Chapter 26

Reagan:

“It’s good news,” Noah promised once all the kids had gathered around us. We sat in the living room, Noah and I next to each other, even though I would have liked to have been cuddling a bit more. It might have given something away.

Pippa twisted a lock of hair around her finger, then let it go in a weak curl that fell against her shoulder. She watched her brother as if trying to figure out what he had to say. She only had to wait another ten seconds, and she probably knew that.

“Do you want to do it?” Noah asked me. “I have no idea where to start.”

Neither did I. I’d never had a mate before, let alone got promoted to alpha because of it. The fact sat on the edge of my brain, not quite getting all the way in there. It felt so absurd to me that something in my head couldn’t fully accept that I’d gone from a prisoner to an alpha in a month.

“Well, it’s summed up in a sentence,” I said, “so I guess the start is pretty close to the end. We’re mated.”

All the kids screamed, making me flinch as they flailed around. We were all on the couch, and Noah and I suddenly got flooded with kids trying to give us hugs. I ended up with Clare on my lap, her arms around my neck as she kissed my cheek over and over again.

“Does this mean I get a new brother or sister to share a room with?” Simon nearly shouted at Noah.

I stared at my mate, feeling the horror on my own face. We hadn’t talked about kids, and I didn’t expect that conversation to happen for a while. It was one thing to fall in love right out of hell, but my mind wasn’t ready to try and take care of a baby yet. Noah’s might have been. He’d been raising kids for years. That didn’t change my own fears.

“I don’t know about that,” Noah said to Simon. “We might have a while to wait.”

“It’ll happen,” I promised. I didn’t miss the little hopeful smile on Noah’s face. “I need some time.”

“Okay,” Simon said, quietly accepting. He moved over to my lap, making me move Clare to my other side. “What happens now then? You have to stay forever, right?”

I found it concerning that I’d told him so many times that I would stay, and he still needed to be told again. I would tell him as many times as it took to make him believe me.

“Simon,” I said, holding him close as I ran my hand through his hair. “I promise you that there is nowhere else in the whole world I want to be. You guys are my family now, so this is where I belong.”

He smiled, cuddling up on my chest. I held him while Clare had my other hand.

“Realistically,” Pippa started, crossing her legs and flipping her hair. “Is stuff gonna change around here?”

Noah looked at me before answering. “Since Reagan is the other alpha, we’ll probably both be working most of the day. Other than that, not really.”

“We can take Allison to the office with us,” I said. “Until she starts school.”

She gasped from Noah’s lap. “That sounds like fun. We can play together.”

“When are you going to tell everyone else?” Pippa asked, resting her chin on her hand. “There’s gonna be another party. Just a warning.”

“Let’s hope another asshole doesn’t challenge her,” Jamie said.

“Hey,” Noah scolded. “No cursing.”

The boy rolled his eyes. “Come on. That’s a dumb rule.”

“It’s still a rule.”

Jamie lifted his eyebrows at me. “And what do you say about that?”

I froze. “Um… why are you asking me?”

“You’re co-alpha. That means you have all the same power that Noah does. If you say I can curse, then that means I can curse.”

I smiled at him. “Nice try, honey. Noah still calls the shots when it comes to you guys.”

Simon groaned, rolling his eyes again. “Great.”

“Seriously,” Pippa cut in. “There’s going to be a party. And considering how pressing the whole mate thing is, better sooner than later you guys get this out in the open. Best not to have a bunch of wolves be tense before a night we all shift. Bad things happen.”

I believed it. Given my experience with Alex alone, wolves seemed to have been ready to fight at the drop of a dime. Since I would have liked to keep this happy occasion happy, I had something terrifying in mind.

“I think a meeting should be called,” I suggested.

Noah grinned at me. “Then you should call one.”

I felt my eyes bulge. “Me?”

He nodded.

“I don’t even know how to do that.”

“I happen to know. How about I show you?”

Something in my gut lurched forward, imploring me to say no. I would have loved to stay in the house and let Noah take care of this for me. Alphas didn’t do that. Despite the fact that I didn’t feel like an alpha, didn’t mean I had a free pass not to act like one.

We gathered the kids up and I got dressed for the meeting to come. I put on something nice, a dress Pippa had ordered for me. It was deep red, and she curled my hair into something manageable before doing my makeup. I didn’t know how I felt about it. I looked at myself in the mirror, feeling that same twinge of pain that Elena couldn’t be here doing this too.

I held Clare while Noah had Allison as we all walked to the town center. A few people were out, and they all waved at us. I waved to them, calling out greetings. I knew their faces now, and I wanted to make sure they all understood that.

Once we got to the building, Noah told Pippa to take the kids to the daycare. I stared down Alex at the reception desk, her head bowed as she pretending to be doing something. I knew she could smell me, but she didn’t want to look up.

“Leon wants to keep an eye on her,” Noah said in a mock-whisper. “Just in case she decides to be a dumbass again.”

We both watched her as she tried hard to keep staring down at her papers. I spoke too, in that same loud whisper.

“It would be really embarrassing if she tried it. I would have to kick her ass twice.”

“I’d love to see that,” Noah said, turning more to me. He had a smile on his face, bending down to run his nose along my jaw. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you at the time, but it was sexy as hell to see you fighting. I might let you knock me around a little later.”

“You’re the biter. I have the teeth marks on my shoulder to prove it.”

Alex looked up in shock. We didn’t need to declare ourselves for her to understand what happened. It was the oddest thing, seeing the mix of relief and surprise on her face. A mate meant being saved, but it also meant I was far above her. Unlike Alex, I wouldn’t hold that over anyone. I wouldn’t make them feel less than.

Noah didn’t seem to notice Alex anymore. If he did, then he didn’t let it show, nipping at my jaw. “You want them somewhere else?”

I nodded when he pulled back, letting him see my smile as I tried hard to look flirty. I had no idea what how to act, but that was the comfort of Noah. I didn’t need to try, because he knew everything about me.

“Later,” Noah promised in a breath.

I marched to the desk as he led me. Alex still watched, her gaze shifting from one of us to the other. Noah nodded at me like I should know what to do.

“I’m calling a pack wide meeting,” I said to Alex. “Make that happen.”

“Is that an order?” she asked me, her normally smug and dick-ish tone watered-down.

I leaned on the desk, making sure my eyes didn’t leave hers. “Yes.”

Fear, the voice in my head told me when something in the air shifted. The voice liked it.

“Ten minutes,” Alex said, typing on the computer in front of her. Noah led me away, taking my hand and walking me down the hall.

I worried that the cat would get out of the bag if we kept being cuddly, but it wasn’t uncommon for Mend’s to be affectionate. Nine out of ten times with nonhumans, it wasn’t romantic. I could only hope the pack didn’t worry over the fact that we had all this magic inside of us.

“Are you worried about us?” I asked quietly, tucked behind the curtain backstage. Even alone with him, I whispered.

“Not at all,” he said, holding my hand tight.

“We’re Mended.”

The corner of his lip pulled up. “I’m aware.”

“And that means that one: we’re going to make supercharged babies. Two: We can accidentally make way too much magic. We’re gunpowder waiting for the wrong spark.”

Noah’s grin didn’t falter. “I look forward to our future, supercharged babies. Supercharged means they’ll be able to protect themselves. Like you can.”

“I can now, but I almost died before Elena did what she did. What if something like that happens to our kids?”

“I don’t think it will. The magic was random with you, and there’s a chance our kids are going to be wolves.”

“But there’s more Alium in us than wolf.”

“Still. And as for you and me making too much magic, that’s only a problem if we can’t handle it. If we were both fully mated, then it would be more of a worry. Since…” He paused, looking down at his hand holding mine. “Since I can’t be your mate like that, it’s less power than it could be.”

I squeezed his fingers. “You feel like my mate. It’s not just love. It’s like a river that leads to the waterfall. It’s nothing else. Nothing but that one, inevitable and massive path. One with a crash at the end of it. A crash of power and force that I can’t even describe. You’re my mate.”

Noah cupped my chin, leaning in to kiss me. This wasn’t over, but I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

The crowd started shuffling in. I heard them chattering among themselves. Noah said they hadn’t been called in this much since his father had been alive. He’d liked meetings once a week, but it was mostly a power move.

I took deep breaths, my eyes closed as I tried to plan out what I would say. Weight crashed down on my shoulders, pushing me closer to the underworld. I couldn’t help but think I wasn’t meant for this. I’d always, always had a mouthpiece. I didn’t know how to be my own. What right did I have to be an alpha? To try and protect people? I couldn’t even protect Elena. In the end, she’d been the hero.

“It’s time,” Noah said, patting my hip before I started shaking. “You ready?”

No. “Yes.”

I held my head up high, my shoulders back as I walked out onto the stage with Noah. I didn’t let the audience see me sweat. They couldn’t. Noah and I had to look like the pinnacle of strength. They could feel safe knowing we were in charge.

When I got to the microphone stand, I looked out into the crowd. Pippa sat in the front row with some of her friends. She had a massive grin, and she gave me two thumbs up. If she could believe in me, I could probably believe in myself.

“Thank you for coming,” I said, trying not to wince at the hiss of the microphone. “So Noah and I would like to formally announce that we’re mated.”

I waited for their reactions. For some, they might have trusted that this would be enough to satisfy the moon. For others, I knew they wouldn’t believe it. There were also the few that had a problem with me even being a part of the pack, let alone being one of the leaders. Noah insisted that I was just as much an alpha as he was, as his mother had been with his father, and his grandfather with his grandmother. The idea was still crazy to me.

The audience started to clap, Pippa in the front cheering and clapping the loudest.

“Is that all you want to say?” Noah asked in my ear.

I still wanted to take off and hide, but I did have more to say. I started talking before the clapping stopped, and it cut out the second I did. A thrill of power rippled through me.

“I understand that not everyone is going to be happy about this,” I said. “I didn’t come here intending on doing anything but surviving. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve gotten to talk to most of you. I plan on doing a lot more of that, making sure you all feel like you can come to me when you need help. I don’t know a thing about being alpha, but I’m going to dedicate myself to learning how to be the best leader possible. My priority is keeping you all safe, and I’m honored to be your alpha.”

I waited again, feeling Noah’s hand on my lower back as he kissed my temple. Before his lips even left me, the pack started clapping again. Pippa jumped to ger feet, smacking her friends all on the shoulder until they stood up too. The whole row of teenagers clapped and cheered louder than the rest of the room, but the noise filled the room more and more every second that went by.

Then one by one, the people started to bow. Not the fast ones that I’d seen in passing so often, but long bows, their bodies bent and their heads down. Dozens and dozens of them did it, and I could only see one person who didn’t. Leon, leaning against the wall with his arm in a cast. He scowled at the floor, but I could barely pay attention to him. I had a room full of people all bowing before me, roars of approval still making my ears ring.

I turned to look at Noah, wanting to make sure I hadn’t lost my mind. It took me a second to register that he too bowed deeply. He only looked up when he heard me gasp, and the tiniest of smiles appeared on his lips. I saw pride there, and so much love. He took my hand and kissed it, never minding that it shook in his.

I caught my breath, looking out to the pack again. My pack. And I felt like I was home.