by Vivian Wood
“We’ll fly out first thing in the morning,” Wyatt said. “Alright. See you tomorrow.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. Wyatt hung up, his broad shoulders sagging a little bit. Lucy went to him immediately, putting her arms around him and giving him a tight hug.
“Your dad?” she asked.
“Yeah. He’s been hospitalized,” Wyatt said, his voice heavy with concern.
“What happened?” Lucy asked, keeping her voice soft.
“He’s has cancer. Apparently he’s had it for several years and refused to tell anybody but Ma.”
Lucy sucked in a breath. Wyatt would never admit it, but gruff old Josiah was Wyatt’s idol, the man he longed to be.
“Let’s go pack,” she said.
“It can wait until morning,” Wyatt said bleakly.
Lucy pulled back and looked up at him, rising on her tiptoes to give him a chaste kiss on the lips.
“No, baby. I don’t think it can,” she said.
Taking him by the hand, she led him toward the bedroom, ready to begin their journey as soon as possible.
* * *
“Beauty before brawn,” Cameron said, holding the door open for Lucy and Alex.
“Not a good time for jokes,” Wyatt muttered, giving his brother a hard look.
Cameron shrugged and rolled his eyes.
“Some of us tackle serious situations with levity,” Cameron sighed.
“Just shut it down before we see Ma, okay?” Wyatt asked.
Lucy grabbed his hand and tugged. Wyatt peered down at her heart-shaped face, the icy defense that had begun to build up around his heart melting instantly the second he looked into her eyes. Somehow, she looked amazing and put together despite their scrabble to get packed and get the soonest flight available. Apparently Cameron and Alex had done the same, because they’d been waiting at the terminal when Lucy and Wyatt showed up.
“It’s going to be okay,” Lucy mouthed. Wyatt pulled her to a stop and kissed her soundly, wishing that they could deal with this together, just the two of them. Lucy got him, knew how he worked. But his brothers… that was more tenuous.
Lucy gave him a wink and then towed him along, following Cameron and Alex. Cameron had Pa’s room number and some vague directions from Gavin, and they managed to make it up to the right floor without getting lost. The first person Wyatt saw was Aubrey, standing alone in the hall. She was pretty hard to miss, nursing a very fussy, red-faced baby with precisely her shade of auburn hair.
The second Aubrey saw them, her face lit up with genuine pleasure, but her happiness quickly faltered. Then the baby squalled again in her arms and she pulled a face.
“Gen’s not a happy camper,” she sighed. The baby, Imogen Valerie Beran, gave an angry howl to verify Aubrey’s words.
“Would you like a break?” Alex immediately asked, rushing forward to hug Aubrey. Lucy followed in quick succession; Wyatt’s mate was a sweet, sociable little thing. He couldn’t miss the way Luce looked at baby Gen either, her eyes getting big as dinner plates as she sized the little girl up. If circumstances were a bit different, Lucy would be rubbing her palms together and declaring her own baby schemes to everyone, in a great amount of medical detail.
“No, no,” Aubrey said, giving Alex a grateful look. “She’s in a phase right now, won’t go to anybody but me. It’s exhausting.”
“Poor thing,” Lucy clucked.
“Everyone’s in the family waiting room. They’ve got the latest updates. I can’t even keep a thought in my head right now or I’d tell you everything,” Aubrey sighed. She did look beat, but also strangely content, so Wyatt didn’t feel too bad leaving her to bouncing and cooing the baby.
Aubrey hadn’t lied; everyone was in the family room. Literally forty or more people were crammed in the thirty-seat room, and it was a madhouse. Wyatt picked out Gavin first, sitting next to Faith, who looked to be about a hundred months pregnant. When Wyatt’s group entered, Gavin stood up. Faith, to her credit, did actually attempt to rise, but Gavin frowned and motioned for her to stay seated. Her relief was both evident and charming at once.
Gavin pointed to the corner, where Ma seemed to be dozing. Finn was parked on one side of her, awkwardly cradling a pillow for Ma to recline on. His mate Nora was on the other side, a laptop open on her lap, staring intently at the screen.
“You’re here,” Luke said, approaching and clapping Wyatt on the shoulder. Luke and Cameron exchanged a complicated fist bump, and then Luke gave Lucy and Alex each a brief hug. “Glad you guys made it.”
Cameron slid his gaze over to Ma, as if questioning whether she was truly asleep or not.
“Can you fill us in?” Cam asked, drawing Luke to the opposite corner of the room. Wyatt followed, Lucy on his heels.
“According to Ma, he’s been sick for a really long time. Like three years or more. His treatments started failing two years ago…”
“Right around the time he demanded that we all take mates,” Wyatt surmised.
Luke nodded.
“He collapsed at home, and now the doctor says the chemotherapy treatments are overwhelming him or something. He’s… he’s not doing doing well, Wy.”
“Shit,” Wyatt said, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Yeah. He should be up soon, I think. He’s still rising with the sun, despite everything,” Luke said, a wry smile teasing his lips. “He wants to talk to us boys and our mates first, before anyone else goes in. Except Ma, of course.”
“Ha! I’d like to see him keep her out,” Alex huffed. Alex sniffled delicately, the only outward indication that she was in any way upset by Luke’s words. She played her cards close to her chest, as usual.
Lucy, on the other hand, half-launched herself into Wyatt’s arms. Her little frame shook as she tried to hold in her tears, and Wyatt ended up leading her out of the waiting room. Lucy only made it ten feet past Aubrey when she broke down in hysterical sobs.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she kept mumbling, losing all semblance of self-control.
Wyatt scooped her up in his arms and carried her a bit down the hall to an empty seating area. He sat down and cradled Lucy on his lap. He felt tears on his face, though he felt a bit disconnected from them. Watching Lucy’s reaction was pulling at him in a different way, but he didn’t want to try to soothe her or calm her. If she needed to grieve, he’d just hold her. That was all that he could do at the moment, so it had to be enough.
They sat like that for three quarters of an hour, though Lucy calmed after only a few minutes. Wyatt thought they both might have dozed, because he startled when Noah squeezed his shoulder.
“We gotta go in,” Noah whispered, apologetic.
Wyatt blinked and squinted against the bright morning light, then gently woke Lucy.
“Is it… can we see him?” Lucy asked. Already her eyes were brimming with tears again, and Wyatt gave her a tight hug. She was as open with her feelings as he was closed, and somehow she filled a hole in him that way, outwardly showing what he felt when he couldn’t.
“Yeah, babe. Let’s go,” he said.
Lucy rose and Wyatt followed. They gathered outside the closed door with all five of Wyatt’s brothers and their respective mates, plus Max, baby Gen, and the baby’s namesake, Wyatt’s mother. Luke cleared his throat and pushed through everyone else to the door, Aubrey right behind him.
Luke gave the family one last glance and opened the door to lead everyone inside Pa’s room. Wyatt and Lucy hung back a little, waiting until last to go in.
Wyatt’s heart wrenched in his chest when he saw Pa stretched out on the bed, tubes and IVs and medical stuff seeming to sprout from every part of him. There was a plastic oxygen mask covering his face, but above it his eyes gleamed as brightly as ever. Wyatt felt Lucy squeeze his hand, a lifeline in the sudden darkness. She was hiccuping and shaking, but holding in the noise of her crying. Wyatt released her hand and wrapped an arm around her, though he didn’t know if he was comforting her or she was comfortin
g him.
Ma took a seat on the bed beside Pa. She looked at him and nodded, then cleared her throat.
“Settle down,” she said, her words the habit of a lifetime. “You father has… some things he wants to say.”
She was clearly trying not to cry, and suddenly Charlotte was there with tissues, every bit the supportive nurse.
Ma reached over and pulled down Pa’s oxygen mask.
“Go ahead, honey,” she urged him.
Pa took a gasping breath, and looked around the room.
“I have… never… been more… proud… than I am… right… now…” he wheezed. Pulling up the mask, he drew in another deep breath before continuing. “You boys… your mates…. my grand…. children…”
He reached out a hand to Max, Noah and Charlotte’s adopted son, and patted the boy’s arm. Max, having spent a good deal of his own time in hospitals, wasn’t the least bit afraid and hopped right up on the bed with Pa. Charlotte lost it right then, turning away from the group as she buried herself in Noah’s arms.
“I want… to tell… each of you…” Pa said. “Luke… perfect… big bro…ther… so glad… you found… someone… to make you… whole again… Aubrey… I thank you… for my… son… and my… grand… daugh…ter…”
Aubrey wiped at her face and nodded, still bouncing as she gave baby Genny a tight hug.
“And Wy… Wyatt…”
Wyatt’s heart nearly stilled.
“You… did… right. Love… your… little… doctor.”
Lucy pressed a hand to her lips and whimpered, and Wyatt gave her a hard squeeze.
“Gavin… no man… could do better… than… Faith…. You are the… most loyal… son… Take care… of my… twin… grand… sons…”
Wyatt’s brows shot up; he hadn’t known that Faith was carrying twins. Pa took another long draw from the oxygen mask.
“Twins… you both… surprised me… So… proud…”
Noah and Finn were both openly crying.
“And Cam… take care… of the… family… like you do… And Alex… give her… everything… she… deserves….”
Ma insisted that Pa take a short break, but he refused.
“Thank you… for being s…. such a great… family…. so proud…” he finished before relaxing back on the mattress.
“Okay, okay,” Ma said, clearly trying to keep herself together, and failing miserably. “Let’s let your father rest for a bit, everyone.”
Wyatt filed out of the room, gripping Lucy’s hand tightly. All the couples spread out and split off, seeking solace from one another. Wyatt and Lucy returned to their earlier resting place, and soon both drifted off once more.
The next eight hours were filled with many tears and no little laughter as the family reminisced about Pa’s life, times he’d laid down the law or lost his temper or made some small error. Pa slipped away in the early evening, having said all his goodbyes and held all his grandchildren one last time.
* * *
“Thank you for coming today,” Gavin said, standing at the front door of the Lodge, holding a glass of expensive champagne as he looked over the seventy or so people packed into the house’s main room. More people were outside, and even more had come to the funeral, but seventy was about the maximum number that could physically be present at the moment. Gavin cleared his throat and began his send-up of Pa, and Wyatt was glad that he and Lucy had managed to snag chairs in the far right front corner of the room, because Lucy was already wilting in his arms with grief.
“It’s nice to see so many of you here,” Gavin said. “It speaks to my father’s life, and how many people he touched. He loved the Berserker community, and it loved him… mostly. Except when he was making crazy rules.”
There was a bit of laughter, as Luke had clearly intended.
“Josiah Beran was a family man at heart. He wasn’t always easy to talk to, or get along with. He was blunt, and didn’t take crap from anybody but my mother, the love of his life. But at his core, he only wanted a happy, healthy family. And that family was a lot bigger than just us six boys. It was everyone that is standing in this room. It was everyone that was at the wake. It was almost everybody that he met, actually. He wanted what was best for literally everyone.
“Now you might think about the Alphas’ Council decision of two years ago, driving every eligible Berserker to take a mate. I think most of us know that my father was the driving force behind that ruling. I promise that when I heard it for the first time, I was every bit as shocked as the rest of you.
“But think where you are today. Turn and look at your fated mate, the love of your life. Would you two be here now, staring at each other, if my father wasn’t an impatient, overbearing know-it-all?”
More laughter.
“Maybe,” Gavin said. “Maybe not. I’ll tell you all, if those cross-country speed dating things hadn’t been forced upon us, I wouldn’t have met my mate Faith, and I wouldn’t have twin boys on the way. I wish I’d never so much as rolled my eyes when my father handed down, nay, commanded us to take mates. It’s something I could never, ever want to take back. Because of my father, my life is perfect. My brothers’ lives are perfect.
“I mean, in a way, yeah, nothing is perfect. But in the sense that we are all loved, that we’ve given our entire hearts to another and we get that love back tenfold, every single day for the rest of our lives?”
Gavin paused and let that sink in, then raised his champagne flute high.
“Let’s all raise our glasses, and toast to Josiah Beran, one of the greatest men that I ever had the pleasure of knowing, the man I am proud to call my father,” he finished. “Salut!”
“Salut!” the crowd practically shouted, followed by applause, laughter, and excited voices.
Wyatt looked at Lucy, and noticed that she’d finally stopped crying.
“No more tears?” he asked.
“No more tears. I think that was the goodbye that your father deserved, don’t you?”
Wyatt pulled his mate close and kissed her soundly.
“I really do,” he agreed.
Lucy beamed at him, and Wyatt’s heart lifted. It was true, what Gavin had said. Wyatt’s life was utterly, completely perfect.
Introducing The New Alpha Guardians Series Listing!
An Excerpt From See No Evil
If Rhys had been trying to evoke a response from Echo, he’d succeeded. His sultry blonde would-be mate was stripped down to a filmy pink brassiere, her lips plush and pouty and begging for his kiss. Just this moment, Echo was staring at him with a distinctly hungry look in her eyes, and Rhys was struggling to keep his more primal impulses in check.
He blamed the lingerie she wore; in his day, women were either fully clothed or completely naked, and as it turned out, there was nothing so enticing as a woman who hovered in between. Though Rhys had seen photos of models in such clothing and had researched modern women’s garments online, seeing Echo in lingerie was infinitely more exciting. He tried not to stare at her brassiere, but the way the thin fabric clung to her body made him want to see what lay under her tightly-fitted jeans.
He wanted nothing more than to strip her bare, flip her over so her undoubtedly perfect ass was in the air, and fuck her until she was hoarse from screaming his name. If he had ever been this tempted by a lass back in Scotland, he would’ve no doubt already taken her in a dark castle hallway.
Unfortunately, Echo wasn’t some lusty serving wench. She was modern, first off. Second, she was going to be his mate, and the last thing Rhys wanted was to sour things between them by moving too fast.
Just because he knew they were going to end up together was no reason for impatience. The lass who would carry his bairns deserved the sun and the moon, not some rushed and unsatisfying rutting.
“Not unless you kiss me first,” she’d fired back as he toyed with her bra.
Well, if it was a kiss she wanted…
Rhys slid his hands around Echo’s waist and yanked her cl
oser, dropping his mouth to hers. He waited, his lips a heartbeat from hers, stretching the moment as long as he could. Echo sighed against his lips, her hunger and desire reflecting his exactly. She leaned against him, her bare skin warm against his arms, and her eyes fluttered shut.
The perfect moment.
Start the Alpha Guardians series today!
Evil Abounds - An Alpha Guardians Prequel
See No Evil - Alpha Guardians Book One
Hear No Evil - Alpha Guardians Book Two
Speak No Evil - Alpha Guardians Book Three
Keep Up With Vivian!
Though the Red Lodge Bears series has concluded, Vivian is already whipping up something new, steamy, and thrilling… just you wait!
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Turn to the next page to find an excerpt from Owned By The Alpha.
An Excerpt From Owned By The Alpha
Lucas reached out, brushing his fingertips against her shoulder, down her arm. She shuddered, and he began again, from her shoulder to her collarbone and on down. His touch traced the outline of her breast, and he splayed his fingers to cup her there.
Heavy and full and warm, her breast felt perfect when she arched into his hand. He watched her, saw her eyes drift close and the way she bit her lip as she leaned into his touch. Her soft abandon was his undoing.
