“You brought him.” Riley crossed her arms.
“I couldn’t leave him at home by himself,” Abigail reminded her.
“He is a sweetie.” Riley sighed, looking back to the scene. “They all hate my cat.”
“Your cat hates all of them.” She tried to contain the smile. It was true.
“My…you know, I’m tired of arguing about it. Yes, she gives all of them a hard time but not me.” Riley groaned, shaking her head. “I get it.”
“You haven’t shown me the ring yet,” she said slyly, changing the topic before anyone else could hate on the little cat Riley loved so much.
“Oh shit. You haven’t seen the guys’ rings either!” Riley grinned and brought her left hand up. Abigail leaned over and looked over the stunning gold band with its four stones. After that, the guys realized what they were doing and showed her all of theirs as well. She figured out the theme quickly. Brenton’s was just gold with no stones. It matched his eyes. Zachary’s gold band had a small sapphire in it. Gabe’s emerald matched his eyes. Troy’s diamond was as colorless as his mercury eyes and silver hair. Andrew’s ruby was as warm as he was.
Riley’s ring had all of them.
Abigail thought it was the most touching thing she’d ever seen.
“It’s not like I can legally marry all of them, you know?” Riley whispered, as the guys went to take Fenrir out back. “And I was never going to choose one to marry over the others. I don’t even like weddings.”
“So…”
“So they schemed to get these rings for us, while I schemed with them to change our names. Different things for different reasons, but…it came together pretty perfectly. Brenton kept me in the dark on the rings. I kept him in the dark about the names.”
“Zachary, Andrew, Troy, and Gabe knew both?” Abigail smiled at the thought.
“Yeah. Apparently, they were keeping all sorts of secrets.” Riley snorted, rolling her eyes.
“I’m so happy for you,” Abigail told her, watching the cheetah look towards the backdoor and the windows to their backyard and woods. She turned as well and smiled at the sight Riley was watching. They could see the guys come in and out of view, playing tug-of-war with Fenrir and tag after that.
“Me too,” Riley whispered. She saw the young woman’s eyes get teary. “I love them so much, ya know? I never thought I would get a forever like this.”
“I know what you mean,” she empathized.
“You do,” Riley laughed, wiping her eyes. “How is that going?”
“I’ll tell you more…tomorrow,” Abigail replied. “I’m having an important talk with Thomas today.”
“Oh, good luck,” Riley huffed. “I’ll be waiting on bated breath. How are other things? You have a pregnant sister, how’s she? I never ask about your family.”
“I haven’t heard from her, but unless something went wrong, I wouldn’t hear about it.” Abigail chuckled. “So she must be doing fine. Let me text her and see what she says.” She sent a quick ‘how are things’ to her sister as Riley got up to get them both something to eat.
“I have pie from the diner,” Riley told her. “I don’t care if you’re on a diet or something, you’ll eat it.”
“Oh, okay.” Abigail wasn’t sure how to respond. She blinked several times, wondering where that came from.
“I made the pie,” Riley admitted, smiling. She must have noticed Abigail’s reaction to her declaration. “Andrew said I did a great job. I’m proud of it.”
Abigail laughed and took a bite. It was cherry pie, a staple, and it was delicious. Abigail moaned at the taste that exploded in her mouth. She nodded, taking another bite. She wasn’t on a diet and she was thankful for it. This pie was fantastic.
“I have a second one…if you want to take it to the guys,” Riley offered, looking a little insecure.
“The Pride?” Abigail frowned.
“No. The wolves.”
“Oh!” She nodded quickly. “Yeah, I can definitely take it to them. They will be all for it. So what’s our plan after pie?”
“Our nails? We haven’t gotten them done in a little while. I enjoy doing that with you.”
Abigail thought about it and shook her head.
“That’s my thing,” Abigail said. “If I’m going to stay here in Wild Junction, let’s do a you thing.”
“A ‘me thing’?” Riley looked confused. “Abigail. I just got my clit pierced. You don’t want to do ‘me things’.”
She coughed, choking on a bite of the pie at that. There were a lot of things she’d been expecting, but that hadn’t been one of them. “Oh,” she finally got out.
“Yeah. Oh. I did it last night. My guys are a bit upset we can’t have sex for a few weeks while it heals, but why not? They’ll enjoy it when it’s healed, and so will I,” Riley explained, shrugging nonchalantly.
“Are there any less…painful things you like to do?” she asked cautiously.
“Uh…ride my motorcycle? Paint.” The cheetah looked thoughtful. “Have any tattoos?”
“That’s painful,” Abigail reminded her.
“Damn,” Riley sighed. “We could get our hair done?”
“I’m waiting on mine to grow out,” Abigail informed her.
“Yeah, I just took off a couple inches to help with split ends,” Riley sighed. “This is hard.”
“We could just turn on some bad rom coms and eat pie?” Abigail offered, shrugging.
“You know what?” Riley nodded. “Let’s fucking do that. Come on. We can steal the den and the guys can keep Fenrir.” Riley picked up the pie and Abigail took their plates. She followed Riley back to the mansion’s den. There were lush leather couches and Abigail took the middle one with Riley. She put their plates on the coffee table in the middle, and Riley put the rest of the pie next to it. “We’re going to eat all of this.”
“Yes, we are,” Abigail confirmed, not feeling even the slightest bit guilty. “Let’s just hope it’s enough so I don’t eat the other one too.”
“Oh, damn.” Riley laughed at her. “You like the pie, I’m thinking.”
“Love it, obviously,” Abigail scoffed. “Turn on a movie. I can stay for one, maybe two.”
“What else do you have going on today?” Riley asked, falling on the couch next to her with the remote.
“House hunting,” she chuckled. “Somewhere I can get away from the wolves and see my patients.”
“There’s an open space on the square right now. You should check that one out.”
“But can I live there?” Abigail brought her eyebrows together.
“Most of the buildings on the town square have apartments in the top. The owners live there normally, like Joe lives over his grocery store.”
“That’s an idea,” Abigail conceded. “I would assume there’s no yard for Fenrir.”
“No, there wouldn’t be, but if you have him there for a night, it should be fine.” Riley hit play and the movie started. “Just an idea.”
“You have a lot of them,” Abigail mentioned.
“Yeah, but this one didn’t involve burning anything down,” Riley joked.
“I’m so glad you’re also in on that joke,” Abigail muttered. “You all just think it’s so funny that you set a house on fire.”
“You’ll notice people don’t fuck with me, either,” her best friend pointed out.
Abigail didn’t have a response to that. There really wasn’t one. Riley was the type of woman who would raze the earth to protect those she loved, and Abigail figured every shifter on the planet knew it. Riley put her foot down; she drew the line and dared others to cross it and suffer the consequences. She was willing to go through with every single one of her threats. She was willing to play dirty.
“I wish I was as strong as you sometimes,” Abigail declared. She did. Then her father would never try to push her into a life he’d accept. The SSTF would have listened to her years ago and not in hindsight. She would have admitted how she felt to the guys ea
rlier.
“You are strong,” Riley whispered. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t need to be scary to be heard. You don’t need to terrify people to get them to listen to you. You just are who you are. People take notice of the doe who’s unafraid of the world of predators around her. We’re strong in different ways.”
Abigail looked at the amber eyes that watched her. They shared a moment of silence. They were two very different women, but she knew they were also kindred spirits in some way.
“You have to be strong to love a lot of people,” a male voice cut in.
Abigail looked up and saw Brenton watching them from the door. “Riley, beautiful, Zachary and I are heading out to Denver for a couple of meetings.”
“Oh damn,” Riley groaned, standing up. Abigail looked back to the movie to give them privacy. “Be safe.”
“Of course,” Brenton whispered. “Love you.”
“I love you too. Zachary going to come say goodbye?”
“I’m here,” Zachary’s gruff tone answered. “Love ya, baby girl.”
“You too, cranky,” Riley chuckled softly. “Go. See you tomorrow.”
Abigail heard the door click closed and Riley sat back down next to her.
“He’s right, you know,” Riley finally murmured, pulling her legs up onto the couch. “It’s not easy loving so many people. We do.”
“We do,” she agreed.
“Ah, so you do love them,” Riley said mischievously. “I was wondering if you were going to tell me today.”
“It’s obvious that I love them,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes on the movie.
“And?”
“Thomas hasn’t said it back,” Abigail told her. “James and Antonio have though, which gives me hope I’m not screwing this up by turning down the job with the SSTF.”
“He does,” Riley said decidedly. “He’s too good not to love you. He’s a great man. He’s the older brother I’ve never had.”
“I like to think so,” Abigail giggled. “I’m going to let him say it though. No reason to rush.”
“See? Strong. You’re willing to wait on him.” Riley elbowed her. “Now let’s commiserate over our love of our men by eating too much pie and watching bad romances.”
“I love that idea.” Abigail laughed. “Oh, telling my family about all of this is going to be awful.” Abigail hadn’t even thought about it.
“Oh shit,” Riley gasped. “You haven’t?”
“Not really?” Abigail chuckled weakly. “Oh man. I don’t think I’ve really told Karli. They are going to freak. Three men, all wolves.”
“Fuck ‘em,” Riley spat out. “It’s what I say when Keith sometimes gets weird. He’ll deal. This is my life. My love. My future. Tell them and move on from it.”
“Good idea,” Abigail agreed. “I should do that.”
“You really should,” Riley repeated back to her. “Speaking of, has your sister texted you back?”
“No,” Abigail snorted. “It could take days.”
“Okay then. Back to pie and bad movies.”
“Definitely.” Abigail would do the family thing after she talked to Thomas.
21
Abigail
Abigail met Thomas for the afternoon of house hunting at their farmhouse. He was gorgeous, leaning against his sports car as she drove up in his truck. She was overly full of the pie she ate with Riley and had the second on the seat next to her. She couldn’t even look at it. It made her feel guilty for the four pieces she ate at the mansion.
“Did you have fun?” Thomas asked her as she slid out of his truck, Fenrir following her slowly. He was exhausted from his day. She nodded and held up the pie, watching Thomas’ eyes narrow on it. “Who made it?”
“Riley, under Andrew’s supervision. They made two. Riley and I ate one, and she wanted me to bring this one to you guys,” Abigail answered him. She laughed as he took several long strides to close the distance, stole the pie, and sniffed it.
“Cherry. His cherry pie recipe is fucking amazing.” Thomas growled possessively when Abigail went to take it back.
“I’ll put it away.” She laughed. “Give it back, Thomas.”
“She gave it to me.” His eyes shined at the statement. She knew he cared a lot about Riley, and she knew how deep it went, since Riley reminded him of his sister. Riley probably didn’t realize what a gift like this meant to him.
“She gave it to you, James, and Antonio.” Abigail reached for it again and Thomas bared his teeth. She stopped trying, letting him look at the pie happily.
“I’ll take it in,” he told her.
“Of course.” Abigail held back on a laugh until he was out of sight. She devolved into giggles over it. She couldn’t feel jealous of Thomas’ attachment to Riley, only glad he had it and vice versa, Riley to him.
When she caught her breath, finally able to stop laughing over his devotion to the pie, she looked at the car. Running her fingers over the paint gently, she admired the blue. It was a startling, nearly electric, blue. She’d never even sat in it.
“Like it?” Thomas asked as he walked back out. “We’re riding in style today.”
“I love it. I was wondering if I would ever get to.”
“I was just waiting for the weather to clear up. This is my baby.” Thomas wrapped an arm around her waist. “I bought it for myself when I got out of the Marines.”
“You boys and your toys,” Abigail chuckled.
“You must have seen Brenton’s little red car, then,” Thomas laughed, nodding. “We Alphas do like our status cars.”
“You really do,” she murmured, turning to kiss his cheek. She had seen Brenton’s little red sports car once, and Riley had told her stories about what’d happened in that car.
“It’s my baby, but you’re my girl, so no need to feel jealous,” Thomas teased. “Hop in.”
She did, sliding in on the passenger’s side as he brought the top down.
“I’m going to take you to three houses, all smaller, two-bedroom to three-bedroom places. I figured you would never have overnight guests unless it was us. You can use the extra bedrooms as an office, or even a spare if you have the space,” Thomas began to tell her.
Abigail just nodded, listening to him explain. One was in town, near the square. He had looked at the space on the square, but thought she would like to have some more quiet than the square’s apartment near the bars. The other two were on the outskirts of town, much like the farmhouse. Secluded, and they gave her some wooded space to enjoy for herself if she needed to get out for a moment.
They went to one of the secluded houses first. Abigail just closed her eyes for the ride, enjoying the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. She breathed in the fresh mountain air and just reveled in it, the free feeling of riding in a convertible.
When they got to the house, Abigail loved the look of it from the outside. “It’s a bit like the farmhouse,” she noted.
“It is and it’s the three-bedroom, so it has more space than the other two,” Thomas informed her. They got out of the car after he parked and walked up. He pulled out a key from his pocket and opened it up.
The inside was well taken care of, Abigail noticed, nodding as they wandered through the house. The kitchen was large, and so were the bedrooms. The entire house had wood floors, which she enjoyed.
“Have you been thinking about the SSTF?” Thomas asked her as they walked through.
“I have,” Abigail answered, looking into the last bedroom. This was a nice home.
“And?”
“I’m not taking the job,” Abigail replied nonchalantly.
She heard him stumble, cough, then growl. She just kept her tour of the house going, looking into the bathrooms, exploring the unfinished basement. She didn’t really need this much space for a place she was just going to see patients in.
“Excuse me?” he finally said, after several minutes. “I think I misheard that.”
“No, you didn’t,” she said politely.
<
br /> “Abigail.”
“Thomas.”
“As your Alpha, I do need to tell you that it’s a bad idea to pass up on a job that you enjoy and could give you satisfying work.”
“I know.” Abigail was smiling to herself, out of Thomas’ sight. Her back was to him as she walked through the house. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
“Is there anything you want, not as my Alpha?” She turned to him slowly and watched him. She saw the worry in his eyes, the hard set of his jaw as if he was holding back words, keeping himself from talking. “Thomas. I’m not taking the job.”
“Why not?” he growled.
“Because I don’t want to leave you, James, and Antonio,” she answered simply. To her, it was obvious. “I would need to move to DC.”
“We can do long distance.”
“Or that would confirm the very fears you’re harboring. That I’ll leave, we’ll drift apart, and end this relationship. If you weren’t my Alpha, what would you do?”
“Abigail, take the job.”
“I can’t. I called them this morning and told them I couldn’t accept.”
“Call them back,” Thomas bit out.
“No,” she whispered.
“You…” He looked away from her. “Abigail, why?”
“The answer I gave you.” Abigail told him honestly. “Thomas, I’m not asking you for forever, but I won’t let you decide my future either. Don’t try.”
“I don’t want you giving up your career for us.” He growled after he said it, looking peeved. “We’re too new of a relationship for that.”
“They wanted me to leave the Pack completely, Thomas. Would that have been okay with you?”
“No,” he snarled. “It wouldn’t have been.”
“I could only have one or the other. I’ve made my decision. If I’ve chosen wrong, then you need to tell me - but you need to stop thinking like an Alpha and about my future. Think about what you want.”
“Let’s go to the next house.” Thomas sighed. He looked defeated in a way, his eyes closing as he rubbed his forehead.
She narrowed her eyes at his avoidance. She wasn’t asking him to say that he loved her or anything like that. She just wanted him to tell her what he wanted.
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