me like it’s the most obvious answer.

And she's right. My love for my nana has never wavered in the years she's been gone.

"I believe you still love me like I love you, Nana." I weep into my wet gloves. "I need you more than you know. More than they know."

After a few chilly minutes of crying alone on my grandmother's grave, I wipe my tears and tell my nana about my mates. I don't tell her about our struggles or misguided paths. Instead, she hears about Oliver's scarred smile that still lights up any room and the emotional man beneath the happiness he wears on his sleeve.

Emmett is next. I tell her about his relationship with Oli, and his newfound sense of belonging in our family.

When it's Sammy's turn, I do mention some of our issues, but only because she has to understand the growth he has worked so hard to achieve to be a better packmate for all of us.

Vincent is last because she would flip out to know I had another mate we knew nothing about. His selflessness is the focus of the story I weave of my fourth mate. I can't stop myself from smiling through my descriptions of the family I'm building. The longer I sit here in my soaked leggings and aching leg, the antsier I get to go home and tell them everything I've told my nana today.

Chuckling a little with a sniffle, I dig my phone out of my jacket pocket and hit a few buttons. "Okay, now that I've blubbered all over you, I would like you to meet someone."

"Hey, darling. You okay?"

A real, blinding smile stretches across my lips when I hear my dad's voice coming up behind me. "Yeah, I really am," I say. He returns my smile with his own. "Nana, I'd like you to meet my dad."

And just like me, my dad falls to his knees beside me, lays a palm on her stone and brokenly whispers, "Thank you for loving my daughter until she could find me."

I cry all over again, but this time in my dad's arms as he tells my nana about the bravest, most beautiful girl he met months ago. I allow myself to soak in his words, and I love every minute of the pride filled way he talks about me.

My dad loves me. Nana loves me. And I might have four mates at home who love me too.

It's time to find out.