I’m grateful. Honestly, I don’t want to be without any of them right now. Sable is the axis, while Dare, Trystan, Ridge, and I are the spokes, and every part of this wheel is necessary for my sanity.
A street away from my house, Hope gives me a warm, strong hug before she trudges away toward my dad’s house. I make a mental note to check on her later. My father has been her only responsibility for years—his home has been her home. She likely feels as adrift as I do, and I owe her so much for what she did to help us these past few years.
Inside my place, I head to the kitchen and through the motions of making a pot of coffee, because it gives me some sense of normalcy. Inwardly, I’m numb, going over and over the moment my father died and wondering if I could’ve done something differently. Not that it really matters. I can’t turn back time on death.
Dare heads toward the back of the house to grab a shower, and Ridge digs into the fridge looking for something to cook up for lunch. I’m measuring grounds into the filter basket when Trystan looms over my left shoulder, startling me. I jerk, finely ground coffee beans flying out over the counter top.
“Shit, man. I’m sorry.” Trystan grabs a towel from the rack and swipes the spilled grounds into the sink. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“You didn’t,” I lie, reaching for the tablespoon to measure out a new portion. “Just distracted is all.”
He stares at me for a moment as if he’s considering calling my bluff, but he refrains. Then he purses his lips, pulling them to one side. “Hey, look. I need to tell you something.”
I groan inwardly. I don’t know if I’m up for dealing with whatever bullshit he’s going to say. Usually, I can let his judgmental attitude roll off my back, but today, I don’t have it in me.
“What?” I ask, jamming the filter basket into place above the pot.
“I want you to know… I was wrong about you.”
I blink at the buttons on the front of the coffee maker, momentarily forgetting what I was doing. I glance at him and repeat, “What?”
It’s not that I didn’t hear him, but I can’t think of anything else to say.
“Malcolm was a good man,” Trystan says, looking slightly uncomfortable in his own skin. Open displays of emotion still aren’t really his thing. “At first, I thought it was fucked how you, like, tag-teamed the whole alpha thing. But I didn’t know, you know? I didn’t know better. But I see why you did it now.”
I jab at the button to set the coffee brewing, then turn to face him fully. “You do?”
“Yeah. The pack needed Malcolm. Hell, they were lucky to have him. Fucking great leader. Really.” He pauses and brushes a hand back over his hair, then blows out a breath before he catches my gaze. “They’re lucky to have you too, man. And you’re going to be a great alpha even without him here to lead with you. You were great together. But you’ll be great alone too.”
I catch sight of Sable over his shoulder, her blue eyes trained on us. She’s sitting at the kitchen table, though she looks like she’s on the edge of her seat, ready to jump up and join us at any minute. I wonder if she jumped to conclusions like me and thought Trystan was going to say something stupid.
Instead, he just said exactly what I needed to hear in this moment.
He nods once as if to punctuate his statement, then offers me a hand to shake. “Anyway. Just thought you should know.”
“Who the fuck are you?” I give a low chuckle as I clasp my fingers around his. This isn’t at all like the Trystan I used to know. This man is different. More humble, more aware of the people around him.
“Yeah. I ask myself that every day lately.” He rolls his eyes with a snort. Then he glances over his shoulder at Sable, and a small, warm smile spreads over his face. “She’s changed me.”
“She’s changed us all,” I agree quietly. “For the better.”
Before I even notice her move, my mate is out of her chair and wedging herself between us. I don’t have a chance to let go of Trystan’s hand before she’s kissing him, and I laugh at the extremely obvious sense of pride she feels toward him.
Then she turns and kisses me. I feel Trystan step closer to her, enclosing her small body between ours, and as I lose myself in the feeling of her lips on mine, I wonder for a moment what I did to deserve this.
My dad may be gone, and the sadness he left in his wake won’t go away anytime soon. But I’m happy with this woman in my arms, with these other alphas who share her with me. And I’m determined to keep the people I love safe. It’s what my father would want.
It’s what I want.
I want to end this war with the witches once and for all.
The East Pack meeting house is still packed to the brim with visiting North and West pack shifters, so when I call a meeting of the elders from the three packs, I invite them to meet with me at my father’s now-empty house.
It’s weird to be here so soon on the heels of his death. My father’s presence is everywhere in this house—in the art on the walls, in the choice of furniture, even permeating the air as his scent lingers in the space.
I hate it and love it all at once.
We barely fit in his dining room. The oldest of the elders from each pack are given preference
