1. Finley #2
“I guess we didn’t really think that far ahead, did we?” Lane mused, rubbing his chin in thought. “It makes sense. We were going to move in here officially at some point. I guess now is as good a time as any.”
“Nin mel did say that she hoped one day to have an intermixed pack of elves and wolves. Converting the pack house to an elf lodge might be a good way to do it,” Rath pointed out.
Noah finally made it up the steps with five black trash bags stuffed with things. “We might have gotten a head start on bringing stuff over.” He shared as I gaped at him. He trudged down the hall to the bedroom he shared with Mason, unbothered at our shock.
The twins had always been confident men from what I’d gathered, even more so now that we were mated and found their place in our mate pack, or as the elves called it, a Nos.
Noah was my Companion, the mate who would always be by my side, helping me through life or, eventually, kids.
Mason was my Hunter, a mate who provided and had a strange obsession with making sure I ate.
While Zander cared what I consumed, Mason just wanted me full.
I had a terrible habit of forgetting to keep up with a shifter metabolism and ended up starving at random moments of the day.
Even though Mason was my Hunter, he was also a Companion as well.
It worked out nicely since he didn’t like to do things without his brother.
Zander started to sort through what Mason brought. “This is nothing but shit food,” Zander grumbled. “Funyuns? What the fuck is that!”
Mason snatched it out of his hand, holding it protectively. “An American staple of snack food, that’s what. Don’t you start bashing my shit until you’ve tried it. Maybe that’s why you’re such an uptight asshole. Your mom never let you have shit like this.”
“Drinks,” Lane blurted. “Who wants what?”
“Are we making this a drinking party or keeping it PG?” Noah asked as he joined us.
“We’re werewolves. It would take a gallon of something strong to even feel it,” Elias said, shaking his head. “I’m not looking to try that hard. Why don’t we just stick to soda and call it good enough?”
Mason slung an arm around Elias’s shoulder, halting him from heading downstairs. “You and I need to go out sometime. I know a fox shifter that makes a brew that will knock you on your ass.”
“When all this is over, and we don’t need to be ready for anything at a moment’s notice, I’ll take you up on that,” he agreed, slipping out of Mason’s hold. “Until then, help me grab stuff.”
“That’s what we need up here, a mini-fridge,” Mason said as they headed for the kitchen.
Smiling, I couldn’t help but laugh at just how normal this whole moment felt.
Here I was, a light elf-omega-werewolf with seven mates, one of whom was an elf himself, arguing about junk food and talking about getting drunk.
Never did I think my life would take this turn, but I’m so glad it had.
It would make ending this all that much sweeter.
Lane climbed onto the couch island and crawled over to me. “What’s got you smirking like that?” he asked, pressing a kiss to my lips. Then, drawing back, he settled behind me and pulled me against his chest.
Looking up at him from my spot, I kissed his neck, earning myself a purr of approval. “It just struck me that this is normal life for us now. The eight of us all together, fighting over junk food, negotiating movies, battling for who gets to sit next to me, and I didn’t ever think I’d have it.”
“If you told me that I would one day be sharing one mate with five wolves and an elf, I’d have thought they were insane,” Lane admitted.
“Now that it’s actually happening, I don’t think I’d want it to change.
It takes some adjusting here and there, having to consider other people’s feelings and needs, but that is what a pack does.
As alphas, it’s in our nature to lead but also to care for those we look after, some might not be as gentle about it as others, but it’s there. ”
“All of you put others first most of the time,” I said, with a lingering caveat.
Lane chuckled. “But…”
“When it comes to me,” I added. “You will do anything for your pack, but if it put me in danger or were disrespectful, then you wouldn’t stand for it.”
“Abso-fucking-lutley,” Colt butted in. “There is nothing more valuable to us than you. If we had to drop everything and live on the run to keep you out of the Dark Ring’s clutches, you bet your pretty ass we would.
This is why we are taking down the Senate, isn’t it?
You agreed to help Morwyn because, in the end, it helps us too. ”
“It helps everyone,” Rath countered. “While we will benefit, the government has been corrupt since the start and has to be done away with. I don’t know the answer of how to fix it, but I know this isn’t it.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mason bellowed when he and Elias rejoined.
“This is movie night. All other worries are to be left until tomorrow. Snuggles wanted a night to relax and enjoy time with her mates. That is what we are doing. Leave the world domination talk for later. It will still be there when we wake up.”
“Couldn’t have said it better,” I said, motioning for him to toss me a drink. “Now, what are we starting with?”
“Let’s see…” Zander started as he walked over to the three DVDs laid out. “Men in Black, Die Hard, and Jurassic Park. Little dove, what haven’t you seen?”
“Ah, all of them,” I shared, waiting for the reaction I knew I was going to get. “Look, I didn’t have much downtime and what little I did was sleeping or training. You don’t stay the best at what you do without working at it.”
Noah shook his head. “We have so much to cover.”
“Good thing she wants to make this a weekly date night with all of us,” Zander informed them. “Keeping that in mind, all of these are series… Do we pick one of these three and keep going?”
“Jurassic Park.” All the wolves agreed.
Zander nodded and got to work setting everything up while snacks and drinks were distributed. Elias handed out plates and napkins for us, much to Mason’s disapproval.
“You just take handfuls of what you want and shove it in your mouth,” he argued.
“That’s what she said,” Noah yelled, making everyone laugh, even Rath.
The next trick once the lights were out was to get everyone settled as the movie started.
Lane, pleased with himself for getting to his spot early, purred up a storm behind me.
Colt ended up between my legs, his head on my stomach, making his head a perfect table for my plate.
Zander was on my right, Rath on my left, while the betas sprawled out.
We made the agreement that every movie, we would change places because I was not going to have them fighting.
I made it through two movies before I was curled up in Elias’s arms with Mason’s head on my ass, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. My wolf lay on her back, grinning like a fool loving the attention and time with our mates.
She and I had been a little off-kilter since my elf magic came into play.
It all but tried to shove her out, but that wasn’t going to work since she was as much a part of me as my own heartbeat.
Bonding to our mates both as a wolf and an elf had made a big shift allowing me to spread out my magic, so it wasn’t all bottled up inside me.
It would take more work to be at a point where I trusted my magic to do as I needed, not what it wanted, but as Mason said, that problem would still be there tomorrow.