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“I’ll hold you to that!”
The remaining Wargs laughed at our antics, and I laughed with them. I wouldn’t have my mate with me tonight, which would be tough, but this was too warm and sweet of a night for even that to sour my mood. I felt like for the first time in my life, things were going right.
28
BRYN
I woke the next day in the bed I thought I’d never sleep in again. As my eyelids parted to the sunlight peering in through my window, I took in the familiar sights and smells of my childhood bedroom. The worn quilt that Mom had sewed me for my fourteenth birthday, the dried wildflowers decorating the walls and surfaces, the overloaded bookshelves across from the bed.
Though I had spent the majority of my life in this room, it was just now hitting me how small my bedroom was. In the short time that I’d been away, I’d done so much growing up that this space—no matter how nostalgic I felt about it—could no longer contain the person, the wolf, I was becoming.
In just a few hours, I would be bound to my soulmate. In a month, the Alpha hopefuls would get together to battle, and Night would come out on top. After that, everything I and Night and the Wargs had worked for would come to pass. Until then, I just had to survive the rest of this month as the temporary Alpha. I would do my best at this, even if I had never intended to assume this position.
I rolled out of bed, showered, put my hair in a towel, and pulled on a terry cloth robe. Mom, Violet, and I enjoyed creamy chai lattes and tomato basil scones with onion jam as the sun rose higher in the sky. I watched the two women chat with each other about their gardens, comparing notes.
“I’ve always mixed a few coffee grounds in the fertilizer,” Mom was saying. “Ever since I started doing that, my plants have been even more flavorful.”
“Interesting.” Violet nodded. “I’ve done that for my mums a few times, but I’d never thought to do it with fruit. How often do you compost?”
I smiled over my cup, enjoying the chatter. Just as I’d hoped, the two of them were fast friends. After twenty years of raising me on her own, after spending those decades without real companionship, it was so nice to see Mom giggle and laugh with someone her own age. It seemed that Violet’s passionate, blunt personality meshed well with Mom’s easygoing friendliness. It was like they’d always been friends.
Maybe, in some cosmic or magical way, they always had been.
After breakfast, Violet stretched her arms over her head and pushed away from the table. She was recovering nicely. She wasn’t able to stay on her feet very long, but that hadn’t stopped her from walking as often as she could.
“I should make sure that stubborn son of mine is getting himself ready,” she said. “I’ll see you soon, Bryn.” She walked around the table to kiss my cheek.
“See you, Violet.”
“By the way,” she said, “I left something for you on the couch.”
My eyebrows raised. “Oh, you didn’t have to get me anything, Violet. You’ve already done so much for me.”
“I know, girlie. But you know me.” She and Mom shared a brief, knowing look. “Don’t look at it until it’s time.”
“Sure, okay.”
As Violet headed out, Mom turned to me. “We should get you dressed,” she said. “It’ll take a while to get your hair to set right.”
“Okay. Can we do it here?”
“Of course!”
I grabbed a refill of chai tea while Mom grabbed the tools she needed. She set the curling iron and hair products on the table, and I enjoyed a few more scones and jam as she removed my hair from the towel. First, she gave my neglected ends a trim, then she combed some cream through the long strands.
“So, we haven’t had a ton of time to talk,” she said, “but I want to hear more about this Night Shepherd.”
My body grew warm as I chased the bite of scone down with some tea. It wasn’t the liquid that made me feel that way; thinking about Night did.
“It’s hard to know where to start,” I said. “He’s…everything to me. He’s so strong and capable and smart, and even though he’s busy being the Alpha of the Wargs, he always makes time for me.” Just thinking about him made my chest ache and my wolf purr. “He looks at me like I’m the one who makes the sun come up every morning, like I’m his whole world. He makes me so endlessly happy, and when I’m with him, I just know everything will work out.”
My mom sniffled a bit as she brushed a section of my hair. “Honey, he sounds wonderful.”
“He is.” Wonderful, and so, so much more.
“You said he was the one who took you from Troy’s cabin?”
I nodded. “I thought I hated him at first, but at the same time, I somehow knew that I was safe with him. That he’d take care of me.”
