Chapter 24
Pax made the call the next morning.
Bree was downstairs opening the store. He could hear her moving through the familiar sequence of unlocking the front door, putting the display lights on, and booting up the register.
Her delicate footsteps crossed the old hardwood as she made her rounds.
He’d been listening to that sequence for a few weeks now and could have mapped it with his eyes closed.
Mr. Leeland had gone downstairs with Bree after breakfast, but Pax had said he needed to make a call, and they’d left him to it.
Now he sat on the edge of the bed in the early light and looked at his phone before he dialed. He’d expected this to feel like closing a door. Instead, it felt more like setting down a weight that he’d carried too long. That told him this was the right thing to do. So, he put the call through.
Jesse Moore answered on the third ring, unhurried, and seemingly not at all surprised by the call.
“Rojas.”
“Major Moore. I wanted to call you directly rather than go through Cole.”
“I appreciate that.” A pause. “I’m guessing this isn’t a yes.”
“No, sir,” Pax said. “It’s not.”
Moore was silent a beat. “Can I ask why?”
Pax had turned the words over in his mind during the dark hours before dawn, but all in all, his answer wasn’t complicated.
“I’m home,” he said simply. “I’d been treating that like a temporary condition.
Like I just needed somewhere to heal, or a place to be between missions, but it’s not that.
It’s way more than that.” He paused. “My Clan needs people who can get things done. There are things here that need building, and I’m the right person to help build them.
Ari and I helped a lot in the past by sending funds home, but now we have to act more directly.
And, most importantly, my mate is here. That settles the rest of it. ”
Jesse let the silence sit, which was its own kind of respect.
“Congratulations, Pax,” he said finally.
“A mate always comes first. I know the truth of that in my soul and I’m glad you’re getting the chance at that kind of happiness.
I just want you to know how sorry I am about the mission and what happened to you in Salt Lake.
You and your brother took a job from me in good faith, and I sent you in without complete information. That’s on me.”
“So Cole said.”
“Cole tells people things on my behalf. I wanted to tell you myself.” A pause. “Is your brother staying too?”
“Ari’s still deciding. He’s got a mission to fulfill for our Alpha first. After that, I don’t know. Neither does he.”
“Tell him the offer stays open for him separately, if that’s what he wants,” Jesse said. “No timeline. Whenever he knows what his future holds.”
“Thanks, Major. I’ll tell him.”
“And for what it’s worth, Rojas.” A brief pause. “I’ve read the reports from your recent action. That was good work.”
Pax held that thought. Coming from Jesse Moore, it really meant something.
“Thank you, Major,” he replied.
They ended the call. Pax set his phone on the nightstand and stood to look out the window in the early light at his hometown. The desert beyond the town was lit with copper and rose, the early light making the most of what it found. The decision to stay here settled in place around his heart.
He went downstairs to find his mate, his steps lighter now that things were aligning. Bree was behind the counter with a stack of invoices. She looked up when he came in and read his face at a glance.
She came around the counter and moved toward him.
He met her in the middle of the store, between the shelving units, in the aisle where the hinge hardware lived.
This was where he’d rediscovered her weeks ago, while he was leaning on a shelf with a ruined leg.
He thought about that encounter every time he walked this aisle.
He suspected it would never stop meaning something.
She put her hands on his chest. He put his hands on her waist.
“You’re staying,” she said.
“I’m staying.”
“Here. In this town.”
“In this town. With the Clan. With your father. With the workshops and the store and all of it.” He held her gaze as his voice dipped low so the words were just between them. “I’m staying with you, Bree.”
The morning light came through the front windows, and the store was quiet around them, and she looked up at him with the unguarded expression that belonged to him alone and said, “I love you.”
He hadn’t expected it in that moment. He’d known in his heart that it was true for a while.
He’d felt her moving toward saying it while he’d been moving toward his own version.
But hearing it now, in the hinge aisle, in the filtered morning light of her father’s hardware store, did something to him.
The truth landed square on his heart, and he had to speak his own truth in return.
“I love you too, Breelee,” he said. “Mate of mine.”
She nodded once, like that was settled, then rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. He kissed her back, right there in the middle of the store, one hand at her waist and one in her hair. It lasted until the bell over the front door announced the first customers of the day and they stepped apart.
Bree turned to go greet whoever had come in, looking entirely innocent.
Pax went up front to help with a question about load-bearing anchors with helpful input from Mr. Leeland. When he caught Bree’s eye across the store afterward, she pressed her lips together, containing her laughter, and the morning went on.
Pax found Ari at their parents’ house that afternoon, sitting on the back porch, wearing the expression of a man who had been thinking for a while and had finally arrived at a conclusion.
“You called Jesse,” Ari said.
“This morning,” Pax confirmed.
“Cole texted me. He said you were very definite about turning down the Wraiths’ offer.”
“I was.” Pax sat down. “How do you feel about that?”
Ari turned the cup in his hands. “Honestly? I think I’m relieved.
The Wraiths are good people doing good work.
Jesse Moore is the real deal. But I’ve been watching you for weeks now, Pax.
In that store. With Bree and her father, and the Clan kids.
And I kept thinking, this is what we were actually built for.
Not the missions. This. Home, family, and leading the way for the next generation. ”
“The missions paid for this,” Pax reminded him.
“I know. And I’m glad we did what we did to gain the experience and money we needed, but you belong here, brother. You’ve belonged here the whole time. You just had to stop moving long enough to see it.”
Pax stayed quiet. There was nothing in that to argue with, but Ari went on.
“I don’t know yet where I belong. Not Wyoming, but maybe not here either.
Not permanently, or at least, not right now.
I need to find the thing that’s going to make my future as bright as yours.
” He sighed. “Jaguar Island is still waiting for our assessment. I know Rodrigo isn’t in a rush, so I’m going to fulfill a little dream of mine on the way there.
It might even help me get to know some of Pepard’s people better before I go see how they all live on that tropical paradise. ”
“What are you planning?” Pax had a sneaking suspicion he knew what his twin was up to, but wanted to hear it from Ari’s own mouth.
“Flying lessons,” he said finally, the words ringing with decision.
“Hot damn. You’re finally going to do it. You’re going to finish what you started all those years ago,” Pax mused.
“I am. I talked to Hank, the Special Forces pilot who’s one of Pepard’s top men. He’s mated to a wolf now and spends his time between Jaguar Island and Big Wolf, Texas.”
“Wait. Mated to a wolf? Since when?” Pax asked. Hank was a jaguar. It was a big step to mate outside one’s species. Especially for a feline to mate with a canine.
“It’s recent, but they already have a little daughter who shifts into a jaguar,” Ari reported.
“The town also has a nice, private airport, run by the wolf Pack, along with a flight school. Most of the Pack flies and they run a charter service that is helping the Pack grow by leaps and bounds. From all accounts, the Alpha there is an up-and-comer. Hank’s arranging for me to get some flight time with a Certified Flight Instructor team from Jaguar Island who were planning to spend time in Big Wolf anyway, supplementing the teaching staff so they can get more of the younger wolves qualified.
He said it was no problem to add me to the roster of students. ”
“That sounds fantastic, bro. I know how much you’ve always wanted to fly.” Pax was genuinely happy for his twin. “When is this all happening?”
“Soon. Days, not weeks.” Ari studied him, no irony anywhere in his face. “You’re going to be all right without me. You’ve got your mate now.”
“I won’t lie. It’s going to be tough, brother,” Pax said, his tone somber. “We’ve never really been apart. I like knowing you’re nearby, but having Bree in my life has made it a little easier.”
“As it should be. I need to find that kind of happiness, too.”
“I know you do. But there’s no guarantee—”
Ari cut him off. “My mate isn’t in this town.
That is a guarantee. I have to go looking.
I know I would be damned lucky to find her quickly.
It might take years. Hell, I might never find her.
” His voice rose a little as frustration seeped through.
“So I decided I might as well go chase my dream of flying, or anything else that can make me happy in the interim while I wait to find her, if I am so blessed.”