Chapter 16
ROWAN
It’s not even ten in the morning, and all I want to do is pack, but between the sounds of glass breaking and the unmistakable smell of burning herbs, I’m more than distracted.
“I’m not an invalid,” Mom yells from somewhere. “I’m more than capable of going to see my daughter. Alone.”
I chuckle.
Yep. My mom’s up and about, much to everyone’s dismay, either Iris or Dad has pushed her too far. Again.
“Go back to the kitchen before you burn the whole place down.” A second later, my mom storms into the bedroom, huffing and puffing, then quickly closes the door. “Absolutely nothing about your grandmother has changed.”
I raise a brow as she catches her breath. “Are you okay, though?”
“If they didn’t follow me everywhere, I wouldn’t have felt the need to practically run up the stairs.” She huffs and throws herself on my bed, where Archie goes right to her, pouncing on her legs.
“But you’re good?” I press as I finish the last of my boxes. Not that I have many, but I wanted more clothes and such, courtesy of NightShade Manor’s magic. I won’t have a closet full of new and clean clothes when we get to the pack, but the tradeoff is worth it.
Mom props herself on her elbows. “Yes, dear. I’m fine.” Then, she glares at me. “Don’t you dare think about following me around like your dad and Iris.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Sitting next to her on the bed, I do at least give her a once-over.
Color has finally returned to her skin. Not the full warm glow I remember from before, but enough that she no longer looks like a ghost wearing my mother’s face.
Her auburn hair is pulled into a loose braid over one shoulder, shorter than it used to be, like someone had hacked through it at some point without caring about evenness. It still catches the light, though, rich copper and deep red threading through the strands like fire that refuses to go out.
Her hazel gaze tracks me instantly, sharp and aware and so painfully familiar that my chest tightens for a second before I force myself to breathe through it.
More green when she’s calm, and a lighter gold when she’s annoyed.
Right now?
Definitely gold.
And while there are new lines around her eyes, it’s the spark behind them that I try to focus on.
Still my mom. Still alive. Still terrifying when she decides she’s right about something.
She narrows her eyes at me now. “Stop cataloging my face like you’re about to write a medical report.”
I blink. “I wasn’t—”
“You were,” she says calmly, dragging a finger lightly over my face. “You get that wrinkle between your eyebrows when you’re worried.”
Archie chuckles in agreement from where he’s now curled into her lap, like she’s the world’s best pillow.
“Traitor,” I tell him and not for the first time since we got Mom back.
He doesn’t even look at me. “She’s given me more snacks in the last two days than you have in the last two months.”
Mom snorts, then winces slightly before she can hide it.
My stomach drops.
“I’m fine,” she says immediately, pointing at me like she can hear the panic starting in my brain. “If you hover, I will fake my own death again just to get five minutes of peace.”
I grimace. “Too soon.”
“Maybe,” she says, adjusting herself against the pillows. “Also, your father is lurking outside the door like I’m going to evaporate if he blinks.”
“I mean… Can you blame the man?” I certainly don’t because if he wasn’t watching over her like he has been, I’d be there in his place.
Her expression softens just a fraction.
“You’re probably right,” she says with a soft sigh, then nods at my boxes. “So, we’re really doing this? Moving to a wolf pack. That’s almost more surreal than being back in this place with you.”
I smirk. “Everything has changed, and I can’t say that I’d like to go back to our old life. Not now that I have you again.” I give her hand a squeeze. “And it’s the right move for Cade. For me too, I think.”
She raises a brow. “You think? Are you not sure about all of this because I’ll put a stop—”
I lift a hand before she can spiral into protective-war-mother mode. “I’m more sure about everything in my life now than I probably should be. I promise.”
Her gaze drifts to my neck, where I know she can see the two faint marks now there, placed by Cade. “He’s good to you, right?”
“More than,” I answer without hesitation. “I didn’t know what to think at first. I mean he snapped Iris’s neck right in front of me on the first day.”
Mom’s mouth curves dangerously.
“But,” I add quickly, “he’s really toned down the murdery vibes since then.”
“Oh, how I wish I could have seen that,” she says, completely serious.
I snort.
With Iris still yelling at someone from somewhere in the house, I nod toward the hallway. “You still might. I can’t believe she’s coming back to the pack with us and closing NightShade again. I thought this place was her entire identity.”
Mom frowns slightly. “Me too.”
There’s something thoughtful in her eyes now. Something heavier.
“It seems all of us have changed,” she adds quietly.
“How do you feel about that?” I ask.
She considers it for a moment. “Better than I expected.”
The door opens again, but it’s not my father entering like I expect. It’s Liz.
“That’s exactly what I want to hear.”
She crosses the room and sits beside Mom on the bed, wrapping an arm around her waist like she’s done it a thousand times before.
“I followed the heavy, stalker breathing and figured I’d find you in here,” Liz adds dryly.
Mom can’t seem to help herself as she laughs. “Marius means well.”
“He’s a lovesick puppy,” Liz says with a grin.
I grimace. “Before this conversation goes in a direction I can’t unhear… Liz, are you all set?”
The vampire nods. “My boxes are all in the truck. Those wolves must really want Cade back if they’re willing to let me move onto pack lands. I’m pretty sure this is a first.”
Move? Is she really going to stay with us?
I had assumed—stupidly, maybe—that some of them would only be in Solara until Malrik was dealt with.
But Liz doesn’t look temporary. She looks settled. Like she’s already decided.
And something warm and steady spreads through my chest at the realization.
Just as we move back into conversation, the door opens hard enough that Archie’s head snaps up.
“See?” Iris snaps before she’s even fully in the room. “I told you there were more boxes. Take them before I decide you’re better used as an ingredient.”
Cade appears behind her, already holding two boxes like he’s accepted that resistance is pointless, but he’s still emotionally committed to being annoyed about it.
Or he’s preparing to crush my grandmother with the weight of them. Honestly, both are plausible at this point.
“I’m not an ingredient,” he mutters.
“Everyone is an ingredient if you think hard enough,” Iris fires back, already scanning the room like she’s counting objects with her eyes.
Cade looks at me over the boxes, completely deadpan. If I didn’t think it would upset your mother, I’d kill her again.
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. Little does he know, my mom would probably enjoy the show, but I don’t tell him that.
“Now, I don’t want to hear any more pissin’ and moanin’. There are only two more,” Iris continues, pointing at the corner like I’ve personally betrayed her by needing such things. “And if you leave anything behind, I will assume you don’t love it, and I will claim it as my own.”
“Noted,” Cade says flatly.
He sets the two boxes he was already carrying on top of mine, but instead of picking everything up again, he crosses the room in three long strides.
He doesn’t say anything—he doesn’t need to.
His hand settles, warm and solid, at the back of my neck before he presses a quick kiss to my temple.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” he murmurs, low enough only I can hear.
“Yeah,” I whisper back. “You?”
His mouth curves just slightly. “Ask me again after we survive loading everything without Iris turning us into soup.”
Good point.
Another set of footsteps sounds from the hall.
My dad appears in the doorway like a man who already knows he’s going to regret whatever is about to happen.
Iris whips around instantly.
“Oh good,” she says. “More manual labor.”
He sighs, long-suffering but not actually resisting as he steps inside. “I thought you said you’d be resting up here.”
Mom lifts a hand lazily from the bed. “I am, but it seems I’m also visiting and maybe even supervising.”
“Liar,” Dad mutters, but there’s zero heat in it.
“Take those,” Iris says, shoving two smaller boxes into his chest. “And don’t drop them, or I will make you help me reorganize the potion storage.”
He pales slightly.
“I would rather fight Malrik’s bloodsuckers again,” he says honestly.
“Noted,” Iris says. “Though, not an option.”
The room settles into movement after that.
Boxes get stacked. Bags get moved. Archie relocates himself to the top of a pile like he’s overseeing a construction project.
And for a moment—
It’s the most perfect chaos.
It’s my life and family and everything I could want.
I catch Cade watching me again, something steady and grounding moving through the bond until I can’t stop the smile that extends across my face.
Even knowing we’re far from safe until we’ve dealt with Malrik, there’s no longer any room for fear.
There’s too much love.
Maybe that should scare me. We’re likely at the calm before the storm, but still…
Watching everyone I care about most in the world working together, being together, I can’t make myself feel anything other than grateful.
We’re all here.
And we’re moving forward.
Together, as it always should have been.