Page 91 of Knot Your Pawn

“Xavier was called into work because they thought it could be a difficult birth, but it all worked out fine. The mum was just a little nervous.” She keeps moving next to me in her excitement and I pull her into my lap, taking her arm so I can take a better look at the screen.

“Here.” She starts swiping through the rest of the pictures. “He sent me close up pictures of each of the pups.”

Their sweet black with white heads are so cute.

Some of them have white on their muzzles, other have a white stripe running from their nose to their forehead and one of them has a fully black face but looks like he’s got a white goatee.

Vera leans her head back against my shoulder and looks at me, her eyes soft. “You don’t like dogs?”

I grin, kissing her cheek. “I love dogs. And these are very cute. But does that mean you didn’t meet up with Xavier’s pack?”

She sits up straighter, more serious. “I met with his Alphas. It was just Xavier who wasn’t there.”

“And Miles, from what I’ve heard.”

Derrick had not been amused when he found out about Vera ordering Miles to drive Xavier to the clinic.

“Well, it was an emergency. And we had the rest of the team. And he wasn’t gone for very long.” Then her voice quiets. “I trust Miles the most. I knew he would keep Xavier safe and that he wouldn’t do anything risky to get there and back as quickly as possible.”

Ah, fuck, she’s so cute.

I wrap my arms around her tightly and bury my nose in her neck. She’s not only confident, but also thinks of other people, trying to protect everyone around her.

So cute!

“How did the meeting go?” I keep her close, not wanting to let go just yet.

“All according to plan. It was mostly to check in with them and make sure they were still on our side. Not that I worried much about it, but I still wanted to be sure. They’re kind of important during the raid.”

She lets out a long breath and then turns slightly so she can lean against my shoulder. “It’s getting close and closer. This will be the first time we’ll all be involved in a big operation like this.”

“Yeah, not like last time. Though, you managed to turn it into one back then just fine.” I give her a soft kiss.

Last time, when Mathew and Riley went to the research complex, Vera and I were supposed to go see a movie.

That didn’t happen as Vera got ‘distracted’ on our way there and followed and rescued Luca instead. It was supposed to be an easy night, but it turned out to be much more complicated.

“You know that I didn’t plan it.” She pretend-pouts, blowing out her cheeks, making me grin. “It just happened like that.”

“I know. I know.” I kiss her again. “I was just teasing.”

I was upset in the moment, mostly because I was scared we’d lost her. But when I found out why she’d slipped away, I couldn’t be angry with her anymore.

Rescuing our pack mate and eight kids from the clutches of the Hearts was much more important than a movie date. And also much more effective at keeping my mind off the danger Mathew and Riley were in.

Vera is so excited about the raid, even though I’m pretty nervous about it.

I’ve never been involved in a mission or operation before, and would have liked to have kept it that way. But I also can’t not do anything when they’re going to take down the brothel where Mathew and Luca used to be held.

At least this time, I want to be there with them, help them as much as I can, even if that’s staying in the background and taking care of the kids and things like that.

I don’t need to be on the front lines, that’s for the rest of the pack, I’m happy to stay in the background.

And, something that I never expected before we found Luca, I won’t be the only one. It did feel weird to be the odd one out in the pack, the only one not always with weapons at the ready and seconds away from slitting people’s throats —though Caleb isn’t as trigger-happy either, but he also doesn’t seem to be too bothered if blood gets spilled.

But with Luca around, at least there’s now two of us, two people who prefer to stay in the back and away from all the violence.

I guess this means we can watch the kids if the others are out for work. I don’t know if that makes me feel any better about the future, but it’s a fun mental image.