Chapter 30
Sofia
“What are we going to do about it?” My mum asks as she adjusts her jacket. She looks like she’s ready for war.
The omegas, betas, and alphas of Sunshine Cove have gathered at my mum’s house to discuss the thief issue and find a permanent solution to Sully.
Everyone has a biscuit and a cup of secret recipe cocoa.
Harry is sitting next to Marla and his beta.
Yolanda is standing politely in the corner.
The room is full of people and mixed scents that even my mum's scent-nullifying potpourri can’t erase.
Danger barks happily, talking to everyone who will look at him. He’s become a favourite in town, that’s for sure. Even Marla is taken with him.
The conversation starts off positive but rapidly turns into two camps of thought, while my stomach twists with a heavy weight. I ignore the way Elijah is stroking my back in soothing circles. Danger goes quiet, too, as if he could sense the direness of the conversation.
“We could trap him and relocate him far away from here,” my mother suggests, and I hate it. With every fiber of my being, I hate it.
In a sick kind of way, I kind of feel like Sully and I are the same. I don’t want to send him away; that’s not what we do.
But it’s much better than Betty’s solution of sending him on to his second life gently.
I cringe, watching as they argue back and forth. Every comment feels like they are talking about me. Should I stay or should I go? If they want Sully gone, well, what will they think about me?
Two camps, and both are getting more and more worked up and determined to make the other see that their plan is the right one.
No one is okay with him stealing, though.
“We can’t let this continue,” Harry says. “My wedding ring could have been lost forever. I never would have forgiven myself.”
“I say we vote on it.”
I chew my lip unhappily, counting. By my count, Sully will be making a long journey to a new home.
I don’t want that.
I stand up, unsure of what I’m going to say, but I know I have to say something.
“Come on, this is Sunshine Cove. There’s room for a strange bird here,” I say loudly.
Everyone turns to look at me. Faces I grew up with, people I’m just starting to know.
“You don’t live here anymore-”
“Hold your damn tongue, Tiberius. She’s a Sunshine Omega; it doesn’t matter where she goes,” my grandma snaps, “she’s always home here.”
“I want to hear what she’s got to say,” Marla snarls at the room.
No one dares contradict her.
I take a deep breath, then feel the steadying presence of my alphas around me.
“Sunshine has charm; Sully is part of this community. He fits here. You can’t just get rid of him because he made a mistake.”
“A year of thefts isn’t a mistake; it’s a problem.”
I hold my hands out. “I don’t know what the solution is, but you can’t just send him away. He belongs here. This is all he knows.”
My parents are watching me carefully. Too carefully. No doubt they are reading into this and coming up with something close to the truth.
“Sure, he’s a bit naughty, a little bit of a rebel, but this is his home. How can you just tell him to leave?”
My mum scowls at the floor. I try to ignore her.
“He did the wrong thing-”
“We’ve all done the wrong thing once or twice,” Devon says. “This is our community. We aren’t perfect, but we are us. Sofia is right.”
“We cannot allow him to run around unsupervised,” Betty counters. “It’s creating division in our community.”
I have the younger people on my side, but it will take a miracle to shift the older generation, and I’m out of miracles.
“Well, why don’t you just give him piles of things to steal and make it part of the town’s gimmick?” I say with heavy sarcasm.
Several people turn towards me.
“What? What was that?” Mum turns to her Pack Makers. “A mascot.”
“A sign from fate!” Kylie gasps, clapping her hands. “The V-Day gods have spoken.”
“Sully can be a Pack Maker,” Betty says with sudden enthusiasm
The four of them squeal and bounce a bit. The tension in the room evaporates, and everyone groans.
This might be worse than asking him to leave.
“I, umm, err,” I hold up a hand to interrupt and then, no. Just no, I’m not going there.
“Well, that settles it. Sully is officially the Pack Makers problem,” Marla said. “Now, I’m going home to listen to my favourite podcast.”
I can see a couple of people roll their eyes, but there is one alpha who looks nervously out of place and pushes his glasses up his nose. He’s young and must be fairly new to Sunshine Cove.
“How can you watch-”
Asher wraps her hand around his mouth and drags him back into the crowd, disappearing with him. I’m curious now what he was going to say, and I make a mental note to ask Asher who he is.
Marla pauses beside me. “Nice work, my apprentice.”
I snicker. “I learned from the best.”
“You remember that. I expect you in three days. Enough dilly-dallying.”
I open my mouth to protest, but she sweeps out of the room, falling into step with Genevieve Shadows, who is one of her oldest friends.
People file out and leave until it’s just me and my alphas.
“Tomorrow is the Valentine’s Day match.”
I swallow hard.
“This could be your life. Living here, contributing, part of the community, with us beside you, doing our best to show you how completely we love you,” Mack says. “Because, Sofia Sol, we do love you, more than anything; we always have.”
“Choose us tomorrow,” Eli murmurs. “Choose this life with us.”
“But-”
Devon puts his hands on my shoulders. “No more buts, no more of anything else interfering. You need to look into yourself and decide if you want us. The rest we can work out.”
I stare at him, unwilling to voice the single thought that’s screaming at me; I already chose you.
“Hopefully, we will see you tomorrow,” Mack says. “But no matter what happens, you will always have our love.”
They leave, Danger whining sadly. Why are they leaving?
“Well, that was intense,” Pops says. “Come on, cocoa time.”
I follow him back into the kitchen and sit down at the island. A mug is set in front of me.
“That was a good thing you did today, Sofa,” Dad says. “I’m so proud of you.”
I hold the mug tight. “Even though I don’t have a job or money, and I came back here without-”
“You don’t need those things to be you. Everyone goes through hard and difficult times. But you saved a life today. You proved that the morals and values we gave you have turned you into one of the best people. That’s all a parent can ask for.”
“We are just so glad you came home,” Mum says.
“They want me to join their pack. To bond with them.”
“What do you want to do?”
I open my mouth to tell them, but the words disappear, all I can see is this future looming before me, and I hunger for it.
“I want them. More than I’ve wanted anything. It feels like I’ve spent my whole life wanting them.”
“So take a chance. Take a risk.”
“There are things-“
“All these things can be worked out, my darling. What truly matters is finding someone who loves you. Finding a place that is home. You used to fight for everything you believed in. Why won’t you fight for this?” Mum points out and leans against Dad.
I stay silent.
“Something for you to think about. We’re not going to judge you one way or another for whatever you decide.”
They wander off, but Sebastian comes and sits down next to me. Things have been tense between us, and I hate it.
“Sorry for not believing you about the seagull thing,” he mutters.
I splutter a surprised laugh. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have believed me either.”
He’s quiet, then he steals my mug and drinks half of it.
“Hey!”
“I need it.”
I glare at him, and he sighs heavily. “I owe you an apology for the whole Devon thing.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Shut up. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said and reacted the way I did. It was just a surprise, and there were other things going on.”
“Have you sorted out those other things?”
“Not in the way I wanted, but, yes, I’m not a raging lunatic anymore.”
“That’s always an improvement,” I say dryly.
“You’re different.”
I don’t say anything, waiting for him to elaborate.
“At first, I thought it was a bad thing, but I can see now, you’ve gotten smarter, wiser. You’re calmer now and more thoughtful. You would never have done this event in the past, and we both know you did it to make Mum happy.”
I want to protest, but we both know the kind of person I am, and he’s right. I would have laughed at her and disappeared on the day.
“Why did you agree to do it?”
“I missed everyone while I was gone. It was hard out there, but I wanted to try to make it on my own. The world knows how to make you humble real quick.”
“Yeah, it does,” he agrees.
I lean my cheek on my fist and watch him. “So, what’s going on between you and Cordelia? Why do you suddenly hate each other?”
“I don’t hate her,” he mutters. “She just drives me crazy.”
I laugh. “I see.”
He gives me a baleful glare and then pushes up to his feet. “I have to head back down to Main Street. I need to hang up three hundred red hearts.”
“Only three hundred?”
“I’ve already hung four hundred pink ones.”
I burst out laughing. “Poor Sebastian.”
“Our mother is a very tricky omega. Never make a deal with her. She’s like Rumpelstiltskin.”
I grin. “I know she is.”
He stands up and walks out. A minute later, I hear the front door close.
“Come on, Danger.”
The puppy looks up at me and lets out a long, plaintive whine.
I scoop him up and make my way up the stairs, but right when I’m about to turn into the guest room, I change my mind and go into mine instead.
At first, there’s no noticeable difference.
Just the smell of them mixed with my perfume, creating this intoxicating mix that feels like it’s wrapping around me in a warm hug.
I wander to the desk and blindly splay my fingers along the wood until I feel something weird. I blink and lean over it.
“What is this?”
There is a new heart with D loves S. I count thirty new carvings on my desk. From each of them. I go to the window, and, sure enough, they have drawn on it as well. On the ceiling, carved into my bed frame, and there are a couple of pencil drawings on the actual walls, too.
I turn to the pin board, and everything in me goes absolutely still.
I bite my bottom lip and then laugh. There are photos of us.
I didn’t even know they were taking photos, but they are everywhere.
Me looking around in the water when we went snorkeling.
I’m walking on the beach with Danger. In my dad’s restaurant. On our first date, and our second.
Who was taking the photos?
There’s a photo with me looking at the three of them, and the look on my face is soft and hopeful, like the Sofia that used to exist.
The one I was afraid I'd lost.
“Danger, I’m in love with them, and there’s no way we are giving them up. Tomorrow, I’ll choose them, and we’ll deal with the rest together.”
My Danger Dachsie barks.
I turn to leave and then stop, caught by the masculine scrawl that wasn’t there before.
“No matter what you choose, we’ll choose it with you.”
I sit on the end of my bed, realising what they mean, finally. They will leave Sunshine Cove with me if I choose to go.
“Wow.”
For a long moment, I get lost in the visions of a future that could be mine.
“Come on, Danger, we need to go and figure out what we’re wearing tomorrow.”
I scoop up my dog and cross over into my temporary bedroom.
All night I toss and turn, tumbling between fear and excitement.
When I fall asleep close to dawn, I don’t remember that I’ve forgotten one crucial thing.
I forgot to set the alarm.