I nodded in agreement. Even with this decision, I wasn’t planning on advancing anything with Winter anytime soon. I still hadn’t even gone on a proper date with Lexi yet. “And if this situation starts causing problems, please let me know,” I added. “This could really blow up in our faces if we aren’t careful. And I can’t lose any of you. Definitely not you and Lily.”
Freya smiled warmly. “You’re wonderful, Sam.” She then sighed. “But it is getting pretty late. I’ll go ahead and put Eden in her crib and get to bed myself. Can you wake me up when she gets here?”
I agreed and then gave her another quick kiss before she went to do that. However, when she came back alone to give me one last kiss for the night, I saw movement in my second sight – Winter, getting out of the car to punch in the code to the gate. That reminded me that we really needed to replace the key-fobs we lost, and get our newest family member one too.
“She’s here,” I announced quietly.
Freya nodded, wrapping her arms around mine as she began tugging me toward the door. We stepped outside, with me at least trying to keep my thoughts clear, only for Winter to hesitate pulling through the gate. After a moment, she then started moving again, slowly parking in front of the house and cautiously climbing out of the car.
I let Freya break the news, just as she wanted.
“I got your message,” she began. “Thank you. And thank you for thinking of Rose too.”
Winter only nodded, her gaze hesitant.
“While you were gone, we also talked about you, since it seems like you’re looking for a home.” She paused again. “A pride.”
Instantly, Winter’s expression was nervous and…vulnerable.
“The decision was unanimous,” she continued, before giving her a warm smile. “So, I just wanted to say, welcome to our pride, Winter. Welcome home.”
Yeah, she kind of cried. A lot.
19: Moving Forward
Winter Fowler
April 23, 2735 – 3 Days Later – Late Morning
Winter sat on the comfy mattress in her room, with the blanket over her head, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. In the last three days, with it now being Tuesday, she had continued to remain ‘out of sight’ the majority of the time, having food delivered to the house just like before. Sam made an attempt to talk to her a handful of times, especially once everyone had gone to bed, but she ignored him.
Because she was afraid.
She finally had everything she had ever wanted. After all this time, she finally had a home, a family, a pride. A place she truly belonged.
It was what she’d wanted since she’d first become interested in companionship, a desire she begrudgingly admitted was ingrained into the fiber of her being, much like her fur – no one ever taught her the concepts of alpha or pride. Rather, she understood at a young age long before she ever learned the words to communicate those ideas. But the prospect of becoming a part of a new family as more than a dependent was daunting, especially in a world where such relationships were rare.
But even before she considered asking her adoptive father for guidance, already had the answers, as he often did due to the predictive superpower he’d obtained many centuries past.
‘Wait,’ Mr. Knight instructed her when she was only fifteen, so very long ago. ‘Be patient, and when the time is right, I’ll send you to the right alpha.”
Like an arranged marriage, her adoptive father had promised to pick out her home, her pride, her alpha. And having already long since developed an absolute trust for the man who raised her, she held onto that promise even as the years slowly trickled by.
But time still left her frustrated, like waiting in an endless line to a carnival ride that she was never able to reach. A lifetime of loneliness filled only with a promise, the wait so long that she would have never seen it were it not for the gift of immortality she’d been blessed with…
The wait so long, that she’d all but given up on several occasions.
But now that time had finally come.
Now, she was welcomed into the family she’d been longing for all her life.
Technically, she hadn’t realized Sam was the alpha she’d been waiting for when she first met him, with her adoptive dad being far too cryptic about everything. Instead, her gut told her that he was the one, especially once she’d done her subjective assessment of his integrity. But she was still indecisive, afraid to hope that the time had finally come.
Afraid of being let down if she was wrong.
That, and she was also waiting on the prophecy-like sign her dad had given her to validate what her instincts were already telling her.
However, she knew everything wouldn’t automatically fall into place just because Sam was the man her dad had picked out for her. Relationships involving multiple people were complicated, and being accepted into such a family wasn’t easy. She knew she’d still have to be very cautious about the situation.
But her dad had truly picked the perfect time. The other females would have never considered adding her to their family were it not for her involvement in fixing a situation only she could fix. Not to mention the fact that the window of opportunity for them to willingly include her so easily was limited.
In fact, the only reason they came to a decision so quickly was because they’d just recently decided to add Lexi and Heidi. It made the choice easy, because they already had an open mindset.
But the timing was also perfect for another reason.
If Winter had instead known about Sam when she was younger, and come early, then her new alpha would have only been a shell of a man. Because, unfortunately, she wouldn’t
