Epilogue
Mitchell had expected running with a new pack to feel weird. He'd worried they’d comment on his limp or ask why he was a familiar. Instead, he’d been welcomed without discussion, and the wolves had run with a leopard shifter who was the pack leader’s boyfriend. The snake shifter didn’t run, though he had dropped out of a tree to startle some of them, which had resulted in the wolf equivalent of swearing and threats to bite him in half, which of course, wouldn’t happen.
While the wolves ran, the humans and witches cooked a barbecue dinner, and now everyone was sitting around wearing paper hats that had become limp in the humid heat.
Even those still in wolf form had not escaped the paper hat giving, so three wolves were stretched out on the lawn stuffed full of sausage and lamb chops, wearing red paper hats.
Mitchell sat on Penrith’s lap as if it were the most normal thing in the world and no one cared. No one was worried or whispering that he should be setting a better example.
It didn’t even matter that the shifters were barely dressed, having only pulled on shorts after their run. Everyone was relaxed and happy. No one seemed to care that Ross Starling, rugby star, was sitting there, cozying up with his mate. Mitchell couldn’t believe Ross was a witch and part of the pack.
Or that Mitchell wasn’t the only familiar.
This pack already felt like home.
Penrith kissed below Mitchell’s ear. “I like that smile on your face.”
He hasn’t stopped smiling since the run. He hadn’t even gotten everybody’s name before they’d been stripping off to run, but he knew them all by scent, and he’d learn their names.
Tomorrow, they were having Christmas lunch with his family. He’d told them he was bringing his boyfriend and that it wasn’t up for debate. And while they had allowed it, it wouldn’t be as relaxed as this. This wasn’t something he wanted to give up.
“I could get used to this.”
“Sitting on my lap?”
Mitchell pulled a face at him. “You already know I like that. I mean, being here. It’s different from other packs, isn’t it?”
This wasn’t a pack by blood but by choice. In the same way, the bond between him and Penrith had been made with blood but sealed by his choice.
It was those choices that mattered.
Those choices were what the future was built on. Yesterday, he’d helped Penrith go through all those boxes, sorting the contents into piles. Now, it was his turn to cast off the past weighing him down.
Penrith shrugged. “I’ve never been part of a pack before.”
Most packs didn’t allow witches, or leopards, or snakes to join in pack events. And in that heartbeat, Mitchell realized it wasn’t only his choice to make. “Do you want to be part of this?”
“Yes, I’d like that. I haven’t belonged anywhere in a long time.”
Mitchell pressed his forehead against Penrith’s. “You belong to me.”
Penrith laughed. “I do, and you to me, wolf.”
“Then I’ll tell my family tomorrow.”
And he would start the new year with a boyfriend-mate and a new pack and a new job, which wasn’t something he could’ve imagined even four weeks ago. “I wish I’d found you sooner.”
“You weren’t in the right place to deal with the bond, and I was moving on from my ex. You found me when the time was right.”
He liked the calm certainty that was Penrith. He could reach for it through the bond if he were anxious—which he had been on the drive out to the pack’s territory—and it was always there, not him, yet part of him. There were other parts of the bond he was still getting used to. Penrith had first heard Mitchell’s voice in his head the night of the rescue, and that had returned once they started sleeping together—yet he was struggling to learn how to hear Penrith. Because he wasn’t used to dealing with magic, he was lagging and letting down the team.
Penrith shook his head as if he’d heard every word. “You are where you are supposed to be. You can’t rush magic…well, you can, but it’s dangerous.”
Kyle walked over and sat next to them. “Have you thought about running with us again?”
“We were just talking about it,” Penrith said.
And Mitchell had no doubt that Kyle, Cooper, and Sam, who seemed to be the people in charge in that order, had also discussed if they would fit into a pack.
“I would like to run with your pack,” Mitchell said. “We both would.”
“Good.” Kyle stood.
“He means welcome to the pack,” Cooper called from the other end of the table.
Kyle rolled his eyes as if well used to the leopard’s antics. “I’ve given them the official nod. You can be the welcoming committee.”
Mitchell didn’t need a welcoming committee. He already felt at home, and from the peace in the bond, Penrith felt it too. Mitchell kissed him. He didn’t need to believe that everything was going to be okay. He was already there.
And it felt good. He felt good.
Not that long ago, he’d thought that would never be possible.
“Magic and love can work miracles,” Penrith murmured as his thumb brushed over the bare skin above Mitchell’s hip.
He could argue that it was too soon to be talking about love, but he didn’t need to talk about it when it was in the bond.
“They can,” Mitchell agreed. He wasn’t game enough to fight the Fates. Not when they’d given him the gifts of life, a mate, and a pack.