Page 34 of Lost Fate

“Calista! What the hell!” I fly forward and wrap her up into a huge hug. “What on earth… How are you?”

Calista pulls back, looking back toward the little girl. In that moment, it clicks for me.

“Holy shit,” I breathe. “That is Orion’s kid, isn’t it?”

Calista grimaces. “Yeah. Um. I guess I have a lot to tell you.”

“I’ll say! How long have you lived here? Does he know?”

I hate that I have to ask. But, given my own situation, I feel like I need to.

Calista sighs. “After Orion… I moved back here. My mom is from the Fort Myers pack. I met Orion when I was in college. And I moved to Colorado, but it didn’t work out with him. And no. He doesn’t know,” she says.

I look my friend over. She looks tired. Sad, in a way that I don’t remember. She and Orion really were good together, or so I thought.

Apparently, though, I was wrong.

“I missed you,” I said quietly. Calista had been a lot of fun to hang out with, and she definitely tempered Orion from being a huge grump, which he’s definitely fallen into lately. She and I have texted a few times in the last few years, but it never got deeper than that.

Calista smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I missed you, too.”

I wince. “Listen. We have to catch up. But for the record… I think he’d want to know.”

“Yeah. Maybe. I’d love to talk later,” she whispers.

I get her number, then watch as she goes to gather her kid, who really is the spitting image of Orion.

Watching them walk away, I shake my head. I hope she tells him.

Maybe I can…

“Trouble?”

Leander puts his hand on my shoulder, and I lean into him. I shake my head. “No. Just… old memories. People I knew. People I don’t know. All that good stuff.”

Leaning in, he presses a kiss on my temple. “You’re going to make a hell of an alpha, Ember Greene.”

“I know.” He laughs, and the sound soothes me. I turn and press a kiss on his lips. “None of it would be possible without you, Leander Payne.”

“Oh, I think?—”

I cut him off, shaking my head. “Seriously. I never really felt like I belonged. Until I met you.”

“Amnesia and all?”

I laugh. “You could forget every single thing, Leander, and we’d still have this between us.”

“Hell yes, baby.”

I hug him as we watch the pack start to laugh and eat around us. I meant what I said.

Without Leander, none of this would be possible.

With him, I have a pack. I have a home. But most importantly, I have him.

With Leander, I’ll always belong. He’s mine. And I’m his. Together, we can take on the world.

I’m going to need it, but I know that Leander has my back.

Together. Forever.