I can feel the unease and fear rolling down the matebond from Arya.  Looking at her, her face is schooled to perfection.  You can’t see any of the whirling emotions on her features and it scares me that she lived through something that required her to be able to cover her emotions like this.  I hadn’t left Arya’s side from comforting her earlier.  Without thinking, I pick her up, sit in her seat, and pull her into my lap.  At first, she seems startled and starts to pull away.  But when Devin puts a hand on her thigh and gives her his best puppy dog eyes, she smiles at us and melts into my chest.   Zak clears his throat, drawing our attention back to the rest of the room.  “Arya, I’m not sure how Mathias ran things, but here, we’re family.  I’m just Zak.  And these are my mates, Brandon and Charlie.” “How

Well, didn’t think anyone would ever call creepy Lucille a pervert.  Damn, Meredith is awesome! When we finally settled down, Arya took a deep breath and told us what happened.  “On the night of Mathias’s ascension to alpha, his father rejected his mother.  She was a choice mate and they had never actually marked each other.  She wasn’t really the luna, just the alpha’s...woman?  There was even talk in the pack of not allowing Mathias to become alpha until his parents were fully marked and mated.  Mathias’s father ended that talk quickly and with blood. “That night, his father also renounced his affiliation with the pack and became rouge.  It was a huge scandal and it crushed Mathias’s mother.  Apparently, she was in love with his father.  She committed suicide that night.

That was...unexpected.  I have never met any other alphas like Zak and Gael.  They actually seemed to care about their people and not just about how their people reflected on them.  My father, though a good man, was very much a ruler.  He expected his people to listen to him without question and he rarely gave them a voice to say what they thought.  Even when asking for counsel from his leadership, there were specific things that he wanted to hear and they knew it.  It was not wise to anger my father.But Zak and Gael seemed to love their people as their family.  They were definitely the head of their respective families, but more similar to a doting father figure than as the royalty that many alphas believe themselves to be.  They made decisions based on what was best for their people and they looked for friendship and understanding before loyalty and obedience.

Fighting the mating urge is harder this time around, as I can feel all three of our internal struggles to not touch each other.  But I need to see my mom.  I haven’t seen much of her since we got here with everything that has happened between becoming Delta, mating Devin, and being rejected by Arya.  But having talked to her earlier and knowing that she is cured by the Goddess’s grace, I have to see her.  And she needs to meet my second mate.That is how we came to stand at the pack hospital, outside her room on the ICU ward.  Wolves typically rarely stay on this ward for more than a few days because of our healing abilities.  But, since Mom isn’t a wolf, she has a more permanent room set up here, especially since she has been doing chemo since she got here last week.  Artemis Pack has been amazing for

Walking back from the pack hospital, I feel a new lightness that I haven’t felt in a long time.  I’m part of a new pack, one that seems to respect and accept me.  I have two amazing mates who have done nothing but protect and care for me.  And I now have in-laws.  A whole family, complete and ready to love me.I just hope that it’s not too good to be true.Or that Mathias doesn’t come in and ruin it.“What’s with the sudden sadness, Ari?” Xander asks, squeezing my hand in his.I look up into his chocolate eyes and nearly melt at the love, concern, and devotion in his eyes.  I stop walking and lean my head on his shoulder.  “Nothing.  Just old insecurities rearing their ugly heads.”