Epilogue III
It took three days for Puppy’s curiosity to get the best of her.
Sidian swore as he shoved his hands into the pockets of the jacket he’d stolen from Roman, shivering in the chill that laced the air.
Three days of settling in at what had once been a Mamba safe house so they could have an actual place to stay, a house where they could sleep each night and where Sidian could laze away the rest of his pregnancy.
After a month of being out on the road, finding some of the most breathtakingly scenic views they could find throughout New Jersey and even up into New York, it was nice to have somewhere to settle down for a little while.
Didn’t mean it was home. He wondered if he would ever feel at home anywhere in the world.
Maybe it would just take time. Growing up in a trailer that seemed to stand only because of duct tape and poorly hammered nails did not give him a feeling of security, and it had been from there to the psych ward, then straight to the breeding center.
He could give himself time. Be patient or something. Whatever.
But he had to get Puppy back into the house before Roman woke up.
He’d fallen asleep waiting for Sidian to get out of the shower with Amey stretched out on her back next to him on the king-sized mattress in the master bedroom.
The house was a pretty average place with a lot of wood paneling and an overall cozy interior, three bedrooms—one of which would become a nursery over the next few months if Sidian had anything to say about it—and a nest off the master bedroom that Sidian still needed to poke around in.
Roman had muttered something under his breath the day they moved in about Lorcan and money. Sidian believed that meant they would get whatever they wanted when they asked for it.
Of course, Devereaux could not magically teleport across the country to drag the half-feral female alpha who accompanied them back into the house.
She had been restless since the evening they pulled the Toyota into the detached garage, making muttering sounds under her breath or staring out at the dirt path that led to the main road.
Out in the middle of nowhere, there was only one other house around for miles, and it was more or less across the street.
Given how she was, it wasn’t a surprise she wanted to know more about their neighbors.
Every time they stopped anywhere to eat, she wedged herself into the booth next to Sidian and radiated such tension and hostility that Roman tipped extra as an apology.
If an alpha in public glanced over at them, Puppy would catch that alpha’s gaze and hold it until they got spooked and broke it themself.
More than a few freaked out as soon as they realized what eyes they were looking into.
She had been living in a feral state that, according to the Kincaids, was induced through purposeful trauma of some kind. Fresh out of that, she was in fight-or-flight mode. She just picked fight at every opportunity, and while that was endearing, it could be dangerous.
Puppy could flay open an asshole who tried to put his hands on Sidian or leered at Amey, but she sort of needed to leave their neighbors alone.
And what the fuck was she thinking, wandering over there in the middle of the night?
“Probably wasn’t thinking fucking anything,” Sidian muttered just as he reached the edge of the road that would let him see across the way to the other house. “Just wandered on over and… What the fuck is she doing over there?”
Unless Sidian was insane, it looked very much like Puppy had decided their neighbors’ driveway was the perfect place to act out a horror film in the middle of the night.
He watched as she bent herself backward, hands outstretched to keep her balance because of course she was doing it on purpose.
It was almost comical just how fast the poor person at the door all but slammed it shut when she twisted around; Sidian swore he could almost see the flicker of confusion that flashed in her eyes every time one of her disturbing actions disturbed someone.
When she got around to talking again, he planned to ask her what was going through her head every time she acted like something straight out of a nightmare.
He jogged across the empty road, glancing both ways though he knew he would have heard any approaching cars long before he saw them, and hissed at her. “Puppy. The fuck are you doing?”
She ignored him and darted toward the front porch.
Was she going to break into the house? Why do that?
What was she doing? Did she think this was the way to introduce herself to someone they were living across from?
If the person she’d freaked out started spreading rumors about some forest demon skulking around his house, it would be never-ending.
Sidian scrubbed his hands over his face as he walked up the driveway toward the porch.
Fine. He could hopefully explain to their neighbor who Puppy was and why she was acting the way she was, and of course, he would have to lie and assure the person that she was harmless.
Like fuck anyone would believe that after her contortionist stunt, but it was what had to be said.
If contacts for ferals were not illegal, he would have found something dark or neutral enough to cover up her eyes. Convincing anyone she was harmless was hard enough without having that used against her.
The door swung open again, and everything happened fast.
Puppy’s hand flew up and hit something that flashed metallic a moment before an ear-splitting crack sounded through the night. The very edge of the porch roof exploded in a shower of splinters, and Sidian swore as he took a few steps back. Oh shit. They had a gun.
“Puppy!” He shouted her name then, and she looked at him, her expression serene as she darted past the open door to his side. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”
She cocked her head at him like that was a ridiculous question to ask.
The person at the door stepped out onto the porch and leveled a shotgun at them, holding it with steady hands. Looked like a guy from where Sidian was standing, not as built as Roman but damn was he close. “Who are you two, and what are you doing on my property?”
It was not surprising that someone living out in the woods had a gun and was not afraid to brandish it like that.
But Sidian had been threatened with far worse, and as soon as the guy clocked Sidian was an omega, he’d see sense.
“We just moved in across the road. Sorry about her. She’s been through a lot, so she acts like a freak sometimes for no reason. ”
Puppy huffed at him, giving the side of his shoe a light kick.
“For no reason?” The man deadpanned, and Sidian bit back a chuckle. “She’s a feral alpha. Somehow, I don’t think it’s for no reason.”
“Her eyes are fucked up, but she’s back to normal. She was just feral for a long time, so it’s going to take her a long time to recover. And she wasn’t living around people when she was feral.” For obvious reasons, he did not count Pack Kincaid as people.
The man lowered the gun slightly. “So she’s not dangerous? Why’s she creeping around then?”
“I don’t know,” Sidian said, and the man just stared at him. “I’m serious. I don’t know. She was feral for a long time, so she doesn’t speak so much as she makes noises we approximate. I didn’t even realize she’d left the house until I went to tell her goodnight before going to bed.”
“She pack?” the man asked, lowering the gun further.
“In a platonic sense. She’s not part of my mate pack.” At least, Sidian hoped she considered herself pack if for no reason other than he didn’t want her to argue with him in front of this stranger.
“I see.” The gun lowered the rest of the way, and the man sighed, combing a hand through the soft-looking fluff of his short black hair. “You, uh, should put a bell on her or something. I heard her creeping around the house and almost had a heart attack. I thought someone was trying to break in.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Sidian thought he saw Puppy roll both of hers. “She wouldn’t do something like that, and she’s sorry for the record. Hell of a way to meet your new neighbors, huh?”
“Seems like it.” After a moment, the man set the shotgun on the porch, leaning it against the wall next to the door before he cleared his throat a little and took a couple of steps toward them.
His gaze was nervous as it shifted to Puppy, but she relaxed her body for his comfort.
“I’m Valentine D’Arlowe. Val’s fine, though. My entire pack lives here.”
He offered a hand to shake when he reached them, but another chilly breeze scattered the dead leaves across the gravel driveway and carried a scent to Sidian’s nose that nearly brought him to his knees.
When he’d been a child and still thought his family life might better itself one day, he used to fantasize about family trips to the beach.
His and Roman’s hometown wasn’t too far from the coast, and had his parents given a damn, they would have been able to make the drive.
If they had gone early, it could have been a day trip, and they would have been home by nightfall.
Instead, he’d never gotten to see the ocean or feel the sand between his toes.
The closest he came were the beach-scented candles that always smelled more like soap than he imagined the ocean would.
Val’s scent burned in the way Sidian used to imagine that sand would beneath bare feet when the sun was high in a cloudless blue sky.
There was a delicious salty quality to his scent, a briny sting that made Sidian’s mouth water for a taste, overlaid atop a woody, earthy scent that he thought might have been driftwood.
Val smelled like Sidian used to dream the ocean would, and it made his omega sit up and take notice when that should not have been a thing that was possible.
Puppy tilted her head and made a noise at him, a question in her current attempt at language.
“Holy shit.” Sidian fanned a hand in front of his face, though that did little to quell the heat that raged in his gut. The last time he’d responded to a scent like that, it had been…
It had been Roman’s scent.
Fuck. That’s a problem.
Val took a step closer before his body went rigid, his lips parted just as a sound of faint confusion rasped its way out of his throat.
No doubt he was close enough to pick up Sidian’s scent as well, which meant that if Sidian was correct in what he assumed was happening…
Then he was in trouble, and so was Val, and there was not supposed to be anymore trouble.
This was supposed to be the start of the actual happy ending that Sidian deserved with his mate, the one who was sleeping next to their daughter. Not a complete stranger, whose name he had just learned and who had nearly shot his brand new pack sister.
Before he could think of something intelligent to say, soft footsteps caught his attention, and a tousled-looking man stepped out onto the front porch, smothering a yawn against the palm of his hand. “Val? What the fuck are you doing out here? Are there people here?”
A faint flicker of emotion caught Sidian’s attention, uncertainty that twisted its way into concern; he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut.
How would Roman handle Sidian having a second alpha mate?