Epilogue
WALTER
Pack runs had been my initial true connection to the other pack members, and I always enjoyed them.
But now that I was a dad, they were quickly becoming my very favorite thing.
I didn’t feel left out because I couldn’t run.
I mean, I suppose I could run in human form, but I wasn’t doing that for anything.
Even in my youth when I thought I was the fastest, fast runner to ever run, there’d been no way I could keep up with a wolf.
I cherished the community of it. I loved that we all brought our favorite food to share.
I enjoyed seeing kids everywhere, giggling and having fun.
There was something special about the pack chatting without having to rush off to work, answer a phone, or run an errand.
It was like a slow, leisurely, amazing time to just be together. And today was no exception.
Joseph was at the point where he was almost ready to crawl.
Every time he’d get wiggly in my arms, there’d be three or four people offering to take him from me.
We still didn’t know if he was going to be a wolf or not.
We wouldn’t until he was older. Some of the older pack members said because my scent had been so strong during my pregnancy, he probably was.
The best part of all was no one here cared.
If he was a wolf, they loved him. If he was a human, they loved him. He was one of us. Full. Stop.
“Hey, where’s our little one?” My mate handed me a cup of iced tea.
“I don’t know. They’re playing pass the baby right now.” It was a favorite pastime of the pack.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind. “It’s a perfect night for a run.”
“It is.” I tilted my head back and kissed the bottom of his chin, as awkward as it was from this position.
“I’m gonna go get Joseph and start the run.” He kissed the top of my head and went on his way.
Ever pack run since Joseph was born, Archie announced the beginning of the run with Joseph in his arms. It wasn’t a power thing, like he was saying our son was the next in line for the position.
I originally feared people would think it was, though.
Most of what I knew about pack politics came from the bits and pieces people brought up about the past. Those days were long gone, and the pack understood what my mate was doing.
He was showing off our son, and it was freaking adorable.
Archie went to the center of the clearing and, using a partial shift that he’d recently learned to do, howled in the way of wolves. Joseph giggled along with many of the other children. Long gone was the fear that once controlled this pack.
“Tonight’s going to be a short run because we’re having our first official cookie competition, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see who wins!”
Anybody and everybody in the pack had made cookies for this.
It was an idea they got from one of my newspaper articles and how I discovered that everybody was reading my works.
One of the local schools had one, and it became front page news.
It was a no-big-deal kind of article, the kind of fluff I lived for, but our pack paid attention.
They took the idea all the way from reading it and thinking it sounded fun to us gorging ourselves on sweets tonight… I loved that.
I was only working a few hours a few days a week at this point. Archie was “off the clock” during that time, making it so Joseph always had one of his parents with him. I didn’t know if that would always be the case, but for now, it was working.
Everyone cheered at the announcement, and I wove through the crowd to grab Joseph as the pack all disrobed for their shift. That did take some getting used to. It was one thing seeing my mate naked, another seeing the entire pack.
My mate led the way, and they disappeared into the trees.
It was hard to believe the difference from the first time I came onto these pack lands. The fear—very justified fear, at that—had controlled me that day. Now? Now, I couldn’t think of a safer space to be.
I joined the kids and the others who stayed behind, and we talked about cookies and recipes. But my mind kept wandering back to that day in the hardware store and how that one tiny interaction turned into a life filled with love and happiness.
It took us eight years to get back to each other, and now that we were here, we had the rest of our lives to stay by each other’s side.