Chapter 23
Wren
B raxton parked the car in the lot of the vet clinic before turning to me. He’d kept conversation light during our quick lunch, so I knew what was coming.
“Wren. I’m so sorry, that was not how I planned to introduce you to my family or let you see me react,” he started to stumble over his words, his fingers tapping incessantly on the steering wheel as he talked.
“Stop, Brax. If I didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t have gone,” I promised, reaching over and taking his hand, soothing him the best I could in this car. “You handled that beautifully. If anything, standing up for your siblings like that showed me that you’re the kind of beta who would go to war for his packmates.”
“Yeah, then I invited them over for sleepovers,” he groaned. “The others are going to kill me.”
“I think they’ll surprise you. Maybe I’ll run out and grab a nice dinner to butter them up for you,” I mused, laughing at his look of horror. “From a restaurant, Brax. Don’t worry.”
“We might need to find you two some cooking classes,” he snorted. “I’ve never seen anyone quite so disastrous in the kitchen. Put you together and it’s asking for trouble. Shep and Nash nearly passed out while you tried to master waffles.”
I chuckled at the memory. Devon had flour in his hair, I had it on my face, we both nearly burnt them and ourselves. It really was a mess.
“Why don’t I pick up the food on my way home, then I can tell them over dinner,” he offered. “You go home and relax since you’ve got an afternoon off.”
“Sold,” I agreed as I bit back a yawn. For some reason sleep wasn’t great last night.
We said a quick goodbye as someone brought their animal inside, Braxton rushing to work while I got in my own car and sent Devon a text.
Wren
I need a nap. Cuddle buddies?
Devon
Only if you never call me a buddy again. Maybe cuddle lovers?
Wren
Be my cuddle lover? Your girl needs sleep.
Devon
Are you feeling alright? Heat spike again?
Wren
No, I’m just feeling a bit run down. Maybe having my omega back is just exhausting.
Devon
Just get that cute ass home and I’ll have our nest ready
Our pack had gotten right to work when we got home from the store. A few hours of hanging lights and fabrics and padding it with tons of blankets and pillows, it was finished.
Now all of our combined things were in the main suite, and life felt like it made sense again.
The drive was short and I was practically stumbling by the time I got inside. Shepherd ran up as if he could sense my struggle, helping me inside.
“Are you alright?”
“Just really fucking tired,” I admitted. “Devon is waiting for me in our nest.”
Shepherd scooped me up easily and carried me upstairs. My eyes closed the moment I breathed in my bourbon and blueberry cheesecake alpha. The warmth, sweetness, and spice told me I was safe and could give into the bone-deep exhaustion that came out of nowhere.
I barely registered the alpha and omega talking around me as I was settled into the softness of our nest. A happy sigh escaped me as green apple and cedarwood filled my senses, my omega cuddling me close.
When Shepherd’s scent disappeared, I let out a whine that had him moving back.
“Looks like it’s naptime for you, too, alpha,” Devon teased. “Our omega wants you right here.”
“I’m here,” Shepherd rumbled, tucking us both close so his hand wrapped around me and Devon.
“Good,” I slurred before giving in to sleep.
The next thing I knew I was being woken up by someone crawling out of the nest.
“Sorry to wake you, little dove,” Shepherd said, his voice graveled with sleep. “I just need to move and check on the animals. I never finished my rounds.”
“Let me come with you. I think the fresh air will help wake me up.” I glanced over to see that Devon was already gone.
“You know that one can’t stay still for long,” Shepherd joked, helping me up. He brushed my hair out of my eyes, smiling softly as I stretched.
“I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
“Your body needed it. There’s been a lot going on,” he said easily. He held a hand out for me, palm up, and I slid mine into his, letting him lead me back downstairs and outside.
It was the perfect temperature out, the air just cool enough to wake you up without having a chill.
“What’s left, boss?” I teased.
His eyes flickered with heat before he looked out at the pasture. “Someone has to convince Mabel to get her butt inside. I’ll handle the goats.”
“Leave Mabel to me,” I promised.
Heading over to her area, I could hear her snorting happily as I walked up. She had clearly been rolling around in her mud, the brown coating her black-and-white dappled skin.
“Hey there,” I said as I walked out into her pen.
She looked up at me with interest and snorted again in greeting. She had the most intelligent eyes, and right now they almost seemed to be daring me to try.
She wasn’t tense with me around, she was as relaxed as ever, but she also wasn’t budging. Stubborn pig.
“It’s time to go in for the night, sweet girl,” I said. “And if you don’t tell Shepherd, I might even have a snack for you in there.”
“I heard that!” he yelled from a distance.
The laughter in his voice had me cracking up. Mabel continued to eye me, and since the secret was out of the bag, I went ahead and ducked into the barn to grab some celery stalks.
They weren’t her favorite, but they also wouldn’t crank up her blood sugar.
When she saw my hands were full of something, she started to move, but her steps were slow and resigned, as if she really didn’t want to come but couldn’t resist a treat.
On that, we were the same.
“Come on. You know you can be warm and toasty in your little bed of hay. Maybe we can even convince Shepherd to sing you a lullaby.”
“Not likely,” he called out.
The sound of the goat stall closing and locking followed, then his heavy footfalls were heading our way. She let out an indignant snort when she saw him, but her steps quickened a little bit.
“You better get your cute rump in your stall,” he warned her.
I followed her in, putting her snack down on her bed of hay before giving her a little scratch behind the ears.
“Does she need meds?” I asked, turning back to Shepherd.
He didn’t seem to hear me, he was too busy staring at me with a soft smile on his face. It wasn’t until he noticed I had turned around that he startled out of it.
“Sorry. You guys are just too adorable together,” he laughed. “I never expected to find anyone who would care about these animals like I do, let alone someone who cared about me.”
“Even grumpy alphas deserve love,” I joked.
We both startled at the word “love.” It wasn’t exactly something we were using a few months in, but somewhere along the way, between fate, my heat spike, and falling into the beautiful, blissful, domesticated life we had, it had started to form.
So, I didn’t take it back.
Tires on the gravel had the moment falling away. He turned to glance out the open barn door.
“Braxton’s here. Why don’t you go meet him, and I’ll test her blood sugar and see what she needs?”
“I’ll wait,” I promised.
I had already had lunch with Braxton, and I knew that the conversation tonight was going to be rough. If I could give Shepherd a few more minutes of calm before the storm, I was going to do it.
Plus, I hadn’t had a chance to see him administer her meds. I watched as my big, surly alpha talked to Mabel in hushed tones, his gentle rumble soothing her as much as it did me.
She didn’t even flinch when he tested her blood sugar. And when he had to give her an insulin shot, she simply ignored him completely.
She got a final scratch behind the ears, snorting happily before we were walking away, hand in hand.
“I love how you are with them,” I said. “It’s nice to see someone who truly cares about animals that are a little more trouble than others.”
“Somebody’s got to love these demons,” he chuckled, giving my hand a squeeze. “Though, don’t let Braxton fool you. He’s the reason half these animals are even here.”
“Speaking of Braxton, he told me he was bringing dinner. We better hurry.”
Shepherd pulled me inside. We stopped in the mudroom long enough to wash up and kick off our dirty boots before heading for the kitchen, where the others were already chatting away.
“It’s nice to have life back in this house.”
“Back? Was it like this when your grandparents were alive? You mentioned it was theirs, right?”
“Yeah. My grandfather built it for his pack. I’d spend as much time as I could with him growing up because they were a lot better than my two alpha dads, who had a chip on their shoulders, too much anger between them and no beta or omega to soften the blow.”
“That’s why you were so reluctant to start a pack?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t exactly have the best example from them, but my grandparents, apparently, kept me from getting any kind of bias, because the moment I saw you, I knew it was over.”
“Saw me? Not scented me?” I questioned.
“Oh no. When this sassy omega walked into my life and sweet-talked my animals, it was over,” he said, fingers dancing over my lower back as he led me further into the farmhouse. “And I’m glad. I wasn’t truly living before, but now, with you all here, I feel like a new man, someone I can be proud of.”
“Keep that in mind,” I said cryptically as I pulled him into the kitchen. “Braxton has news.”
Braxton gave me an exasperated look, but I could also see the relief there that I had broken the ice. Everyone had questions in their eyes, but he made quick work of doling out the takeout he brought, a buffet of Mexican food.
I loaded up my plate with tacos, queso, and chips, happy that he got me a black bean version.
Everyone had started eating, but Shepherd hadn’t looked away from Braxton, expectantly waiting. Even though the beta was being a coward right now, I couldn’t blame him.
He’d signed us up for something, and he wasn’t sure how they would react.
Braxton finally took a deep breath and looked up at us.
“So, our lovely omega Wren showed up at my job today to go out to lunch with me. But my sister had been radio silent, and I needed to go check in. My parents took her phone, and I wasn’t sure how things were going.”
“Why would that be worrisome? Did she get in trouble or something?” Devon asked.
Braxton let out a heavy sigh. “No. My parents are not good parents. They were obsessed with knocking up my Mom, apparently, and so they had more kids than they wanted or needed. We raised each other. It was not an easy life. They weren’t physically abusive, but they were neglectful in about every way you could be. I worry about my siblings. Wren came with me today, and I just finally had enough when they started being assholes.”
“Don’t let him downplay it, he was incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of anyone in my life,” I clarified.
Just seeing him squaring his shoulders against people that had tried to beat him down his whole life was enough to have me head over heels for this beta.
“I pretty much blackmailed them, saying that I had video evidence that I don’t have, but I’m sure that my siblings could conjure up for me. And I may have volunteered us to watch my siblings once a month for a sleepover weekend to get them out of that house.”
“Good. They don’t need to be there all the time if it’s that bad. What do we do about the rest of the time? Can we get them out of there?” Shepherd asked, accepting it as easily as breathing.
God, I loved that man. This time, I didn’t even bother to hide the word from myself. It was true.
“Since Wren and I both took over the one suite and nest, we have extra rooms. We could designate a few for the kiddos, couldn’t we? We might just need some more beds,” Devon said.
“My brothers and I can build some bunk beds. You said there were a lot of kids, how many beds do we need?”
“You know what this means,” Devon said excitedly. “More decorating! And imagine the movie nights. This is going to be so much fun.”
“Oh my gosh, I bet they’d love the farm, too,” I said. “I wouldn’t say bringing them around Astrid would be a good idea, but you know Mabel would eat up the attention. The goats, too, they could feed them. I always see at petting zoos, they do those little ice cream cones filled with feed. We could do that.”
“Hey… are you okay?” Shepherd’s concerned and startled voice had us all looking at Braxton, who had tears running down his face and was seconds away from fully sobbing.
I didn’t hesitate to move into his lap, climbing up and burying my nose in his neck. If we were bonded, I could make sense of what he was feeling.
“Talk to me,” I said gently, running my hand soothingly up and down his arms.
“I’d braced myself for rejection, for upset. Hell, worst-case scenario, being kicked out of this pack. And here you guys are, taking it in stride, accepting it, and making plans, no less.”
“Of course, we are,” Devon said, shocked. “We’re a pack, Braxton. We don’t just kick you out because something isn’t going right. We’re talking about your family. Of course, we’re going to step up.”
“That’s what packs do,” Shepherd confirmed.
“Oh, just wait until my mama hears about these babies,” Nash said with a chuckle. “They’ll have more love than they know what to do with. If it won’t be too overwhelming, we should invite my siblings, their packs, and my parents… give them a real family cookout. Show them some dynamics that they should see. We don’t want their only interactions outside of school and home being your parents.”
“Don’t worry, Braxton. We’re family now. We’ve got each other,” I reassured him, letting those words sink into my soul.
Bit by bit, these men had healed me, and I wanted to do the same for them.