Chapter Forty-Seven – Raeka
When I greet my parents at the door, the first thing I encounter is a hug—from my mom, no less. Wearing her Sunday best, she engulfs me in a hug I can’t remember ever quite getting from her before: full of warmth that lingers even after the hug is finished.
“Raeka, honey, how are you?” My mom pulls away from me, moving the blond hair out of my face.
“I’m so glad you finally invited us—” Behind her, my dad and my sister stand, the latter of which darts around her to give me her own hug.
My dad only smiles and nods, acting like a stoic alpha…
which he most certainly isn’t. Not usually.
“It’s not the same at the house without you,” Nicole mutters sadly, unhurried in letting me go. And then, it’s like something out of the movies, the three of them must sniff the air at the same time, because all three of their expressions change.
My mom’s eyebrows lift, curious but cautiously so. My dad’s gaze narrows, like he thinks he has some asses to kick. And Nicole? She squeals.
Yes, my little sister literally squeals .
She squeals, claps her hands, and jumps on me in another hug, this one more bear-like. “Oh, my God, Raeka! You have a pack! Are they all here? Can I meet them? Who are they? Who—”
“Honey,” our dad says, setting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her off me, “I’m sure they’re all here and you’ll get to meet them soon.”
We stand on the front steps of the Chase house, the sun shining brightly over our heads.
My family was the last to arrive; I wanted to meet everyone else first, then worry about introductions after.
Having Mercedes and her pack here definitely helped me feel more at ease, considering I met Pax’s parents for the first time.
Let’s just say my parents weren’t the only ones who thought their kid would never find herself a pack. Mr. and Mrs. Alabaster said the same thing about Pax; it’s why they were so relieved when Darius, Nic, and Warren found Mercedes.
“Everyone’s in the back,” I say, waving for them to follow.
“Let’s get the introductions over with.” I’m in a good mood, but even I can’t hide the anxiety from my voice.
So far, everything’s gone well, but you never know.
Things could take a turn. My parents could not get along with Pax’s, and then where would we be?
I mean, I wouldn’t ever leave my pack, so in the end it doesn’t really matter if our parents don’t get along. It just means we won’t be hosting any extended-family get-togethers anymore.
I lead my parents and sister through the house.
We walk through the main hall, eventually coming upon the patio—which is ridiculously full of people today, for the first time ever.
We had to get more wicker seating that matched what Gideon already had; it was quite obvious the alpha never saw himself entertaining.
Mercedes is hanging around her mates and Pax, while Gideon and Colter stand near Mr. and Mrs. Alabaster—Daniel and Laurie.
Nice people. Daniel is an alpha, like his sons, but his brown hair is flecked with gray and his brown eyes have a few wrinkles around them.
It’s what happens when you get older. Laurie, on the other hand, is an usual one: she’s a beta.
A beautiful beta who radiates a kindness that would put any omega’s to shame, but behind that kindness likes a firm hand, something necessary to marry an alpha.
As we emerge, I say, “Look who’s here.” As I say it, my pack, my mates, break away from their little groups to come introduce themselves to my parents and my sister.
Pax offers his hand to my dad, the first to speak: “Pax Alabaster, sir—I mean Chase. Pax Chase now.” As they shake hands, he adds, “I’m still not used to that.”
“Good to meet you,” my dad says. “I’m Joseph.”
After that, Pax takes my mom’s hand, and she beams up at him, “Amelia.”
It’s Gideon’s turn after that, and he shakes both my parents’ hands before he says, “We met before, Amelia. I didn’t have the chance to speak with you much—” That’s to my dad. “—or you.” And that’s to Nicole.
Nicole giggles. “I’m Nicole.” She can’t stop glancing between me and my guys, like she still can’t believe it even though she’s seeing it with her own eyes.
Colter has his hands stuck in his jean pockets. He wears a long-sleeved shirt to hide his scars; he didn’t want anyone judging him, and none of us pushed him to wear anything he wasn’t comfortable with. He does, however, say hello by touching his forehead and flicking his hand out a bit.
“This is my nephew, Colter,” Gideon says. “He says hello.”
“Oh,” my mom says, taking in the beta anew, instantly recognizing him as one of my mates. “I remember reading about what happened to your parents, what was it? Eleven years ago? I’m so sorry, honey.”
I worry about him anytime his parents get brought up, just as I worry about Gideon, but neither the alpha nor the beta near me flinch under the weight of the topic of conversation.
Gideon says, “Even now, it’s something we’re still working through.
” He looks at me, a warm smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“Your daughter, believe it or not, has helped something fierce.”
Awe, that lug better stop it, or I’ll start to blush.
Mercedes comes over, her mates in tow, and Daniel and Laurie join the group, too. The other omega gives me a grin before she introduces herself to my parents, “I’m Mercedes—Raeka’s friend.”
My dad throws his hands up in mock surrender. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. A friend ?” Just by the way he says the word, it makes it clear that he just can’t believe I actually have a friend. “First a pack and now a friend, I have to ask: who are you and what have you done with our Raeka?”
While Mercedes giggles, I shoot my dad a look and mutter, “I have friends.”
It’s Nicole who cocks her head and innocently asks, “Do you?”
Ouch, but fair, I guess.
Mercedes’s mates offer their names to my parents, and then it’s time to introduce them to Daniel and Laurie. The parents face each other and shake one another’s hand as I do the deed: “Mr. and Mrs. Alabaster, meet my parents.”
“Joseph and Amelia is fine,” my dad says.
Likewise, Daniel tells him, “And Daniel and Laurie is just fine, too. After all, we’re one big happy family now, aren’t we?”
My mom quickly says, “Well, not quite.” To me, “Your brothers couldn’t make it today. When I told them you found yourself a mate, they just couldn’t believe it—wait until I tell them you have a full-blown pack and a friend.”
I groan. The way my parents talk about me, it’s like I’m some weirdo loner. I’m not. All my friends growing up were just… superficial. As a Whittenhall, surrounded by other kids who came from money, friendships were mainly a quid pro quo situation. Nothing real, not like what Mercedes and I have.
“Why don’t we sit down now that we’re all here? I can grab everybody drinks,” Gideon offers.
Pax sets a hand on his shoulder and says, “I’ll help.” When he does that, his parents trade knowing glances, and it becomes clear my parents aren’t the only ones a little surprised at the whole turn of events.
Pax being helpful must be new to them, just like me having a friend.
Nicole tugs on my arm and says, “I want to see the house. Can you show me?”
I laugh softly and give my sister a nod. “Sure.”
Mercedes perks up. “I’ll come.”
So, as the guys take everyone’s drink preference, the three of us head into the house. We start on the third floor, where I show them Colter’s studio and all of the canvases he has laying against the wall.
“Wow,” Mercedes says. “He’s really good. We should hire him to do some for N.O.A.”
Nicole’s brows furrow. “What’s that?”
My friend explains, “New Omega Academy. It’s something I’m working on with my pack. It’s where I spent the last few years of my life, where orphaned omegas go once their designation reveals. Before we took over, it fell into… let’s just call it, disrepair.”
Disrepair. A nice way of saying the alpha who ran it pocketed a lot of money once she sold her omegas off to unscrupulous packs.
From what I understand, Darius had created an arm of Alabaster Security who’s working on tracking those omegas down and making sure they’re safe.
I don’t know much about that, but I do know more about N.O.A.
; I planned on donating enough to make sure each omega could have a closet full of nice, pretty clothes, but Gideon has taken that over.
Obviously, we donate a lot more than money for clothes now, and now that I’m bonded, I can go to N.O.A. without having to worry about random alphas smelling me on the streets and deciding to kidnap me or some shit.
Yeah, no more kidnappings for me, thanks. The one was enough.
“That’s so nice,” Nicole says. And then she whips her head at me and adds, “Dad’s right. Who are you?”
I playfully give my sister a shove as Mercedes pulls out a two-by-two canvas and holds it up, studying its contents. “This… I think I need to take this one and hang it in the main hall at N.O.A.” As she says that, she flips it around and shows me.
It’s nowhere near one of Colter’s most-detailed paintings, but there’s just enough detail on it I know exactly what day it’s from.
Out the window, overlooking the patio. Through the windowpane, two omegas sit side-by-side.
Me and Mercedes. She hasn’t come over a lot, but when I freaked out, she was the first—and only—one I called.
She predicted this whole pack-formation thing as it was happening, before I let my eyes see what was in front of me.
“Bring it downstairs,” I tell her. “We can ask Colter, though I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He used to throw them away—I made him stop that. He’s good, isn’t he? I told him we should do something with all his paintings, like open up an art gallery or something.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure people would come. Heck, I want to get all of these and decorate the shit out of N.O.A.” Mercedes grins. “But for today, this one’ll do.”
My friend lugs that canvas around as I continue the tour. Eventually, she parts with us to take it downstairs, leaving me alone with my sister, in my new bedroom. Nicole meanders to my bed, sitting on its edge and sticking her hands beneath her legs.
“This doesn’t feel real,” she says.
I go to sit with her. “I know what you mean.”
“How did it happen? I mean, you don’t have to tell me all those details, but… you said you hated the idea of pack life. You didn’t want to be locked down to alphas, and now you have two—”
“And a beta.”
“Right. Two alphas and a beta. Is that why you didn’t want me visiting before?”
In the beginning, I was sworn to secrecy with that NDA.
Now? Now everything is out in the open and we are officially pack Chase.
Now there’s no point in lying to my sister about any of it.
“It didn’t start out this way,” I tell her.
“Don’t tell mom and dad, but when Gideon put in an offer for me, it was really an offer for his nephew. ”
She blinks hard, like she doesn’t quite understand what I’m telling her.
“Colter’s parents died eleven years ago. Ever since then, he’s kind of withdrawn into himself. Gideon wanted to push him toward a happy ending without wanting one for himself, and I didn’t want an alpha, so we both thought it was the perfect arrangement.”
The sigh my sister sighs right then is full of swoon. “And then you fell in love.”
I snort. “I definitely never made a sound like that, but yeah, it kind of snuck up on me.”
“What about Pax? How did you meet him?”
“Through Mercedes. I hired him to be my muscle one night at the Omega Garden—” My sister opens her mouth, but I don’t let her speak.
I keep going. “—and then Gideon hired him to be a bodyguard for me when I left the house, seeing as how I was supposed to be a beta’s mate.
” I don’t tell her about my shots or the fact that I used to smother myself in that anti-scent cream. She doesn’t need to know.
“And Gideon didn’t care?”
“It’s hard to say. I’m not in Gideon’s head, but… I think from the beginning, a pack was already forming. Even when he was supposed to be Gideon’s employee, Pax was pack leader.”
“But I thought Pax said he changed his name from Alabaster to Chase?”
“Out of respect for what Gideon and Colter lost.”
Nicole sighs again. “That’s so sweet.”
I laugh and get up. “Well, any other questions? Or should we head back downstairs? I’m sure the others are waiting for us.” Pax is going to grill; I’ve never seen him cook before, not like that, so it should be interesting.
My sister hops to her feet, and as we head out into the hall, she quips, “I can’t wait to have my own pack.”
My sister, only fourteen years old, still has quite a few years left in her before she settles down. I hope she lives it up while she can. God knows I tried, but honestly? I never felt more alive than I did when I fully embraced my men and this new pack.
When you’re a kid, things are different.
You don’t think about the responsibilities or the way the world expects you to act.
My sister, the good little omega, will have packs lining up to have a chance with her.
I can only hope she doesn’t give into the first pack that puts in a good offer; there’s no harm in shopping around, in waiting until she finds that one pack with those specific guys that make her heart do funny things in her chest.
Nicole and I join the others outside. Pax has already fired up the grill, and both his dad and mine huddle around him, holding onto beers, like it’s some manly thing to do the cooking on the grill.
I smile to myself as I bring my gaze away from Pax’s back and look at Gideon and Colter, the former who is speaking on behalf of the latter after my mom asked him about his hobbies. That’s when Mercedes chimes in about how she wants to take home one of the paintings and hang it up at N.O.A.
It’s all a very normal evening, even if it is something I never expected, something I never wanted. Being surrounded by family and friends, with hardly a care in the world—I mean, what’s better than that? It’s definitely better than self-sabotaging avoidance.
This is my life now, and the strangest part is, I absolutely love it. I love it, and I love them. Pax, Gideon, and Colter. My three men. My mates. My pack. They proved me wrong, and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier to be wrong.
If this is forever, I’m ready for it.