Fearless (The Willowdale Village Collection #2)

10. Lena Graves

CHAPTER 10

LENA GRAVES

“ I ’m glad we didn’t go to the diner,” I said, laying my head on Connery’s chest. He hummed in agreement, smoothing a hand back and forth across my lower back. Our breakfast dishes sat on my end table alongside our coffee cups, the scene perfectly domestic and cozy. It was well into late morning at this point, but I could not convince my body to care or move.

I was perfectly content just laying in bed with Connery, listening to his steady heartbeat. It helped that my entire body was still lit up with the aftereffects of our mating—the marking, knotting, and fantastic sex—leaving me feeling like a perfect pile of goo.

We had taken a super long shower after he was finally able to pull out of me and then fell asleep, only waking about an hour ago. At that point we decided breakfast in bed was a better option than leaving the house.

“I’m just glad you didn’t try to kill me for climbing into your bed last night,” he hummed.

“Like I said, I was sort of hoping you would do that. I thought it was really hot, and I would not complain if you wanted to do that again.”

Connery groaned and tilted my chin up with a firm finger. “And here I thought I couldn’t love you more than I already do.”

Offering him a dazzling smile, I moved up his body to press a kiss to his lips before collapsing back in his arms. “I’m finding that love isn’t something you can control, exactly.”

“No it’s not,” Connery agreed. The buzzing of a phone on the bedside table distracted us both. “Both of our phones have been blowing up all morning. If I had to guess, Liam—the impatient bastard—wants all of us to talk.”

“Every time someone says that, it makes me so nervous.”

“Why?” Connery frowned. “Liam is big on communication. Always has been.”

My mouth popped open. “Communication? Liam?!”

“With us.” Connery offered me an amused look. “Don’t be nervous, gorgeous. We’re going to need to get used to talking as a group.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said as he let out a deep hum and kissed my forehead.

“We should probably get moving.” He sighed. “Pack is having dinner tonight at the main house, and I’m pretty sure we’re all going, so we can just talk there.”

“Oh good, I can see Colette.” I sat up, stretching my arms above my head with a yawn. Connery wrapped his arms around my waist and let out a low rumble, pulling me back to bed. “Thought you said we had to get up?”

“Eventually,” he grumbled, causing me to smile as I curled back against him.

Eventually ended up being another hour before we finally got moving. While he got ready fairly quickly, I moved around my apartment slowly after pouring another cup of coffee. “I’m going to meet you guys there. I need more coffee and time.”

Connery nodded in understanding while pulling on his jacket, his gaze darting to my kitchen counter. Last night I’d gone grocery shopping but had only put away the perishable stuff. Everything else was left on the counter. I frowned, following his gaze to see what had caught his attention. When I realized what he was looking at, my cheeks turned bright red and I snatched the box off the counter and tucked it up into the cabinet, as if it had never existed.

“Don’t need to hide that from me, gorgeous,” Connery murmured, appearing behind me and stopping my hand from closing the cabinet.

“A box of pregnancy tests? Totally not hiding them. They obviously belong here in the kitchen, just forgot to put them away,” I teased, turning into him and finding his eyes heated.

“I know you’re in heat and what that means,” Connery said, causing me to draw my lip in. “Don’t think for a second you need to somehow feel guilty for not spelling it out. I was well fucking aware of what I was doing last night.”

A breath whooshed out of me, and a genuine smile tugged on my lips. “I got them just in case, but I won’t lie—I did feel guilty. I kept saying something in the moment when I should have said it far sooner.”

“Like I said, I knew exactly what I was doing when I buried myself inside of you and filled you with my cum.”

Inhaling sharply, I felt a blush stain my cheeks. “We don’t even know if it will happen.”

“Let me make myself even more clear,” Connery said seriously. “I hope it does. All I want is everything with you.”

My throat grew thick as I went up on my toes and kissed him softly. “I love you.”

“Love you more, gorgeous.” Connery flashed a smile and pulled back. “Now get your little ass ready. I want to see you at the pack house in a few hours.”

“Will do.” I sighed happily as I pulled the pregnancy tests out of the cabinet as the door closed. I had bought them preemptively. Bunny shifters had a much shorter gestation period than other shifters—only five months—so a positive pregnancy test could be shown in days rather than weeks. Still, I knew it was a little soon to have any results. Staring down at the package, I tried to imagine what I’d do if I did get a positive result.

How would I feel? I honestly didn’t know. It wouldn’t be a bad feeling, that much I knew, but it was accompanied by a nervous excitement. Until I could know for sure, though, I was going to do my best to keep it from my mind.

Carrying the box to the bathroom, I put it away and checked my phone, confirming that I would meet all of them at the pack house in late afternoon, which gave me plenty of time to get ready.

It also gave me time to go visit a friend that I’d been meaning to see.

After putting on some light makeup and pulling the top half of my hair away from my face, I decided to focus on comfort as I put on a pair of leggings and an oversized knit sweater.

When I added a pair of cozy socks as well as a vest to keep me warm, I caught my reflection in the mirror and smiled, noticing that something was different. I didn’t want to say that I was glowing, but there was a difference in the way I was holding myself.

Suddenly, my phone rang. I swiped to answer, seeing that it was Luca. “Morning! I’m just heading over to the pack lands to come see you guys.”

“Morning?” Luca mused. “Sleep in?”

“Oh. Yeah, sort of. I was tired.” I hesitated, not feeling one hundred percent comfortable with telling my brother that Connery had spent the night. I didn’t think Luca would mind—he seemed to tolerate all of the men in my life—but as with most brothers, he wasn’t a huge fan of them.

“Are you coming down with something?” Luca pushed. “You never sleep in.”

“Maybe,” I hedged, trying to move past it. “How's Colette? I want to talk to her.”

“She’s busy right now, but she’s loving it here.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “At least I hope she is.”

I had no doubt that she was loving it; the pack lands were absolutely wonderful to live on. It was probably freeing for her considering the restrictions she’d been subjected to growing up.

Colette would soon come back to the apartment and pack up her things, and that made me sad in a way. In a few short days we’d begun developing a friendship that I could feel blossoming into a sisterhood. Something I’d never had before. So while I was sad to see her go, my happiness for her was far greater. I was happy that she was finding her happily-ever-after with my brothers.

More so, I had no doubt that the move would have very little effect on our relationship—I knew how close the two of us were. I mean, her magic had all but confirmed it— when she spoke to me telepathically !

Last night I’d come upstairs from the bakery, still in thought about the four men that seemed to occupy every neuron of my brain, and wanted her opinion. I’d posed the question about how I should handle the concept of the four of them wanting me to choose—even though they had never said that. Colette had made quick work of getting to the bottom of the situation and then explaining that she didn’t think they’d ask me to choose.

That hadn’t been the surprising part of the conversation, though. No, it had been when she answered me through a telepathic connection, her voice appearing in my head! It was absolutely insane and so cool. She’d then gone on to explain that it only happened when she felt close to someone and trusted them. So we were pretty much best friends already. Which is why I was so excited to see her today—I had a lot to update her on, needing to come clean about everything that had happened with my men so far.

My men. That felt amazing to say.

“Well, good. I’ll bring over some extra treats from the bakery so she doesn’t miss Bunny Bites too much and is tempted to come back,” I teased and practically felt Luca roll his eyes.

“Sounds good,” he said. “Be safe on the drive over; it’s raining.”

Was it? I literally hadn’t noticed, even though my bedroom window had been open most of the morning.

“See you guys soon,” I said before hanging up, looking out the window to confirm that it was, in fact, raining. Well, that made me feel a bit better about the bakery not being open this morning. Normally I would let people know in advance, but sometimes life got ahead of me.

Alright, this was one of the first times this had ever happened, but still I knew people would be understanding.

Grabbing some treats from the refrigerator in the kitchen, I packed up my car and turned it on, the warm air blasting on my fingers. Turning on some music, I pulled out of the parking lot behind my apartment and began my drive toward the pack lands. The drive was familiar, and because of that my thoughts began to get lost in a swirl of memories, of how this place—the pack lands—had been my home for so long.

“ D ad,” I complained, sitting on the couch in his office and glaring at Hunter from across the room. “I think you need to really think about who should be Alpha next. I am way more suited for the position.”

Hunter scoffed at that, his brow furrowing, as Dylan chuckled at my analysis. I wished Luca was here because he would’ve agreed. Just because Hunter was sixteen now, he thought he was in charge of everything. Literally everything! At ten, I felt like I had a far better grasp on the situation at hand.

“Oh?” My dad offered me his full attention. “Alright, I’m all ears. Why do you think so? Maybe I’ll reconsider who gets to inherit the pack.”

“Dad!” Hunter’s voice cracked and Dylan burst into laughter.

“Look at that outburst of anger.” I waved my hand. “Not all of us can be calm and collected like me.”

“You got mad last week because I ate the last piece of lasagna!” Hunter growled.

“Because it was mine,” I retorted, before rolling my eyes. “I’m better at being diplomatic than him. Just saying.”

“I agree,” Dylan sighed. “I’m sorry, Hunter, I think she should be—ouch!” Hunter glared at him after thumping him on the head.

“As much as I love that idea.” My dad pulled my attention back. “I don’t think you actually want to be Alpha, Lena. I think you just don’t want anyone telling you what to do, and even if you were Alpha, your brothers would probably still try to do that.”

“Fair,” I huffed. “Fine. You can stay Alpha, Hunter, but just remember—I could be it, if I wanted.”

“And you would be an amazing one,” my mom agreed, sweeping into the room and dropping a kiss on my head. I scowled outwardly, but I secretly loved it when she did that.

T hose little moments, those little scowls, were ones I had come to regret. My parents' death taught me to appreciate the small things around me—the tiniest interactions—while also making me afraid of developing close relationships with anyone outside of my family.

I already feared losing those I loved, so adding to that circle only caused more trepidation. I knew if my parents, especially my mom, found out I was living my life that way, they would come back from the grave to give me a talking to.

Mom’s motto in life had always been about living every day to its fullest…so why was it so hard to do? To accept the possibility of hurt and loss?

My throat got tight at the concept of losing the men I’d come to care about so incredibly much. But even more so, the idea of having a child, an innocent baby…my eyes stung at the emotion that stirred within me. There were so many terrifying factors to consider. What if something happened to me, or to my men, and left our future children alone? What if something happened to them?

My heart beat loudly in my ears as adrenaline raced through me. My breaths were short and shallow, and I pulled over to the side of the road and put my head against the steering wheel, trying to calm myself.

When I finally managed to pull in a steady breath, I straightened myself up and continued driving down the familiar road that would take me to the pack lands, now eager to arrive. I needed to get out of this car, but more so I needed to go see the one person that I knew could possibly provide me with some answers and solace about the future.

Eliza—the packs’ seer.