Chapter 3

Colt

“So, we all know this is going to be a complete shit show, right?”

With some negotiation, Riley had cleared a spot in her schedule. We already had a team shadowing me and my brothers in preparation for the birth of our kids, so they were only too glad to take over for a bit. Blake and I carried several bags over to the car, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about.

It was her.

Always and forever, Riley. It felt like the only reason my heart beat was for her, but shit, things only just got more intense when she got pregnant. I dropped the bags on the ground as she stepped out of our house, and my brother just snorted, picking them up as well and shoving them into the back of the car. I was moving instead towards her.

“Babe, are you sure about this?” I reached for her hand and helped her down the step. “It's a long drive and you hate Bordertown. You couldn’t wait to leave.”

“Colt.” She pulled her fingers from mine, even when I wanted to snatch them back, but I went still when she touched my face. “I’ll be fine. I beat your mum in a dominance fight.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Haze smirked as he walked past carrying a cooler full of food and drinks.

“If we’re going by pack law, I outrank her,” she continued.

“To us you do.”

Fen slid up behind Riley, and I knew what he was doing when his hands went under her belly. We’d all watched the video of a guy relieving the burden of his pregnant wife’s belly with interest, and Riley sighed and melted back into him, just like the woman had. “There is no one more precious, so if you want to go to Bordertown, that’s where we’re going.”

He eyed me then, making clear he didn’t want me agitating our mate. Fen always took on the role of leader, but my wolf started to shift inside me the moment he tried to pull anything. While I might’ve gotten past being separated from our mate for years, my wolf hadn’t. I could barely suppress a snarl before I focussed back on her.

“We go as long as you want. We do what you want. You know what Mum is like,” I told her.

“I do.” That earned me another kiss, a sweet one pressed to my forehead. It felt like I could see, think more clearly at Riley’s touch. “You know what pregnant omegas are like. We’re moody and have weird cravings and want weird things.”

“I can’t entice you to stay by promising to make you grilled cheese and onion sandwiches instead?” I asked.

Her stomach rumbled almost in answer, but Riley shook her head.

“We need to do this. Your parents are the only grandparents our kids are going to have.”

“They can do that from a distance,” Ryan said, bringing out her pillow. “A very far distance.”

“Maybe I don’t want that.” Everyone stilled at that admission. While we might not be champing at the bit to drive back to our hometown, Riley’s needs were of the utmost importance. “Everyone says they need a village to raise their child. Maybe I want to see what role your parents could play in that village.”

Don’t, that’s what I wanted to say. I loved my parents obviously, but if I was completely honest, sometimes I hated them too. Every day I woke up beside my mate felt like something I’d stolen from the jaws of fate. She could’ve so easily slipped away from us. We might never have found her. She might’ve revealed as an omega and some other?—

“Colt.” She forced me to look down at her. “Stay with me.”

That’s when I pulled her close, using the same strategies we taught kids. Ground yourself in reality when feeling heightened, that’s what we said. Well, I did that with her. The fiery gleam of her hair, the softness of the strands as I stroked my hand through them, the way she fit against my body. I loved her so violently it felt like I needed to set the whole world on fire just to keep her safe. The wolf settled then, my hands becoming fingers again, not claws, before I nodded and pulled back.

“You got it, but…” It was hard for me to say these things. We’d kept everything back for so long it meant it took conscious effort for me to get the words out. “Just know that you’re the one in control now.” She smiled at me and my whole chest felt lighter. “Not just because you kicked Mum’s arse. Because we’re backing you one hundred percent.”

“Numbnuts has it right.”

Haze ruffled my hair, so I drove my elbow into his ribs. His oof was music to my ears.

“We stay as long as you want to stay,” Fen told her. “We leave when you’re ready. No one’s more important than you and the babies.”

I wanted her to stop blushing each time we said shit like that, even though I liked the pretty pink colour of it. It reminded me that she hadn’t taken this for granted yet. That we loved her to distraction, that we’d only ever be hers until the day we all died.

“So are we getting this shit show on the road?” Blake appeared with a pillow and a bag of snacks. “Sit with me in the backseat and I’ll massage your back when it starts to ache.”

“Or you could sit with me up the front and control the aux cable?” Haze asked, fluttering his eyelashes at our mate.

“Aux cable for the first hour or so,” she said and Haze pumped his fist. “Then in the back with Blake.” His smile made clear what he thought about that. “And pee stops. So many pee stops.”

“All planned out on the map.”

Haze held up his phone, making clear all the places we could stop on the way, but while that might have relieved Riley’s concerns, it didn’t mine. You can never go back home, that’s what people say, and I was pretty sure I knew why. The men we were when we left Bordertown were broken, lost, and not sure what else to do but follow our hearts. Well, we did. Riley was always the compass we followed, and if it was back ‘home’ for a while, then so be it, but I’d make clear to anyone and anything that tried to get in my mate’s way just how different we were now.

“What the fuck…?” Ryan hissed as I slid past him and into the backseat with Blake.

“If Blake’s massaging Riley’s back, then I’ll do her feet,” I replied with a smirk. “Riley, who gives the best foot massages?”

“Couldn’t say,” she said with a sigh, settling into the front seat as Haze helped her settle her pillows around her. “I’ll have to try you all out on the drive and decide.”