Fearless (The Willowdale Village Collection #2)

16. Lena Graves

CHAPTER 16

LENA GRAVES

“ H ere you go.” I handed Colette her coffee and placed mine in the cupholder before pulling away from the drive-thru window. I had picked her up only twenty or so minutes ago, and already the day had been so damn fun as we made our way to go shopping in Galena.

It was around an hour drive, so I had tunes playing while she told me all her plans for the ballet studio—something I was thoroughly excited for. I wasn’t a dancer by any means, but I would totally take a class to stay fit and support her.

“It's more perfect than I could ever have dreamed—all of it. And I have your brothers and you to thank for that,” Colette said. “Everyone has made me feel so welcome.”

My smile grew. “People already love having you here, and it's exciting knowing that soon—probably really soon—you're going to be my actual sister.”

To say I was thrilled at the prospect of helping to plan Colette’s wedding was an understatement. I’ve always loved weddings, especially ones that were unique and really showcased the personality of the couple. I already had so many ideas of how to do that for the four of them, so now I was just waiting for the official go-ahead to start planning.

If they didn’t propose soon, I was totally going to start bothering them about it.

“You’re right.” Colette’s eyes brightened. “I just hope my parents don’t show up and ruin everything—or worse.”

“We would never let them take you from us,” I assured her, taking another sip of my coffee while steering with one hand. “Even if they brought every single HAF member with them.”

Both Colette and my brothers had updated me on how bad her parents had treated her, and more so the possibility of them coming after her—somehow aligning themselves with HAF while hiding the fact that they were the ‘freaks’ the group hated.

Of course, my life in Willowdale hadn’t been perfect, but it had been pretty damn close. It had been filled with people who loved and cared about me, even in my darkest moments. More so, people who accepted the fact that I was a teal bunny shifter without question. I couldn’t imagine living in a town where you not only had to hide what you were, but where people actively and vocally hated what you were to the point that they would take extreme measures of violence. I shuddered at that thought. How humans could be capable of so much cruelty always shocked me. It wasn’t like they had any animal instincts to blame it on, either!

“Humans Against Freaks.” She breathed out, shaking her head. “It's insane to think that I lived so close to so many horrible people for so long.”

“Never again,” I promised. “No one should have to live like that.”

As we continued our drive, the music filling the car, my thoughts turned to the biggest piece of news I needed to tell her. I’d already alluded to the air being cleared between myself and my four mates—my mating marks more than a bit obvious. But there was one big piece of information that not even my men were privy to because I had found out after Macon left this morning.

I was damn near positive I was pregnant.

The test hadn’t been absolute, but the second line had been faintly there. Enough so that thinking about it caused my heart to palpate with nervous excitement. After everything I’d been through, I thought I would have felt fear or panic, but instead I felt settled. I knew the news would be well received by my mates, and I hoped they were serious about living together and getting married because we were going full speed ahead.

“Okay, so.” I turned down the music after taking a sip of my coffee, the peppermint mocha flavor jumping on my tongue. “I need to tell you something. You have to promise you won’t judge—” Not that Colette had a judgmental bone in her body. “Well not judge, but don’t tell my brothers yet.” I needed to tell my mates before anyone else— except for my new best friend, of course. “I mean, it’s not really a big deal…”

“Lena .” Colette touched my shoulder in a comforting move, interrupting me. “ What you say stays between us, I promise. You know I’d never judge you.”

I inhaled, suddenly feeling nervous about telling anyone. As if speaking the words into existence would somehow change them. I decided to try to soften the intensity of my announcement by explaining I’d known for a few days rather than finding out literally an hour or so ago.

“So, I found out something a few days ago. Something big. Something that?—”

Suddenly, the sound of sirens had Colette whipping around as I let out a curse in confusion. Immediately, I knew it wasn’t any of my men. Not only because the unmarked SUV following us was unfamiliar, but because all four of my men had known exactly where I would be today. I was positive they even had my location or were tracking me somehow. It was probably just a routine stop, but worry infiltrated my chest as I pulled over to the side of the highway and threw the car into park.

Colette pulled my registration and insurance card from the glove compartment as I opened my wallet to take out my license. Before the cop got out of his car, I shot off a text to my men letting them know where we were and what was happening.

After what felt like minutes of concerned silence, the driver’s door to the dark SUV finally opened. When I saw the large man approaching, I felt my stomach tighten uncomfortably, my fingers twitching in resistance to rolling down the window. I did so anyway as he leaned down, looking into the car. I hated this. I hated everything about this. There was no way a human should make me feel this uncomfortable, even one in law enforcement.

“Afternoon, ladies.” He said, eyeing me before looking over at Colette—his gaze darkening and locking onto her. My internal alarms were screaming, and I immediately tried to pull his attention back to me.

“How can we help you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light and unbothered. I wasn’t positive that it actually worked.

“Did you know that you were driving five miles above the speed limit back there?”

I nearly growled in annoyance. That was absolute bullshit. I’d set my car to cruise control on purpose while on the highway.

“I’m pretty sure that’s allowed,” I pointed out, refusing to let him bully us.

His gaze narrowed on me. “You two don’t look familiar. Do you live in Galena?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “No. Willowdale Village. Sir, why exactly are we?—”

“I’m waiting for backup,” he snapped. “Just calm down, miss, before you say something that could get you in more trouble.”

I reared back. “Backup? For fucking what?”

Colette’s voice popped into my head. “He never showed us a badge, Lena.”

“Plus, how do we know you’re really a cop? Where’s your badge?” I demanded. The guy wasn’t even wearing a damn uniform.

My accusation caused an instant reaction as his face turned bright red in anger. The delay was exactly what we needed, though, because at that exact moment, a second car pulled up—a patrol car with Galena on the side of it. Oh, thank the Creator.

The man let out a string of curses and sprinted back toward his SUV, throwing himself into the front seat before speeding away, leaving me staring at his car fading into the distance with wide eyes.

“What the hell was that?”

As we watched the new cop get out of his car, Colette’s voice echoed in my mind. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling that wasn’t the last of it.”

“ T hey’ll be here any minute,” I told Colette, already having spoken to Liam on the phone after Sheriff Jack had given him a call.

Colette and I were sitting comfortably in the Galena police station, and while I was more than a little on edge, Colette was downright pale. The incident had really shaken her up, and I felt like this was somehow my fault. All we’d freakin’ wanted to do was go shopping.

“Lena!” Ari’s deep voice had me standing out of my chair as he practically scooped me up, sweeping me into his hold and surrounding me with familiarity and warmth. Letting out a shaky breath, I melted into him as he kissed me hard before pulling away, slowly setting me down. I felt almost dizzy from the whirlwind effect.

“Wow,” I whispered, feeling a wave of emotion at the concern and palpable fear I could see on his face.

“I was so damn worried about you,” he said. “But we’re here, baby girl, and we’re going to figure out what’s going on?—”

“Ari,” I interrupted softly, unable to hold it in any longer.

“Yes?” he asked, smoothing my hair away from my face.

“I love you,” I admitted easily. “I love you, Ari. I love how much you care, how protective you are—how protective you’ve always been. And I love the person you are. You're not only my best friend, you're my mate and I love you.”

“Fuck,” Ari groaned, pulling me against him and slamming his lips against mine. “I love you too, baby girl. So incredibly much. I feel so on edge right now knowing you were in danger, but hearing those words on your lips is fucking heaven.”

I gave him a softer kiss this time, forgetting that we were in the station to begin with.

“Liam, good to see you,” I heard Sheriff Jack say. I looked around Ari and found all three of my men walking toward me. I could hear someone say Colette’s name, and I had a feeling my brothers had been right behind my mates.

“Gorgeous.” Connery smoothed a hand over my hair. “What happened?”

“We got pulled over by an unmarked car,” I explained. Liam, who seemed tense, grabbed one of my hands and brought it to his lips. “And he didn’t have a badge, but he said he was waiting for backup?—”

Macon let out a deep rumble and narrowed his eyes at Sheriff Jack. “I want them found. Now.”

“Already on it,” he assured my men.

“I’m more worried about Colette than myself,” I admitted, sneaking a peek at my friend who was talking to my brothers in quiet tones. “He seemed hyperfocused on her.”

“I’ll make sure to talk to your brothers to understand fully what’s going on,” Liam assured me. “For now, I want to get you home—away from this fucking place.”

I nodded as we moved to leave the station, giving Colette a shoulder squeeze in passing. As I thought about going home, I began to feel uneasy. I suddenly didn’t like the idea of going to my apartment at all. In fact, I found that was one of the last things I wanted.

Once we finally made our way outside, each of my men exchanging quick words with other cops at the station, I squeezed between Ari and Connery in the back seat of the patrol SUV. Liam took his place in the driver’s seat, and Macon was following in my car. I was glad for the favor, but I hated that he was alone at the moment.

“Well, that was an eventful Friday morning,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. Then I sighed. “Crap. I should’ve grabbed my coffee from my car.”

“We can get a new one on the way home,” Ari promised. “Or even make one at home.”

“Home,” I murmured. “I don’t…I don’t really want to go back to my apartment.”

“Where do you want to go, gorgeous?” Connery asked knowingly.

“Well, ideally my dream house,” I mused. “But I’m guessing we haven’t even heard back from the sellers yet?”

Liam made an amused noise as he shook his head. “There are no sellers.”

My heart dropped. “What do you mean? I thought it was for sale.”

“The land was for sale,” Ari hedged. “This past summer, when we bought it.”

“Oh.” My eyes widened.

“Then we spent the past few months developing and building it. Furniture was delivered last night,” Connery added.

“Wait…really?!” I squeaked in surprise. “So the house is ours?”

“Been ours from the start,” Liam confirmed. “Wanted you to have a place that you could truly call home, Lena. A place where we could start our life together.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile. “That’s so amazing; I had no idea! And the house is perfect. I literally could not have picked anything better myself.”

“I can’t wait till you see the furniture,” Ari said. “I may have hacked into your Pinterest account to get ideas.”

“I love that,” I squeaked in excitement, eager to get there.

Nearly bouncing in my seat, I called Macon after so that I could tease him about not telling me. Waiting to get back to Willowdale Village, especially now that I knew the truth about the house, seemed like an impossible task.

“Why didn’t any of you tell me?” I asked over speakerphone.

“Didn’t want to freak you out,” Macon answered. “At least that was the thought process. Not that I completely agreed…”

“Because you never worry about that shit,” Connery reminded him.

“Thought it might come across as a bit intense, buying land to build a house for the five of us when we weren’t even dating,” Ari said, causing a giggle to slip from my lips. He wasn’t wrong—he really wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t sure how I would’ve reacted before now to the news, but I was just so incredibly thankful and appreciative of them.

“I’m so glad that you guys could see the future I was too afraid to imagine,” I said, my throat catching with emotion as we pulled down a familiar dirt path.

“Here we are,” Liam said as the gate opened and both of the cars pulled through. My eyes ate up every single inch of the estate.

I whispered a single word that put my heart at ease and caused pure joy to radiate through me. “Home.”