Chapter 172 Bonus chapter 1

Chapter 172 Bonus chapter 1
Christmas Morning

The house smelled like pine and butter.

Aria had been up since six, pulled downstairs by the sound of voices already rising in the kitchen. She came down to find Kai standing on the counter reaching for the top cabinet and Leo leaning against the refrigerator watching him with his arms crossed, not stopping him, just waiting to see what happened.

Leo at sixteen years looked like Kane in every detail that mattered. His height, his build, the way he stood like he was already calculating the outcome of whatever was in front of him. It still caught Aria off guard sometimes, turning a corner and seeing her husband’s face on her son.

“Leo.” She stopped in the doorway. “Help your brother down.”

“He said he could do it himself.”

“I don’t care what he said.”

Leo peeled off the refrigerator and lifted Kai off the counter in one motion. Kai was twelve, with sharp eyes and restless energy, he had Aria’s softer features and Kane’s jawline already starting to push through. He objected loudly to being handled like luggage but Leo was significantly larger and the argument ended there.

“I almost had it,” Kai said.

“You almost fell,” Aria said. “You could have hurt yourself.”

Kane came down twenty minutes later, took one look at both boys, and poured himself coffee without asking.

“What did you break,” he said.

“Nothing,” Kai said.

Kane looked at Leo.

“Nothing,” Leo said.

“Good.” Kane sat down.

Lily came downstairs in socks and an oversized sweater, dropped into the chair beside Kai, and stole his orange juice without asking. She had Aria’s face exactly, the same eyes, the same mouth, the same expression that could go from warm to closed in under a second. Aria sometimes felt like she was watching a version of herself that had grown up with more certainty.

Kai opened his mouth.

“Don’t,” Lily said, without looking at him.

He closed it.

Emma came last, quiet on the stairs, wearing the small silver bracelet she never took off. The one Aria had given her the first Christmas after Amanda died. She had her mother’s cheekbones, Amanda’s particular way of holding stillness in a room. Aria noticed it the way she always did, a quiet pull in the chest that she had learned to carry without letting it show. Emma took the seat beside Lily, tucked her feet under her, and accepted the mug Aria held out without being asked.

They moved to the living room when the coffee was done. Kane built the fire. Kai positioned himself closest to the tree and immediately began opening the gifts.

“That one’s heavy,” he said, pointing. “That one’s definitely clothes. Nobody wants clothes. That small one is either jewelry or something.”

“Kai,” Kane said.

“I’m just observing.”

“Observe quietly.”

Emma had wrapped Leo’s gift separately from the others. A leather bound journal, dark brown, with his initials pressed into the cover. Inside the front page she had written something in small careful letters that Aria didn’t see. Leo turned it over in his hands, looked at the cover, flipped briefly to the inside page.

Then the front door opened and Marcus walked in with Maya behind him and snow across both their shoulders.

“Surprise,” Marcus said.

The room erupted. Kai was on his feet first, crossing the room at full speed. Leo stood. Lily actually smiled, which was an event. Kane got there before all of them, pulling Marcus into the kind of grip that said more than either of them would put into words.

Aria went to Maya and held her for a long moment.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming,” Aria said.

“That was the point of the surprise,” Maya said.

“I would have cooked more.”

“You cooked enough for twelve people. You always do.”

They pulled apart. Maya looked well. Happy in the specific way that settled into a person rather than sitting on the surface. Aria filed that away.

Leo had set the journal on the side table when Marcus arrived. Emma watched him do it from across the room. Aria caught her expression for only a second before it was gone, tucked into wherever Emma kept things she didn’t want seen. Aria recognized it. She had worn something like it herself once, a long time ago.

She said nothing.

The morning stretched. Kane and Marcus settled into the armchairs. Maya sat beside Aria on the couch. The kids gravitated to the floor near the fire, Kai inserting himself between Emma and Lily.

It was Kane who noticed the flyer first. It had come through the pack’s official channel overnight, printed copies already distributed to every household by the time most people woke up. He was holding one when Aria came back into the living room.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The Bonding Games.” He handed it to her.

“They’re running them again this year.”

Aria read it. A pack tradition older than either of them, held every few years when the Elder council decided the pack needed it. Mated pairs competing across a series of challenges designed to test the bond.

Public. Formal. The kind of thing that younger couples entered to prove themselves.

“Can we go watch?”

“Maybe,” Aria said. “We’re supposed to be doing something together as a family.”

“What if we go watch it together? Won’t that be as a family?”

“It kind of sounds interesting though.”

Aria shot Kane a disapproving look.

“Maybe not,” Kane said.

Maya giggled.

“Don’t encourage them,” Aria said.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Leo leaned back against the couch, one arm draped over it, long legs stretched out. “They’re going to say no.”

Kai looked between them. “You guys are actually the most boring parents ever.”

“That’s not true,” Kane said.

“It is,” Lily said.

Kane turned his head slowly. “We went riding last month,” he added. “That was fun.”

“We did,” Leo said.

Kane looked at him like that settled it.

Leo held his gaze. “Until you made it a whole thing.”

Kane frowned. “What does that mean?”

“You followed us around with sunscreen,” Leo said.

“I did not follow you.”

“You did,” Emma said. “Every ten minutes.”

“The kids made fun of us for like a week in school. It was embarrassing.”

Aria lifted her chin slightly. “Well forgive me for trying to protect you all from sunburn.”

Marcus laughed under his breath.

Aria looked at him. “You’re not helping.”

“I’m not trying to.”

“The point is,” Leo said, pulling the conversation back, “ that you’re always telling us to do things and be responsible and show up for the pack. But you never actually do anything just because it’s fun.”

“Okay.” Aria said, “We can all go watch the games. There. We’re fun parents.”

Lily scoffed. “Not even close.”

“You know what would make you fun? If you guys participated in the Bonding Games,” Emma said. The sentence landed too cleanly to be accidental.

“We’re not entering the Bonding Games,” Kane said.

“Why not. Are you too boring to unwind and have fun?”

“I am the Alpha of—”

“Several territories, yeah, we heard.” Kai gestured broadly. “That’s not an answer.”

The room was quiet for a moment.

“Enter the games,” Leo said. “If you’re not boring, prove it.”

Kane looked at Aria.

Aria looked at Kane.

“Fine,” they said together.

“Okay, Let the games begin.” Kai said, leaning back with the ease of someone who had expected that answer and already planned for it.