Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ember

W e make it back to Anders’s house, but my wolf is antsy and trying to tell me something. I’m just too exhausted to listen and do my best to shut her out.

Lorcan takes a seat next to me on the couch, grabbing my wrist and placing it in his lap. He runs his fingers over the spot where he placed that mark. “I’m going to use a little magic to see if we can spruce this place up a bit.”

I check to see how Anders feels about that. This is his home, after all.

He shrugs. “I only took this place because it was empty. He’s not going to hurt my feelings if he guts it and completely redoes the decor.”

“There’s no way you make it more than a week or two before your heat hits,” Lorcan says, quirking a blond brow. “Your wolf needs a safe environment to nest, or she’ll only become more agitated.”

“It’s way too soon for that,” I sputter. “I’ve heard female shifters don’t start having a heat cycle until they’re close to one hundred!”

“Ehh, my dragon is convinced you’re wrong about that.” Veryn slides around the couch. Instead of taking one of the open chairs, he lifts me, pulling me into his lap. “It’s not impossible to believe you took after your mom.”

“Not impossible at all.” Lorcan smiles softly. “I’m sorry if that’s not what you’d like to hear, but I recognized the scent immediately. It’s unmistakable. You’ll only grow sweeter smelling over the next several days.”

“I’m an alpha.” My head shakes against Veryn’s chest as he soothes a palm over my abdomen.

“You’re both,” Lorcan says. “An alpha wolf with an omega human side. It’s an ingenious evolutionary development, and truthfully, I believe it will save you from falling into the same pitfalls other alphas do. Your omega nature means you’ll attempt to negotiate before going to war. It allows you the compassion to see where those weaker than you are coming from, which is a notorious downfall of alphas in general. They lack the ability to empathize. A shortcoming you don’t possess.”

My heart thumps against my ribs.

Okay, that doesn’t sound terrible, but I’m still not sure I’m ready to have heats every three months from now until forever .

“This could not be happening at a worse time,” I whisper. “I can’t be out of commission for days on end.”

“You don’t really have a choice, unless you’d like me to knock you up.” Veryn chuckles darkly, sliding a hand down to grab my pussy. “Conception halts heats, but then you’ve got a rug rat for eternity, so I’m just happy to role-play with my newfound breeding kink.”

“What about your magic?” I ask, eyeing Lorcan. “Could you use it to postpone the heat?”

“Sorry, lovely,” Lorcan says, shaking his head. He’s got the top of his hair braided into two small Dutch braids that are tied off at the crown of his head. The underside is shaved, and the combination just works for him. “Maybe the fertility witch you mentioned earlier would be able to help, but I personally wouldn’t know where to begin to look to locate a spell like that.”

Veryn kisses my temple. “We’re fine. Don’t stress about something you can’t change.”

“I’m going to go call my mom,” I say. “I also need to touch base with my Aunt Nadia. If I don’t follow through with the promises I made to the females?—”

“You can use my room,” Anders offers.

I give him a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

God, I really love my mom. There’s nothing like having a full-blown breakdown and knowing she’ll let me get it out and then help me to problem solve.

“I’ll call Nadia after we disconnect and see if we can plan something for tomorrow or the next day.” Mom sighs. “I’m so proud of you. You know how much I love you, don’t you, sweetheart?”

“I do,” I agree, sniffling. Talking to my mom is one of the few times I feel safe enough to let down my walls. “I love you too.”

“I was quite impressed with Veryn too. He calmly laid out the facts and firmly informed your dads that he has everything under control.” She chuckles. “He flat-out told them not to step onto pack lands without an invitation.”

“Oh my god,” I whisper. “Did Dread freak out?”

“He and Dash had an equal meltdown, but that’s just because they love you and not because they don’t have faith in you,” Mom says, ever the voice of reason. “One day, you’ll understand, but parenting is a balancing act. It’s wanting to protect your children from anything that could ever hurt them while trying not to stifle them, and at some point, accepting that you have to let them live their own lives. That, alone, comes with ups and downs you can’t control, which is scary, but I know your fathers have prepared you well?—”

“Not just them,” I say, questioning everything. “Like ninety-five percent of who I am as a person comes from you. You’ve taught me so many things.” And now I’m wondering if I’ve ever told her just how much she means to me. There were a few years as a teenager when I kinda thought of her as weak. Not weak, but she always played the peacemaker between my dads and brothers. She was always there, smoothing over any disagreements the rest of us had…exactly like any omega would do. God, I was an asshole as a teenager. “I hope you know how much I love and appreciate you.”

“Sweetheart, I do know,” she says softly. “But don’t be too sweet. It’ll make me paranoid that you think something bad is going to happen.”

We continue our conversation for another ten or fifteen minutes before we finally disconnect.

I’m pretty sure I can’t run a pack and live at home with my family.

Getting older really sucks.

My heart hurts.

I don’t think I was ready for all these changes to happen quite so fast.