“Stop,” Peyton said. “You’re going to be a great mom. Great mom doesn’t have to mean the kind of mom our mom was. It was a different world back then, and she wasn’t an Enforcer.”
“But look at Asia,” she said. “She’s such a great mom, and I can’t see myself being like her.”
Trent snorted. “She’s got a full-time job just putting up with me,” he joked.
“True story,” Peyton said.
“That’s in addition to the kids,” Trent added. “It’s not like you’re a teacher or an insurance agent. You are the best, which is why we named you Head Enforcer. Our pack needs you. If you ever came to us and said you didn’t want to do it anymore, okay, that’s different. But Peyton and I will be the first ones to your defense if anyone speaks a bad word about you being Head Enforcer and a mom.”
“What he just said,” Peyton said. “Add to that the fact that you are blessed with the perfect mate for you, who’s going to be an amazing dad to your daughter. Or to any other pups you have.”
Dewi sighed. “We never will know what I might have been if it hadn’t been for that fuck, Endquist.”
“I won’t say it doesn’t matter,” Trent said, “but we can’t change the past. All we can do is take what we have and keep moving forward. It’s what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted us to do.”
Dewi laid her free hand over her tummy. “I still can’t decide on a name. Ken says whatever I want to name her is fine with him.”
“And you might not decide until she’s born and you meet her,” Trent said, then he chuckled. “Arthur is lucky he even got named when he was born. Little shit coming two weeks early, anyway.”
“Whose idea was it to make me Head Enforcer?”
“Badger’s,” both men said, then they laughed.
“I should’ve known.”
“We agreed with him,” Peyton said, kissing her temple. “You’re vicious.”
“Didn’t want to send you away,” Trent quietly added. “You know that, right? That we didn’t enjoy any of that. We missed you like fucking hell.”
“I know,” she said. “I might have done something really fucking stupid if you hadn’t.” She sighed. “My hormones were all over the damn place.”
“I’m sorry we sent you away,” Peyton said, his voice choking up. “I love you, Dewster. We couldn’t handle losing you. We’d lost Mom and Dad. We damn near lost you. They weren’t even sure if you’d survive, at first.”
She set her glass on the railing and hugged him, while Trent hugged her from behind. “I know. I love you, too.”
“We’re not a family without you, Dewster,” Trent said. “Yeah, you live in Florida now, but if you ever decide fuck it, you want to come back, we’ll gladly have you.”
“Sometimes, I want that,” she admitted. “I miss it here. But I love Florida. It’s my home now. And I don’t want to leave everyone behind.”
“You can bring your grazer,” Peyton teased. “We won’t eat him.”
She poked him in the stomach. “I meant Nami and Beck and everyone. Badger. Da. Martin. Hell, even fucking Joaquin’s grown on me. We’ve got a good team. We work well together. And now we’ve got Carl and Mateo. We have too many packmates in the region now to not have the expanded pack council. You were right about that.”
They sat like that for a few more minutes, hugging each other. She remembered when she was really little there were plenty of nights after Badger and Beck brought her over for family dinners that she’d sit here with them, like this, just the three of them. They’d tell her stories about their parents. Eventually, she’d fall asleep, and the next morning she’d awaken in her own bed.
“Promise me something, please?” she asked.
“Anything,” her brothers said in unison.
“If anything ever happens to me, you two, and Da, and Badger, and Beck—you all move them and Ken and any pups we have back here. Protect them. Watch out for them. Help him raise them. Please?”
Trent nuzzled the back of her head. “Nothing’s ever going to happen to you, Dewster. You’re too good at what you do. Plus, you’re too dang mean,” he teased.
“Promise me,” she quietly said.
Peyton met her gaze. “I promise.”
“Not as my brother—as pack Alpha.”
“You have my word as pack Alpha, the pack will do that.”
“Thanks.” She looked up to the sky again. “No, I don’t think anything will happen,” she said. “And I’m not looking to off myself. But it is one less burden on my plate. Just in case. As Tamsin said, life is short and happiness is fleeting.”
“And shit can go sideways,” Trent darkly said.
“Yeah,” Dewi said. “That.”
* * * *
Brianna and Da’von retreated to their cabin once everyone else started to say their good-nights. With the door securely locked behind them and not having to worry about who knew they were together, it felt like she could finally…relax and truly enjoy their time together.
The past two nights together had been amazing. Especially being able to go to sleep next to Da’von and not worry about getting up early to do some sneaky, secret walk of shame back to her own room.
After they made love, they laid there with her head cradled against his shoulder. “I can’t believe we’ll be married in two days,” she said.
Da’von chuckled. “Believe it. Sis has this down to a science now.” He laughed. “You regrettin’ this yet?”
“Only that we didn’t meet sooner,” she said.
“Would you really be okay if we moved back here after I graduate?”
“Yeah. I love it here. And I love Gillian and Asia. And Trent and Peyton, of course. It’s like having two sets of parents.”
“What about your brother?”
“I mean, I’ll miss him. But we can go visit them in Florida.” She smiled. “Maybe for the winters,” she joked. “We might not like snow and ice full-time.”
“I heard that.” He kissed her. “I don’t know if you can tell,” he said, “but I’m nervous about all of this. I love you, and I want to be married to you, but I’m scared I’m going to screw up.”
“You won’t screw anything up,” she assured him. “Just work hard studying. We’ll take it a step at a time. I need to finish my degree, too.” She hadn’t gone back to school yet, because when she arrived in Idaho and met Tamsin, she realized how bad a shape the other woman was and Peyton was okay with her focusing on that. Plus, there would be additional juggling needed by Gillian to figure out how to forge her transcripts so that she had them under her new “legal” name that matched her new identity, and that was still in progress.
“Are you done being mad at everyone?” she asked him.
“Yeah.” He nuzzled her temple. “I get it. And I get why we have to keep it a secret from Lu’ana and Reggie. I’m just still processing everything.”
“And it’ll protect our babies, too. When we decide to have them.”
His stomach made the good kind of flutter at that thought. “We have plenty of time to decide that,” he said. “School first. Then moving out here. Then we go from there.”
“There’s no way Faegan Lewis can make it over here,” Brianna said. “I just know he can’t.”
“There shouldn’t have been a way for them to track Joaquin to Idaho, and look what happened.” Now that he knew the whole story, it terrified him on another, more visceral level that he could’ve lost Nami like that.
Thank god Ken had been paying attention and listened to his gut.
And how the hell would he ever learn to react like that? To make those kinds of decisions to protect Brianna the way Ken had protected Dewi and Nami.
This’ll be okay. You know that, right?” she said.
“I know.” He kissed her. “Love you. We should get to sleep. Nami’ll want to get started early in the morning to go to Spokane.”
“Love you, too.”
But long after she fell asleep, he laid there and stared at the ceiling while a
thousand different scenarios rolled through his mind and made him wonder how he’d ever be able to protect Brianna if the situation called for it.
I need to talk to Dewi and Beck, too. Like Ken said he did. Get me some lessons.
Because if he lost Brianna, he knew he’d never want to go on.
Just like Tamsin was now struggling to hang on.
Chapter Eighteen
December 27th
After the photographer came in to take some pictures and left again, Brianna stared into the full-length mirror while Nami fussed over her veil. Tamsin wasn’t in the room this morning, because she was in the care of Badger and Duncan and would be watching from the back of the great hall in case they needed to get her out of there. At least Tamsin was still in human form, and she wanted to attend the wedding. But the breakthrough of Christmas morning was only one step in what was obviously going to be a very long road for her.
“You are simply gorgeous, honey,” Nami said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful bride.”
“Hey!” Dewi and Malyah both playfully exclaimed.
Nami rolled her eyes. “Y’all know what I mean. And you are a gorgeous bride.”
Brianna blushed. “Thank you.”
Behind her, in the mirror, Brianna saw Lu’ana was still fighting with Bebe to get her shoes back on her. “She’s right,” Lu’ana said. “You’re simply beautiful. Da’von’s gonna pass out when he sees you.”
“Thank you for everything.” Brianna turned. “All of you. Thank you for welcoming us into the family the way you have. Not just me, but Mateo and Carl.”
“There’s always room for more family,” Nami said with a smile. “And you give me one more little sis I can take care of, and I didn’t have to change your diaper or send you to college.”
Brianna laughed.
Bebe let out a little howl and squirmed away from her mom. She was streaking for the door, but Dewi made it up and over to her first, scooping the little girl into her arms and blowing a raspberry against her cheek.
“Let your momma put your shoes on you, sweetie. Flower girls need shoes on cold winter days.”
At least Bebe was in her dress and not in her wolf outfit, which had been another battle Dewi had to help with earlier.
Brianna knew darn well Dewi had used Prime on the girl just then, too. Hell, everyone in the room but Lu’ana knew it. She could also see everyone else was struggling not to laugh as Dewi handed the toddler back to her mother.
“Dewi, honey,” Lu’ana said, “you need to stop worrying about being a mom. If you can wrangle my squirming little ball of energy, you can deal with anything.”
Dewi realized Brianna was paying attention and dropped her a playful wink. “I’m used to keeping Badger and Beck in line. A toddler’s not much different.”
Nami snorted, as did Malyah.
With the flower girl now properly shoed and attired, Brianna felt another wave of nerves roll through her when someone knocked on the door.
Dewi went to answer it and found Carl and Mateo standing there. The men looked absolutely amazing in their matching tuxes. “You outdid yourself, Nami,” Brianna told her.
Nami wore a pleased smile. “If there’s one thing I’m an expert at, it’s formal wear.”
“I think we need to go take our seats,” Dewi said, waving everyone out ahead of her. She paused to hug Brianna before she followed them. “Just keep breathing. It’ll be over soon, and we can eat and have cake,” she teased.
Once the three of them were alone, Carl gently shut the door while Mateo walked over to her and took her hands in his.
“I wish our parents were here to see this. And Aunt Eleana. You look amazing.” Mateo kissed her cheek before he hugged her.
“Please don’t make me cry.” Brianna blinked and prayed her mascara was waterproof. “I’m already emotional enough as it is.”
Carl stepped in for his own hug. “Yeah, well, you’re not the only one. Can’t believe I’m finally making an honest man out of your brother.”
“Well, someone needs to.” She smiled. “About damn time. How’s Da’von doing?”
“Nervous as hell.” Carl wore a wolfish grin. “But I’m not sure if that’s because he’s getting married or because he’s terrified of us.”
Brianna bristled. “What’d you say to him?”
“Nothing!” they both said.
“Although,” Mateo added, “Carl might have given him a friendly snarly caution.”
“How do friendly and snarly work in the same sentence?”
Carl grinned as he shrugged. “Hey, I had to show off a little. I mean, I know he’s a good guy. But it never hurts to remind a man about his new bride’s family’s protective nature.”
“It’s probably a tie between you guys and Nami,” she noted.
“True story,” Mateo said. “Just a reminder that, between me and Carl and Nami, any daughters you have will probably not be able to date until they’re in their thirties.”
A knock on the door interrupted them. It was the photographer, back for another round of pictures.
“I’m glad the pack is paying for this,” Mateo said. “This would be out of our budget.”
“I guess Dewi likes us, huh?” Brianna asked.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Carl noted.
Once they were alone again, Brianna took a deep breath. “Guess it’s time to do this.”
The men flanked her and offered her their arms, Mateo on her right and Carl on her left. “Thank you both for doing this for me. And for raising me. I know you sacrificed a lot taking care of me over the years.”
“Hey, we’re family,” Carl said. “Even if we couldn’t show the world what kind of family we were.”
“You always promised me one day we’d find a pack. You weren’t lying.”
Mateo grinned. “We had no idea how true that’d be, either.”
* * * *
Da’von struggled not to nervously shift back and forth where he stood next to Reggie and Beck. As much as Da’von loved Reggie, this would be a lot easier if he and Lu’ana weren’t here. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about them finding out about the wolf stuff.
Maybe I’m crazy and imagined all of this. Maybe I’m actually in a hospital, and this is all a dream.
Except that’d break his heart, and he knew it. Because the only time the center of his soul grew quiet and calm was when he had Brianna next to him.
She was his future—he’d never felt more certain of anything in his life.
Reggie clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll be all right, little bro,” he told him. “I was twice as nervous when I married your sister. I thought Nami was gonna kill me before I ever got to say ‘I do.’” He laughed. “At least you already know your brothers-in-law.”
They heard a soft murmur from the crowd and turned as the music started playing. When Da’von’s gaze settled immediately on Brianna, he felt a warm, sweet peace flow through him. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her gown as she walked down the aisle with Carl and Mateo flanking her on either side.
But Brianna was looking him in the eyes. He suspected if the men released her, she’d run to be with him.
“She’s beautiful,” Beck whispered to him. “Congratulations, buddy.”
“Thanks.”
He hoped the photographer was getting all of this, because he wasn’t sure he’d remember any of it.
The beautiful vision making her way toward him was the center of his universe.
Now I understand.
He’d felt a little aggravated at Nami and Malyah for falling in love so fast, but in retrospect, yeah, it made sense.
If they felt a fraction as happy as he did in this moment, he totally got it.
When they reached the front, the officiant said, “Who gives this woman away today?”
“We do,” Carl and Mateo said, before handing her off to Da’von. They then stepped over to take their places on her side, her best men.
&nbs
p; Through her veil, Da’von took in her happy smile, her beautiful green eyes, her radiant soul.
She’s mine.
He barely heard the woman performing the ceremony because his pulse throbbed in his ear as his gaze soaked in his mate. Everything about this felt…perfect.
Like it was where he should be.
When they exchanged rings, it shocked him when a prickle of tears hit him.
This is really happening!
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
He carefully lifted her veil up and out of the way. Mindful of Carl and Mateo standing right there, he didn’t devour her the way he really wanted to, holding himself back as he tenderly kissed her.
He could tell she wanted more, though. Especially from the way she pressed her body against him, and the playful smile she wore when she finally let him lean back.
The attendees erupted into cheers and applause, with Bebe letting loose with a joyous howl of her own that made everyone laugh and howl with her.
That earned him a wink from Brianna.
Taking her hand, the two of them traded places with Carl and Mateo, as Beck and Ken stepped in to be best men for them.
This is the best day of my life.
* * * *
This is the best day of my life.
Carl had spent the last sixteen years of his life wondering how he was going to do right by his mate and his mate’s little sister. Only now was he finally able to…fucking breathe.
Even six months ago, he never would’ve imagined they’d be standing here right now, able to freely marry and not give a damn who saw them do it. Much less that they’d be doing it in front of their new adopted pack.
Or that Brianna would have met the love of her life.
The only thing that could possibly make this day more perfect would be knowing his father’s fate.
Dear Goddess, please let him be happy, at least.
Carl stared down into Mateo’s green eyes and felt the joy radiating from the other man’s soul.
This was meant to be—pure perfection.
As they held hands and stared at each other while the officiant conducted the ceremony, Carl forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. To be in the moment, to not worry about anything else except the fact that he was getting married to the love of his life.
A Bleacke Christmas (Bleacke Shifters 5) Page 14
