Chapter 25
Nix
It was way too fucking early.
I sighed and rolled over, burying my nose in Gray’s side. He smelled like blood and dirt—and not his regular earthy scent, but dirt from the fucking fight and his own blood from where Connie’s brother had sliced him open with a damn knife.
Anger threatened to bubble up inside me, but I forcefully shoved it down. Gray was still fast asleep, his face relaxed, a smile on his face as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders to pull me in closer.
His body was warm, his skin soft and inviting, luring me in, telling me to close my eyes and drift back into blissful sleep, but… there were so many people around.
The packhouse was bustling with action. Gray had done a lot to soundproof his living quarters, but no soundproofing in the world could keep out their auras and the way Connie and Nick’s worry practically screamed at me.
I closed my eyes again and inhaled deeply, trying to use Gray’s scent to calm me down, but I only managed to get myself worked up again because he still smelled like his own fucking blood.
Okay, yeah, and that asshole’s blood—but I didn’t mind that.
That guy could’ve died for all I cared. He would’ve deserved it for what he put Connie and Callum through.
Why couldn’t I fall back asleep?
Gritting my teeth in annoyance, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried breathing calmly.
One, two, three, four in, hold… one, two, three, four, five out.
And again. I counted each breath, focusing solely on the way my chest expanded, the way my lungs slowly filled with air.
Warm, comfortable, smelling like Gray. Yes, there was blood and dirt, but underneath it all was the scent of home.
Of warm cedar. Of the woods outside. Gray was more than the pack’s Alpha.
He was the pack. He smelled like everything this pack stood for. He was its heart.
But I still couldn’t relax.
There were too many auras. Too many people around.
The faint scent of bacon and eggs hit my nose, and my stomach grumbled.
I pressed a hand against it, willing it to shut up, but now that I’d acknowledged it, the hollow feeling just got worse. My mouth was dry, my stomach beyond empty.
I huffed and carefully extracted myself from Gray’s arms to sit up against the headboard.
Pale light fell through the window. It was either snowing, or everyone out in the dining room had their alarm set for like, six a.m.
Gray let out a sigh that made me stop dead in my tracks, my arm halfway to the nightstand where my phone was.
With my breath held, I watched my mate. His eyes were still closed, but his brow was furrowed, hands searching for something.
When they reached my thigh, he let out a satisfied sigh and shifted closer until his head was resting on my lap.
His breathing evened out again, his forehead no longer wrinkled but smooth and relaxed, a small smile tilting the corner of his mouth upward.
My heart skipped a beat as I watched him until I was sure he’d settled. One of my hands found its way into his hair, and the second eventually got hold of my phone.
It was nine a.m.
Internally, I screamed at the unfairness of me being up already. I deserved more sleep. By the time we’d gotten everyone situated last night, it’d been almost three.
My stomach let out another rumble—loud enough for Gray to grumble quietly.
“Shh,” I whispered soothingly, combing through his sleek black hair. He didn’t have any braids in, but it was just a question of when the kids and teens would get a hold of him again.
Would Connie and Nick ever join in?
They’d started talking to the other teens more, occasionally joining them in the gaming room, but they were still hesitant, mostly keeping to themselves.
That’d inevitably change now that the pack officially had custody over both of them.
They’d get enrolled in school again and thus spend more time with their peers.
Would they get a new family too?
Or families?
I rubbed my chest as an ache bloomed right where my heart was.
They deserved to have people who cared for them, who looked out for them. Connie deserved to get to know real family life. Without mental and physical abuse and brutal training regimens. And Nick deserved to have a family again after he’d given up on his own to ensure Connie’s safety.
Surely, people had already applied to take them in, right? To give them the home they desperately needed—even if they might not want it in the first place.
Did Gray sift through the applications, or was that Oakley’s job?
I’d have to ask. I needed to make sure they picked good people.
Connie was deathly afraid of getting hurt again, so he didn’t want to put his heart on the line.
He’d need someone patient. Someone who understood what he’d been through.
Someone who’d let him be and give him the time to come out of his shell on his own.
“You’re thinking awfully hard over there,” Gray mumbled, his deep bass vibrating in his chest. “What’s got you so worried?” He blinked, his dark eyes slowly focusing on me, and he raised one of his thick brows in question.
I reached out and smoothed it with my finger.
“It’s nothing.”
Gray chuckled. “Baby. Sweetheart. Mate of mine. I can feel your worry here.” He rolled onto his back and placed his hand over his heart.
I busied myself by caressing his cheeks. The skin there was scratchy, his stubble a dark shadow on his tan skin.
“Is it the mage? Or the pups?” Gray inquired.
“Connie and Nick.”
Though Callum was another concern of mine. But he was still asleep, his aura not exactly calm, but not swirling with worry and basically screaming at me to help.
Gray smiled.
“What’s the problem? They’re safe. I don’t think Otto will dare to attack us. We’ve seen his pack. Yeah, he has fighters, and I don’t doubt they’re vicious. But we outnumber them. And the Council will keep him busy for now.”
I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. “I wasn’t worried about that. But now I am. I’ll have to check on the barrier later today.”
Gray shook his head and sat up and pulled me in until I was firmly pressed against his bare chest.
“You’ll do no such thing. You can spend time with Callum or Connie and Nick, and then I’ll take you home.”
“Home?” I asked, looking at his—well, rather our bedroom.
Sadness echoed through our bond, gone before I could really grasp it. “Our real home. My house—the place where you can let your guard down and just… be.”
Oh.
“But what about you?”
He needed to be close to his pack. He loved the connections. He loved spending time with the pups. Chasing them around in the snow with the smaller kids, letting the teenagers braid his hair or crush him in Mario Kart. He loved the easy conversations over meals in the dining room.
Gray pressed a kiss on top of my head. “I need you to be happy. And it’s not like I won’t ever be here.
But now that I have you, I think I need to start treating being the Alpha as a job.
That means going home after a workday. That means being on call for emergencies rather than being on the clock twenty-four seven.
That means having time for us to be Gray and Nix, not the Alpha and his mate. ”
He smiled at me, his eyes so warm and filled with… love.
My heart lurched, my throat clogging up when I realized the emotion on his face and in my heart were one and the same.
“I love you,” I whispered. I didn’t know when I’d fallen for the scary, rage-filled Alpha who’d thrown me into a cell when he’d first laid eyes on me, but I had. Completely.
Because he kept showing me who he really was. And that person, the impulsive Alpha with a strong sense of justice, was one of the best people I’d ever met.
“I love you too,” Gray said, the smile on his face widening as he leaned in, his love filling my chest, spreading to every cell in my body.
Our kiss was slow, deep, and filled with all the emotions we couldn’t articulate. A promise to show up for one another. To take care of each other. To stand by the other one’s side no matter what, all sealed with one kiss.
“Now,” Gray said, caressing my cheek with his thumb. “Why don’t we go have a shower and then talk to Connie and Nick?”
“About what?” I asked, raising my brows. Our conversation had gotten completely derailed, and I hadn’t even told him about my worries regarding them.
“Their living situation.” Gray kissed my nose and snorted. “That’s what you’re worried about, right?”
I didn’t even have to ask how he knew that because the answer was obvious: he knew me. And he knew how much I cared about those teens I’d saved in the woods.
Connie and Nick were nervous. I didn’t need to read their auras to know that. The fidgeting was more than obvious and enough to clue me in on their feelings.
“Come on, sit down,” Gray said, gesturing at the couch in his living quarters within the packhouse. “It’s either here or outside.”
Nick looked out the window and scrunched up his nose as he saw nothing but a flurry of snowflakes.
“We can talk here, Alpha,” Connie said, grabbing Nick’s hand and pulling him down. “What is this about? Is something wrong? Did my brother…” He stopped and swallowed, his throat bobbing.
“No, nothing like that,” Gray reassured him. “Everything’s fine. But now that we know you’ll be staying with us permanently, we need to start making long-term plans, don’t you think?”
Nick bit his lip and looked at Gray. “What does that mean?”
“School, for one,” Gray said. He purposely sat down on the hardwood floor in front of the couch, criss-crossing his legs, his palms resting in his lap.
The only thing missing was a yoga mat, and I’d expect him to start meditating.
“We’ll get you enrolled tomorrow. You’ll have to make up a few weeks, but we have people willing to tutor you after school. ”
Nick rolled his eyes, but Connie kept his gaze averted, clinging to Nick with a death grip.
“I have to make up more than a few weeks,” Connie said quietly. “My brother kept me out of school for at least two months.”