Chapter 6

Haze

I never wanted to come back here.

The moment we left Bordertown, when we got in the car and drove, I turned and looked through the back window and hoped we’d never return. Not without Riley, at least. Yet here we were, rocking up to Mum and the dads place, driving up the curving driveway to a house I barely knew, the one they were forced to buy when they were ousted from the alpha residence by the Williams pack. But I was here with my girl, that was my only consolation. My hand went to the back of her chair, squeezing the fake leather too tightly as we parked outside, just to get that bit closer to Riley. The screen door slammed open and Mum came rushing out, the dads ambling behind her at a more sedate pace, and that’s when the tension ratcheted tighter.

“Riley!”

I loved my mother. She gave birth to me, the process taking eighteen hours, as she loved to remind us, but it was more than that. When we were growing up, she was a warm presence, always there with hugs, soft words, and disinfectant when we came and presented our scrapes to her. But the uncomfortable truth that no one seemed to want to acknowledge was that I kinda hated her as well.

Riley couldn’t even open her door before Mum was there, wrenching it open, then rushing forward. My mate’s eyes went wide as she was enfolded in a hug, something she never got from my mother when we were growing up. Riley was a beta, the daughter of an enforcer, so she was someone that deserved the protection and support of the ruling pack, but… In her mind, Mum saw Riley as less important than us. Not now, though.

My mate tried to heave herself out of the car, her belly making every movement difficult, which is why she should’ve left that burden to me. I jumped out of the car, caught the way Mum’s face lit up, right before I pushed past her to help Riley ease out. She was my focus, something my mate noted as her cheeks flushed pink.

Riley used to do that at school.

Any time I got her lunch or pulled her seat out for her, or slid in beside her on the bus, whatever game face she thought she was wearing fell apart the moment her cheeks started to glow. Of course, that had me doing the same thing every day, trying to get her to respond the same way. We weren’t sneaking around or hiding what we felt, but I found I still treasured every time I made her blush. I winked and then stepped in close, ready to stand by her side as she faced down the wolves, literally.

“Oh, look at you.” You’d never know that my mother removed Riley from our town ten years ago, luring my mate away with promises of a bright academic future. “You’re just beautiful.” She turned to the dads. “Doesn’t Riley look beautiful?”

“She always did.” Malcolm, one of my dads, winked at me as he said that. “How are you, Riley, love?”

“Tired.” My grip on Riley’s waist tightened. I wanted a bed and a cool dark room, stat, I decided. “I forgot what a long drive it is.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Something about Mum’s concern had my hackles rising, and the guys must’ve felt the same, leaving off unpacking the car to cluster closer. Our wolves didn’t give a shit about suitcases of clean clothes, or even Riley’s pillow, just her. “It’ll only get harder when you’ve got a car full of kids.”

Mum forged on, looking over her shoulder at our dads.

“Remember how hard it was to wrangle the boys when we drove up to the city. Two cars and each one of them fighting to be in the other one.”

“That’s OK, I don’t see us making a lot of trips like this once the kids are born.” If I was still kinda pissed with the parental units, I had nothing on Colt. He’d never wavered for a second in his belief that Riley was the only one for us. With every year we were apart, part of him withered, growing gnarled and blackened, and I was pretty sure he was still healing from that. He crossed his arms and confronted the lot of them and said exactly what was on my mind. “I’m not putting my mate through long drives for anyone. Any person wanting to have a relationship with our children, with us, they’ll need to come to us.”

I grinned, unable to stop myself, even when I got a disapproving look from one of my dads.

“Oh, well, then…” Mum blinked, because while she would always be my mother, she was Omega Vanguard first, and I think it killed her to relinquish that position. “Enough chattering on the front step like strangers. Come inside and I’ll give you a tour of the house.”

I sucked in a breath, ready to let her know that wouldn’t be happening right now.

“Could you show me the bedroom we’re staying in now?” That vulnerability in Riley’s voice had me growling. “I’m sorry, the place looks amazing.” She gave the gardens a cursory look. “But I’m just trashed. The drive?—”

I saw the disappointment on Mum’s face and that had me stiffening, but before I could say a thing, she smiled and patted Riley’s arm.

“Of course, love. You must be exhausted. We’ve set the lot of you up in the granny flat out the back. A pregnant omega needs her own space.”

There was a lot in that sentence that needed further unpacking, but right now our next move was apparent. I grabbed a couple of bags at random and then said, “Sounds good. Lead the way and we’ll get Riley situated.”

“Oh, this is pretty.”

Riley’s sigh had me turning around as we stepped inside the granny flat, but the sound had Mum beaming.

“We bought the place for just this reason.” Mum swept through the living area and down the hall. “There’s a kitchen, several bedrooms?—”

“Show us the closest one,” I said between gritted teeth. Riley was being polite as per usual, trying to be a good daughter-in-law, but I could smell the acidic edge to her scent. She was tired and burning through the reserves of her energy quickly.

“Of course.”

Mum looked like the goose that laid the golden egg as she opened the door to the main suite, revealing a massive bed that would fit the lot of us. Sun streamed in through the windows, so I moved at the same time Blake did, undoing the curtain tiebacks to shroud the room in a much softer grey gloom.

“There’s a big ensuite through that door with towels and toiletries.”

Mum seemed determined to point out every feature, which had me crossing the floor and putting my hands on her shoulders.

“Haze…” John, one of my dads, growled.

“Mum, you’ve done an amazing job. This place looks incredible and you’ve obviously worked hard to make sure we’ll be comfortable.” Mum’s cheeks flushing got quite a different reaction from me. It told me I was on the right track, right before I nipped this situation in the bud. “We appreciate it, honestly, but right now, Riley needs rest. We can’t appreciate anything you’ve done until she’s had a nap.”

I braced myself for an argument, a straight up brawl if it came to it. I had the names of different bed and breakfasts we could stay at while in town on my map app. Every part of me was tensed, waiting for her response, but Mum just smiled.

“Of course.” She patted my arm. “I remember what it was like when I was pregnant with you lot. Your fathers were just impossible. John even got into a fist fight with my father, if you could believe.”

“Stories for later I think,” the man himself said, steering her towards the door. “Let the kids rest and we’ll catch up later.”

Malcolm sidled up to her.

“You know we could do with a nap too.”

“Oh, I’m not tired,” Mum said as she walked out.

“No one said that we had to sleep…”

I wrinkled my nose at that, because knowing academically that my parents still had sex was quite different to hearing about it, but thankfully whatever else they had to say was left for after they’d left the granny flat.

“Babe…” I turned around and found Riley had flopped back onto the bed with a sigh, arms and legs outstretched like a snow angel. “God, this bed feels so damn good.”

Any sound of pleasure had the five of us moving, always lured closer by that sound.

“Yeah?”

My voice sounded rough, ragged, the wolf bleeding through, because Riley pregnant? It never stopped the need I felt burning inside for her, instead amplifying it. She was tired, that truth felt like it was a whisper spoken into a cyclone, torn away as her scent sweetened by the second. My mate rolled up on her elbow and then smiled at each one of us.

“Yeah.” She patted the bed beside her. “You should try it out.”

Never able to resist a request from our mate, we all lunged forward.