11 The Swifts

11: The Swifts

Posy

Grandpa Swift cried as he hugged me, and I silently scolded myself for all the worrying I"d done on the way to Crystal Caverns.

"I"m so glad I got to meet you," he whispered as he squeezed me. "I can see Naomi so much in your face, and you have her blue eyes."

"James and Aiden do, too," I told him as I squeezed him back.

"I"ll be happy to see them again after so many years," Grandpa murmured as he leaned back, put his hands on my shoulders, and stared down at me. "They were such dear boys. If only I had known the truth—"

"Don"t fill your mind with grief over things you can"t change," I said softly, laying my palm on the side of his wrinkled face. "We have to be like trees and let the dead leaves drop."

His eyebrows raised as his tears trickled through my fingers.

"That"s a deep thought for one so young."

"Our luna is both wise and strong," Jayden told him as he wrapped one arm around my waist. "She was forged in the hottest of fires."

"All the finest steel is." With a smile like a blessing, Grandpa stepped back. "I don"t know if you know this, Posy, but my son Isaac was your mom"s oldest brother. He and his wife, Ginger, perished in the sickness, but their two children survived. Liam, who"s the alpha of our pack, is on his way and this is Camille."

He motioned to the pretty blonde girl who stood next to him. She was tall, about my age, and seemed friendly enough as she stepped forward with a warm smile.

"Hello." I waved and smiled back. "It"s nice to meet you."

"Hi! Call me Millie. Everyone does. I"m so happy to meet you, too. Finally another girl!"

"I know," I laughed as I met her light brown eyes. "Boys definitely outnumber the girls in our pack, too."

"By three to one in most shifter communities," Grandpa pointed out. "There are never enough girls."

"Come inside, Posy! I"ll show you around and where you"ll be staying."

"Okay." Raising my face, I puckered up, and Jayden didn"t waste any time kissing me. "You guys can stay here and greet the alpha when he arrives."

"You sure you"re okay to go alone?" He stroked his hand up and down my hip.

I knew he was only asking because of my earlier anxiety, so I smiled up at him.

"I"m sure."

He nodded, so I patted his chest and walked toward Camille.

"This is going to be so much fun!" She grinned. "We can eat junk food and watch girl movies and stay up late painting nails or braiding hair. Yours looks amazing, by the way. How do you do that kind of braid?"

"It"s called a five-strand braid. I"ll introduce you to my stylist later." I grinned, knowing Ash would love the attention and compliments. If I gave him a little pout, he"d even braid hers, too, if she wanted. "He"s absolutely fabulous!"

"Excellent!" She lifted her arm invitingly, so I slipped mine through it and linked our elbows.

Then she led me along, giving me a quick tour of the house, including her bedroom. I could tell she put a lot of time into decorating her space and making it a haven. It was mostly white with shades of lighter blue and beige - far from the girly pink or purple I"d half expected.

"Wow! This is a big bedroom!"

"It"s the master. Grandpa can"t do the stairs so well anymore, so we turned one of the rooms downstairs into his bedroom, and I took over this one." She opened one door and showed me a big walk-in closet. "It"s a little too large for me, to be honest, but my music stuff fills up a lot of the space."

There were clothes and shoes in her closet, of course, but also a wall of ribbons and trophies and a bookshelf full of notebooks, CDs, and sheet music.

"What instrument do you play?" I asked as I stared at all of her awards.

"Trumpet. I have a full scholarship to play with the college"s marching band. I"m the only girl in the entire brass section."

"That must be intimidating at times."

"I guess." She shrugged. "Most of the guys are much more competitive than I am, but they"re a great group of friends. There are a lot of girls in the windwoods, percussion, and color guard, so I hang out with them when I get overloaded on the testosterone."

I didn"t need to know the specifics to understand she was talking about different instruments in the band, so I nodded and followed her back into the bedroom.

"Who"s this fellow?" I pointed to a fluffy gray rhino perched on her bed.

"Oh, that"s Butchie." Her whole face burned red as she grabbed him and hugged him to her chest, her shoulders coming up in a posture I knew all too well. "Sorry. I know it"s babyish—"

"My stuffy is named Mr. Nibbles," I cut her off. "He"s a bunny. He sleeps in my special room unless I need him. I lost him once, and my betas, their mates, and my mates turned the whole house upside down to look for him."

She looked at me, and her shoulders relaxed when she saw I was telling the truth.

"I can"t be without him. Daddy gave him to me the year before he passed," she confessed as she carefully sat Butchie back on the bed and patted him on his head.

"I don"t know where I got Mr. Nibbles." I frowned as I tried to remember. "Hmm. I"ll ask James or Aiden when they get here tomorrow. I"ve always just had him."

"You probably got him when you were very little," she suggested, and I agreed since I couldn"t ever remember a time without my bunny.

After I visited the restroom, she took me down two sets of stairs to where we"d sleep tonight. There were three king-sized mattresses laid out together on the floor, just like we did when we stayed at Tall Pines.

"Will this work?" she asked and didn"t make any comments about our sleeping arrangements, for which I was grateful.

"It"s great! Thanks!"

"This is called a walkout basement," she explained. "It"s a perfect apartment down here. There"s even a kitchen and a full bathroom."

"It"s certainly big enough," I agreed as she showed me both. "Is that what it was intended for? An apartment?"

"I"m not sure about its original purpose. When we were kids, it was our playroom, which worked out great because those glass doors there go right out to the backyard." She paused to point at a pair of French doors. "Our grandma"s name was Zora Glase, and this was her parents" house. When they were alive, our uncle Aaron lived down here. He never found his mate, so he didn"t see any point in buying his own place."

"Oh. That"s so sad!" I covered my mouth with one hand.

"I know. He was such a great guy, too, and so funny. Always telling jokes. He kept busy helping Grandma and Grandpa with the pack and took care of our great-grandparents as they got older. The Glases were among the first in our pack to die in the sickness, and Uncle Aaron passed not too many more months later."

"Did Grandpa move here once your brother became alpha?"

"Yep. It"s been the two of us here for the last five years."

"You didn"t want to live with your brother at the alpha house?" I tilted my head with curiosity.

"He and Leyly found out they were mates a week after Liam became alpha." Camille giggled and her cheeks flushed pink. "They were both eighteen and didn"t need a fourteen-year-old little sister in their love nest."

"They kicked you out?" My eyebrows flew up, and my opinion of my older cousin - who I hadn"t even met yet - took a nosedive.

"Oh, no. Of course not. I kicked myself out." She giggled again. "Besides, Grandpa was so lonely out here by himself. Grandma had died just a year prior, and he suddenly went from busy alpha to retired, lonely old man with nothing to do. He needed me. He still does."

"Then I"m glad he has you." I smiled.

"Hmm. Hopefully for a long while before I meet my mate." Her eyes dimmed a little as they dropped to the floor.

"Millie?"

"I"m not too eager to find my mate," she admitted quietly. "I have three more years of college, and I don"t want to transfer. I chose that college because it was small and close enough for me to commute every day, and I don"t want to jeopardize my scholarship."

"Oh. Well, your mate will be open to listening to your concerns. I"m sure they"re not going to make you quit school or anything."

"I"m also worried that he won"t want to live here," she mumbled. "Crystal Caverns isn"t near a big city like Five Fangs is. Around here, it"s simple country folks who either farm or work at the steel mill. My mate will make me move to his pack. I just know it."

"Wait. You"re ruling out that he might be from Crystal Caverns," I pointed out.

"I"ve already met all the eligible boys in the pack, and it"s none of them."

"He might not have turned eighteen yet."

"I know, but I hope that isn"t the case. If it is, I hope that he"s only a couple of years younger than me. I don"t want to turn into a cougar!"

"A cougar?" My face screwed up in confusion. "How can a wolf shifter turn into a cat shifter?"

"No, not like that! Sorry. A cougar is a slang term for an older woman who, um, mates with younger men," she explained with a giggle.

"Oh!" I said with big eyes, then giggled, too.

"I have a gut feeling that he"s from another pack," she said as we quieted down. "I don"t know how or why. I just do."

I wanted to encourage her about finding her mate, so I thought about all the selling points Crystal Caverns had.

"You probably don"t notice it because you"ve always lived here, but this territory has a lot of natural beauty and space to run. Not to mention that exploring the caves is its own adventure. Besides, no matter where he"s from, I"ve discovered that mates will do just about anything to keep their other half happy. If you don"t want to leave your pack, he"ll understand."

"It"s not only my pack. I worry about Grandpa. He"s buried his wife and all of his children, and I"m worried that he"ll start to give up if I leave. And I want to see my nephew grow up. I don"t want to move away from my family." She smiled sadly. "But I know he might have a job he can"t give up, or maybe he won"t want to leave his family or pack. And what guy would want to live with his mate"s grandpa?"

With a soft sigh, I wrapped my arm around her waist and gave her a side hug.

Girl"s too darn tall, I grumbled to myself. At least eight inches taller than me. That"s just unnecessary.

"One thing I"ve learned," I told her, "is that all the anxiety in the world won"t affect the future, just like no amount of regret will change the past. What"s meant to be will be. Unless you plan on rejecting him?"

"No. I want my Goddess-given mate. I"m just— I"m just scared." She leaned down and laid her head on my shoulder.

"There"s nothing wrong with being scared. I"ve been scared a lot in my life." I didn"t go into details, not sure how much the Swifts knew about my past, but not ready to share it, anyway. "We still have to get up and keep going, Millie, even if we"re shaking in our boots while we"re doing it."

"Sorry, Posy. I shouldn"t be burdening you with my silly worries. Besides, I know I"m being selfish, wanting my mate to make all these concessions for me, but not wanting to make any myself."

"They"re not silly, and it"s not a burden. And it"s okay to be selfish sometimes. We can only give so much of ourselves away before there"s nothing left." I smiled up at her. "When you meet your mate, tell him what you"d like, then ask him what he"d like. A mate complements you in every way, so I"m sure the two of you can work out a compromise."

"Thanks, Posy," she murmured and stepped away. "Is that what you did with your mates?"

"Um, we had a different kind of first meeting." I grabbed the end of my braid and played with it as I quickly changed the subject. "But my brothers" mates did! Those girls don"t play!"

"Liam said they met at your luna ceremony."

"Yep!" I grinned as I remembered I"d be seeing them tomorrow. "Callie and Keeley are my friends and identical twins. They"re impossible to tell apart, especially when they wear the same clothes, which they do a lot. They"re very nice. I hope you"ll like them."

"It"s so sweet that your brothers are mated to your friends."

"It is. The twins were also worried about finding their mates. They are the last of their family and feared their mates would be from different packs and they"d have to separate, but it all worked out." Curious again, I asked, "What about your brother? How did the alpha and luna of Crystal Caverns meet?"

"Oh, they"ve known each other forever." Camille waved a hand and rolled her eyes. "And call them Liam and Leyly. They don"t stand on ceremony with family. While they were growing up, everyone suspected they"d be mates. They were always together, even as pups."

"Aw! And now they have a little baby of their own!" I clasped my hands under my chin and bounced a little on my toes. "I can"t wait to see him. What"s his name? How old is he?"

"Gage Alejandro, and he"s 6 months old. He"s so cute!" Camille squealed. "He can sit up on his own now and roll onto his stomach. Sometimes, he gets up on his knees and hands, too, and Leyly says it won"t be long before he"s crawling. He also puts everything in his mouth, so you have to watch him like a hawk."

"I can"t wait to hold him and play with him! What did you say his middle name was?"

"Alejandro. Leyly"s from Mexico, and she wanted to honor his Latino heritage. He has the biggest brown eyes and fluffy black hair and chubby cheeks!"

"I can tell Aunt Millie loves him so, so much!" I laughed.

"You will, too. You can"t help yourself but love a baby as sweet as he is." She paused and made a face. "Which is funny because his dad is super strict and serious half the time."

"Wait. Was he mean to you? Did he hurt you? Did he beat you?" I asked, feeling a tiny bubble of distress form in my chest.

"No, of course not. I didn"t mean it that way. After our parents died, he stepped into the dad role, even though Grandpa was there. It was all, "Eat your vegetables" and "Do your homework" and "Bedtime at ten," even though he was just a teenager himself."

I blew out a breath as I relaxed again.

"That was just the alpha in him coming out," I told her with a smile.

"As well as his overprotective, older brother instincts kicking in," she agreed, rolling her eyes.

"Alphas have a lot of pressure on them. When I introduce you to my mates, you"ll probably think that they"re serious and strict, too, but they"re really not." I stopped and reconsidered that statement. "Well, no. Ash and Wyatt will probably never come across as strict or serious."

"Which one has all the tattoos?" she leaned closer to whisper, as if Mason would overhear her. "And the one with the black hair pulled up in a ponytail? They both look so dangerous!"

"They are dangerous." I raised my eyebrows as I looked at her. "All of my mates are dangerous, just as I"m sure your brother is. Alphas come with that as a factory setting, and that"s before taking their wolves into account. However, none of them are a threat to you or me or anyone here. They"re only dangerous when they need to be."

"I didn"t mean to offend you—"

"You didn"t," I assured her with a smile. "I know what they look like when they flex their muscles and push out their alpha charisma. They"re overwhelming and intimidating, but, like everyone else, they have their public selves and their private ones."

"Do they each have a different personality, or do they mostly act the same?"

"Oh, they are very different. Mason is stern, super responsible, and keeps everyone on the straight and narrow. Cole has a temper, but is utterly dependable and funny in a grouchy sort of way. Jayden is soft and sweet and plays the guitar and sings for me. Ash, who is actually Jayden"s cousin, is crazy energetic and athletic and always needs something to keep him busy. And then there"s Wyatt." I giggled as I thought of my fifth star. "I don"t really know how to sum that boy up. There"s too much to boil down to a single sentence."

"Oh, Posy," Camille said with a warm smile, "I can see in your eyes how much you love them. Each one of them. You see them as the unique individuals they are and not a collective group. If it were me, I think I would have trouble doing that. I bet they"re utterly devoted to you."

I blushed as my eyes dropped to the floor.

"Your cute expression tells me all I need to know." She giggled, then her eyes fogged over. "Oh! Come on. Liam says they"re almost here."

"Oh, boy!" As excited as I was to meet my cousin and his wife, the thought of holding a little baby made me feel all fuzzy inside.

"He said the Everleighs will be arriving soon, too," she relayed. "They"re coming here first so they can meet me and Grandpa, then follow Liam back to the alpha house."

"Good. I can"t wait to introduce you to Eden!" I grinned. "She"s very funny and full of energy!"

"Is she your only cousin on that side?" she asked as we walked toward the stairs.

"Only girl," I stressed. "She has two brothers. Evan is her twin. They"re sixteen. Ethan is their older brother. He"s twenty-something. Three, I think. He has gamma blood, but the rest of my family are omegas."

I thought I"d put that out there before they arrived. Her reaction would give me a good gauge as to how the other Swifts might treat the Everleighs.

"Oh? Liam needs a new gamma, and the next wolf here is only twelve," she said thoughtfully, either ignoring or unaffected by the omega part. "Maybe your cousin will be interested in the job."

"Jayden suggested the same thing, but Ethan hasn"t found his mate yet, which has made his wolf..."

Hmm, what word to use?

"I can imagine what he"s like," Camille said while I was still thinking of a word. "The longer a shifter remains mateless, the more depressed his or her wolf gets. Some even become violent in their frustration and grief."

"That"s an accurate way to put it." I nodded in agreement. "I think that may be why my mom took Alpha Briggs for her chosen mate. She was twenty-nine and still hadn"t found her Goddess-given one."

"Um, Grandpa told us about that." She looked at me as we reached the top of the stairs. "I"m sorry she had so much tragedy to endure. I know it grieves Grandpa that his little girl suffered."

"I"m glad he had you and your brother to support him, just like my grandma had her family."

"What"s your grandma like?"

"She"s sweet and nice and gentle. She gave me so many hugs and kisses." A warm feeling filled my chest as I thought of her, and I smiled.

"Aww! I miss my grandma. Did she bake you cookies while you were there?"

"And showed me her butterfly garden," I said, then described it for her, and a little smile of pride touched my lips when I had to explain the word "eclose" to Camille.

"She likes to garden?" My cousin stopped walking, and her eyes lit with excitement as a broad grin spread across her face. "We should totally hook your grandma up with Grandpa! He loves to garden, too!"

"Um, I"m not even sure what hook up means."

"I didn"t mean it in a sexual way!" Her cheeks turned bright red. "I just thought that they could become friends. They both lost their mates and most of their family, and now they"re lonely. If nothing else, they"d have someone their own age to talk to. Maybe go on dates or something."

"They"re old, Millie." I scrunched up my nose. "Do old people even date?"

"Why not?" She shrugged. "Old doesn"t mean dead."

"Hmm." I tilted my head as I thought about it, then smiled. "Okay. At the very least, we"ll get them to exchange phone numbers."

"Yes, we"ll start there. Plant a little seed and see what grows!"

We heard the front door open, then Grandpa calling us.

"Hey, girls! Liam and Leyly are here!"

We looked at each other and nodded in agreement, mischief glinting in our eyes.

"I can see you"re up to something, Mills." A man"s voice greeted us as soon as we stepped out onto the porch. "Are you corrupting our baby cousin already?"

"No!" Camille"s sharp denial was undermined by her little giggle. "Liam, this is Posy Everleigh. Posy, this is my brother, Liam."

I looked at the small family standing in front of me. Liam was as tall as Jayden and as well-built as Mason, had pale blue eyes, and his short blond hair was closer to gold than Wyatt"s almost silver blond. On his left upper arm, he had a tattoo of a hammer surrounded by a flower with heart-shaped leaves, and I wondered if there was a story behind it.

"Hello, Luna Posy," he said and gave me a short nod. "Welcome to Crystal Caverns. I"m very happy to meet you."

"Oh, just call me Posy, Alpha Liam." I blushed and twisted my fingers together. "I"m happy to meet you, too."

"And you need to call me Liam. Same with my mate, Leyly." He put his arm over the shoulders of the smiling lady at his side.

Her skin was the same shade as Cole"s, and her thick, black hair hung in a straight curtain to her waist. Although she stood about a foot shorter than Liam, she was still a few inches taller than me.

More giants, I muttered to myself and heard Lark snicker at me before all my attention went to the small boy Leyly held in her arms.

"Pleased to meet you, Posy." She smiled broadly, showing strong, white teeth, and turned the baby to face me. "And this is mi bebé (my baby). His name is Gage."

"Oh, I"ve heard a lot about him already!" I beamed and looked over at Camille, who grinned back. "He"s the star of the family, isn"t he?"

"Si (yes), and he knows it, too," she laughed. "Do you want to hold him? He likes to meet people, so he won"t cry."

"Yes, please!" With a big grin, I nodded furiously.

"It"s good he"s a chill little dude," Ash piped up, "because he has a lot of people here who want to hold him, including me!"

As everyone chuckled at him, Leyly handed over the little squish, who babbled and waved his hands until he realized his mommy wasn"t holding him anymore. He went still and looked up at me with enormous eyes. They were the same color as Ash"s - so dark brown they appeared black - and his thick eyelashes only added to his adorableness.

I might have to rethink our decision to wait to have pups, I told Lark.

No fall victim to baby fever! she cautioned me with a snort. Listen to head, not ovaries!

"Hi, baby," I whispered as I cuddled him. "Aren"t you so cute?"

He began to wave his arms and jabber again, making "ah-ah-ah" noises with such a serious face that it made me giggle.

"Oh, really?" I pretended to understand him. "Then what happened?"

He blinked a couple times, as if he were surprised I"d answered him, then gave me a toothless grin, complete with saliva running out of his mouth like a faucet.

"Sorry." Leyly rushed to blot his face and neck with a soft cloth. "He"s teething, which means no one"s outfit is complete without drool."

"It"s fine," I told her as I kissed his dimpled cheek, making him giggle and squirm.

"Oh-oh-oh!" he babbled, flailing his fists at his mom.

"Yes, I know. You don"t like having your conversation interrupted," she chuckled and finished wiping him up.

I kissed the top of his head to hide my wince as the muscles in my arms began to burn. The boys had me swimming and doing strengthening exercises every day, as well as eating nutritious and frequent meals, but my progress was slow. I knew I was much, much stronger than I"d ever been in my life, but holding this pudgy bowling ball was starting to tell on me.

"Okay, princess, it"s my turn! You"re hogging him!" Ash held out his hands, and I wondered if he noticed my discomfort or just wanted to hold the baby.

Probably both, Lark grinned, although Sid dying to hold him.

"Yes, yes, my impatient waffle." I rolled my eyes and handed Gage over to him.

And if I thought I had baby fever before, it became baby influenza when I saw my mate holding the little one against his wide chest and cooing at him.

"Oh, you"re so precious! Yes, you are!" Ash grinned at the baby. "So soft and sweet! How does your mommy and daddy get anything done? You"d be all I could focus on if you were mine."

And the thought of Ash as a daddy melted me into a puddle.

I needed a fan.

Or a cup of ice.

More like an ice bath, Lark laughed.

Stop, wolfie! I whined, but she only laughed harder.

"We don"t even bother turning the TV on anymore," Liam replied as he looked at his son with pride and love shining in his eyes. "We just watch him and play with him. He"s getting ready to crawl, so he"ll rock back and forth on his hands and knees, like he"s revving up his engine before the checkered flag drops."

That description amused my motor-head mates, and they grinned as they crowded around Ash to see the baby.

"My goodness, he"s a little chunk!" Jayden chortled and gently tickled the rolls on Gage"s chubby thighs. "How much does he weigh?"

"He"s twenty pounds," Leyly answered with a shrug. "Well over average, but he has alpha blood and is the son of an alpha. He"s going to be a heftier boy than a human."

"He sure is a cute little thing." Wyatt held out his index finger and Gage latched onto it, his tiny hand barely curling all the way around it. "Goddess, I hope he doesn"t turn out to be a mischief-maker like all of my little brothers. They started out this cute, too."

"So did you," Cole teased with a straight face as he played with the baby"s tiny toes.

Everyone laughed at that, even Wyatt, who couldn"t disagree without admitting he wasn"t cute.

I waited for Mason to say something or interact with the baby and was slightly disappointed when all he did was stare at Gage with his usual emotionless face. His gray eyes glittered, though, so I knew he wasn"t as unaffected as he wanted everyone to believe.

"Congratulations. He"s a fine boy," he said in his business voice, which was probably the best we were going to get out of him, even though I knew he was longing to hold the baby.

I wanted to tell him that he was with family so he could relax, but I knew that wasn"t how my eternal flame worked. He"d been stiff with the Everleighs, too, and they were omegas! No way would he bend in front of an alpha and a former alpha, no matter how informal the setting.

As if Ash read my mind, he shoved Gage into Mason"s arms without warning. True to form, Mason didn"t even blink. He simply situated the boy to sit on one arm, then put his broad hand on Gage"s small back to hold him steady. Surprisingly, the sudden hand-off didn"t bother the baby; in fact, Gage brought his hands up to touch Mason"s face as they stared at each other.

And miracle of miracles, Mason Price cracked a smile. It was small, but it was there, and my heart leapt with joy.

Before anyone - cough Wyatt cough - could tease him and ruin the moment, the sound of a vehicle approaching caught our attention. As we all turned toward the driveway, I saw Ash reclaim Gage and held back my smile.

I hope Leyly doesn"t think she"s getting her son back anytime soon.

"The Everleighs made good time," Grandpa said as he stepped forward, preparing to greet them.

Then Ethan leapt out of the SUV before Uncle Lincoln even put it in park, and I gaped at his flushed face and wolf-lit eyes.

Did Maple wake up and cause problems? I frowned in disappointment. And I was so sure my Ultimate Luna Voice would work!

As soon as his feet hit the ground, Ethan raced toward us, and I realized his eyes had fixed on Camille. She realized it, too, and reacted about the way I expected, now that I knew her a little better.

With a shriek, she spun on her heel and ran inside the house.