Chapter Thirteen

Wade

Everything in my world changed the second I admitted to my mate how I felt. And it wasn’t just admitting it to Kurt, although that was huge—it was admitting it to myself. Allowing myself to see something I’d kept buried because it was too terrifying to face what I was sure would be immediate rejection. How wrong I’d been. He not only didn’t reject me, he accepted me fully, loved me, and cherished me.

I’d spent every day since I was maimed believing that nothing about me was what anyone would be looking for, that I was exactly what they said I was. Kurt didn’t see me the way I saw myself. He saw me the way I wanted to see myself. He saw so much more in me than anyone had, even before, and I loved him for it.

No, that wasn’t right. I didn’t love him because of that. I loved him because of everything he was, including the way he looked at me with such love in his eyes. I loved everything about the alpha.

And because I was so deeply in love, I was beyond nervous about today.

We were going to do a video conference with his pack. It had been his idea when I expressed concern about being unwelcome. He said it would help me see who the pack was and how different they were than where I’d come from.

My fear was that, unlike Kurt, they weren’t going to look at me and see someone valuable. They’d see a pregnant omega, marked as less than, with not even fifty dollars to his name. Someone who looked like they could be taken out with a flick of a finger, thanks to how skinny they’d gotten. Someone who didn’t live up to the role I’d be filling.

And really, what could they possibly think I could bring to their pack? I hadn’t been educated. I could barely cook. What was left? Not much.

That’s how I found myself waddling to the main house to find Elias. I’d told Kurt I was going to get more towels. He offered to go himself, but I insisted I needed the exercise. Unlike him, I hadn’t been going out for runs in my wolf form. At least, that was the excuse I gave.

The truth was, I just needed someone to talk to and given I knew only three people here, that lucky person was Elias, and it was as if he’d known I’d be coming.

When I arrived, he already had a tea tray set up, but instead of tea, it was laden with cocoa and cookies—cookies shaped like tiny candy canes and made from two kinds of dough, red and white. Even without frosting, they looked festive. Of course, there was frosting, and I planned to use all of it.

“Are you sure I’m not taking you away from your mate?” I looked at the beautiful display.

“They’re in town getting some things for tomorrow. This is for us.” He indicated I take a seat, and I did.

“How did you…never mind.” I’d learned not to question things here—not when it came to the way Elias and Theo always seemed to know exactly what was needed.

“What brings you here?” He poured cocoa into two adorable marshmallow-shaped mugs.

“I told Kurt we needed more towels.”

“Okay, but what brings you here?” He held the frosting out, and I grabbed a cookie, scooping up a huge dollop.

“I’m just nervous. I’m meeting his pack today.” Nervous. Terrified. Same thing.

“No, you’re not.” Elias set the frosting down.

“What do you mean? Of course I am.” Unless he knew something I didn’t, which given his track record was a very real possibility.

“You’re not meeting his pack today. You’re meeting your pack. Your new pack. This isn’t about them accepting you.”

I started to argue, but he put his finger to his lips, indicating I be quiet.

“This is about you deciding if that’s where you want to be. And if you don’t believe me, ask Kurt. He’s as nervous as you are.”

“How do you know? Did he talk to you?” He’d been acting normal around me, but then again, I’d been pretty wrapped up in my head, so it was a very real possibility I missed something.

“No. But he’s in love with you, and that means this matters to him. Trust me, our alphas are like that.”

I took a bite of my cookie, needing time to think. Elias was right. This wasn’t about them accepting me. It was about seeing if I belonged there. Kurt had told me over and over that his home was with me and the baby. If his pack became my pack, great. If not, he was fine leaving.

But some part of me didn’t believe it. Power wasn’t a lineage thing with this pack or a violence thing either, not from the way Kurt described it. That didn’t mean giving it up was an easy thing to do.

“Okay,” I said finally, leaving it at that.

We shifted the conversation to lighter topics. I asked Elias about his sparkly top and how the glitter project had gone. The craft went about as well as I’d suspected it would—glitter everywhere, even on the front porch—but he loved the result, and Christmas required glitter, so it was a win-win.

After a cup of cocoa and a few more cookies, I followed him to the laundry room and grabbed a couple of towels. We did actually need them, even if it had been an excuse to sneak away for a few minutes. He stuffed them into one of his oversized paper bags like the one with the lasagna.

“This only has towels in it, right?” I teased.

He smirked. “You saw me put them in. What are you talking about?”

I hugged him the best I could, given my belly being in the way, and waddled back to the cabin, where I found Kurt setting up the computer. He’d borrowed some contraption to make the internet work here to give us some privacy. I appreciated it.

“I got the towels.” I held up the bag.

“I’ll put them away.” He kissed my cheek—the one I’d hated for so long—and took the towels into the bathroom.

When I folded up the bag, I found something else inside: sandwiches, potato salad, macaroni salad, and more cookies. Elias had managed to put an entire lunch inside without me noticing.

“Looks like Elias sent us a picnic.” I set the bag on the counter. We would eat after the video conference. There was no reason to rearrange the small fridge for that short period of time.

“A picnic.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind and kissed where he marked me as his. “That sounds like him.”

It was meeting time. Kurt helped me sit in the right spot for the camera angle, took the seat beside me, and then hit “accept.”

Marco, his beta, appeared on the screen. I knew it was him because he wore a name tag, the first of many things I was about to discover the pack did to make me feel more at ease.

“We’re so glad you’re here!” Marco said with a wave before stepping back to reveal the pack behind him. “You got a good one with Kurt. He’s an amazing friend, a wonderful alpha, and I’m sure will be a doting father.”

The pack were nodding their heads, smiling from ear to ear, each one of them wearing a name tag. I couldn’t read them from this angle, but there would be time to learn their names later. I already learned the most important thing about them, just in this quick snapshot.

Not a single one of the wolves stared at my face or looked at me with disgust. No one whispered to their neighbor. No one giggled. There were greeting me and letting their alpha know how happy they were for him.

And in that moment, I knew where I belonged.

At Kurt’s side.

As the alpha omega.

As a member of this pack.

They were my new family.

This pack was my future.