by R. E. Butler
In the morning, Nyte and Az took Whisper to a little diner in town while Fade played the part of being too tired to get out of bed. Once they left, though, he was heading straight to Mack’s home to help with decorating. Their leisurely breakfast ended with a driving tour around town. They’d managed to keep her away for several hours, and were able to take her straight into the bar for rehearsals with the band. Her brothers, Angel, Bliss, and her clan, were going to be decorating the bar for the party that night.
Nyte and Az watched Whisper sing a few songs, and then they left to go pick up their rental tuxes for their wedding and run a few more errands. Nyte hung up his tux in the closet of the spare bedroom in Mack’s home. He and his brothers were spending the night at Mack’s house, since Whisper, Bliss, and Angel were having a girls-only sleepover.
Mack leaned against the doorjamb and said, “The house looks great.”
“We couldn’t have pulled it off without your pack.”
“When are your folks getting in?”
“Az is leaving in a half hour to get them from the airport, and he’s going to take them straight to their hotel so Whisper doesn’t get suspicious.”
“Good. I’m going to head into the bar, I’ll see you later.”
Nyte nodded and turned his attention to his phone, checking over his to-do list and making sure all his T’s were crossed and his I’s dotted. Just for good measure, he sent Whisper a text.
“Love you.”
His phone chirped a few seconds later. “Love you more.”
He wasn’t really sure that was possible.
* * * * *
Whisper sat at a table in the bar with her mates and listened to the hum of conversation around her as the bar began to fill with pack members for Bliss’s party. She was a bundle of conflicted emotions. She was happy to be singing again, but sad it was the last time for her. She’d had a blast spending the day with her brothers and her besties, but sorry that it wouldn’t be happening again like that.
Bliss and her mates sat at another table nearby. Her face was glowing and her smile was wide.
Kross sat down heavily in a seat at Whisper’s table. “Are you ready to get started, Mouse?”
“Whenever you guys are.”
“I’ll go find Kayne.”
“He’s over at the bar,” she said, turning to watch him where he leaned against the bar, looking like he wanted to shoot himself. A tall brunette stood in front of him and was batting her eyes and licking her lips. “Who is that with him?”
“I think her name is Regina. She’s human, and she’s been coming to the bar for the last couple of weeks with some other human friends. She’s got a hard-on for Kayne.”
Whisper snorted. “Girls don’t get hard-ons.”
“Whatever, Mouse. I’ll go rescue him; you get Bliss up on the stage.”
“Good luck, sweetheart,” Az said, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
“Thank you.” She stood and looked at Bliss. “Come on, birthday girl.”
Whisper kissed her mates and hooked her arm through Bliss’s, and the two headed to the brightly lit stage. They climbed the steps at the side and headed towards the center of the stage. Kross had managed to rescue Kayne from the brunette, and they were making their way up as well.
“Do you want to wait for your parents?” she asked.
“They’re not coming.” Bliss’s smile slipped, and the one she replaced it with was forced.
“Why not? It’s your birthday and this is a pack celebration.”
Bliss turned her back to the stage and looked at Whisper. “It’s complicated, okay? Can we talk about it some other time?”
“Sure, B. I’m here for you, you know that.”
She grunted unhappily. “Until you go back to Kentucky. Between you heading off to the country and Angel packing her things, I’m going to be all alone.”
“Angel’s leaving? And wait, you’re not alone. You’ve got three mates.”
Bliss dashed a stray tear away and took a deep breath. “Forget I said anything. Aren’t you going to embarrass me in front of the pack with wild stories from my youth?”
“Nah.” Kross, Kayne, Tyler, and Rik joined her on the stage, and the crowd quieted. Whisper hooked her arm over Bliss’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “I’m glad to see everyone here tonight to celebrate the birthday of my best friend and the sweetest she-wolf I ever had the pleasure of knowing. Happy Birthday, B. Love you.”
Bliss’s eyes filled with tears, and she hugged Whisper tightly. “I love you, too, Sis.”
The crowd clapped and whistled as Bliss waved with one hand and rubbed at her tear-stained cheeks with the other. Bliss walked down the steps as the band launched into the first song of the first of three sets they were doing for the party. Whisper scanned the crowd and found her birth parents at a long table, with the rest of the baro. Her aunts and uncles, cousins Camden, Shiloh, and Salem were there, along with a pretty blonde that she recognized from pictures in her parents’ home as Heaven, her only female cousin. Heaven had been out of town when Whisper had come home, so she hadn’t had an opportunity to meet her yet and looked forward to getting to know another female hyena since there seemed to be so few of them.
After the first set, the band led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday, as Mack brought out a big cake decorated with pink frosting and covered with a ton of flowers made out of fondant. The night wore on, and Whisper started to feel sad, knowing that this would be the last time she’d sing with her brothers. Of course they could come to Beyton to visit and she could sing with them, but the band would go on without her, and that meant they were already planning to audition a female lead singer to take her place. That burned in a special way, since she had been with the band since its creation.
After a break between sets, she headed towards the stage for the final set, and even though she tried to stay strong and not let her mates know how much it hurt to be leaving Beyton forever, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Each step up the stage felt like a nail in the coffin of a life that she had loved greatly. She wanted to be happy for the next chapter of her life in Dalton, but she felt like she was losing so much, even though she was gaining so much more with her mates. She felt torn into pieces.
“Aw, Mouse, shit,” Kayne said as he and Kross met her at the top of the stage and held her as she cried.
“I’m gonna miss you guys so much,” she said, sniffling.
“We’ll miss you, too,” Kross promised, and they hugged her fiercely and let her cry.
* * * * *
Fade watched Whisper as she climbed the stage. Her brothers gathered together quickly and hugged her. The sight just about broke his heart, and he knew that what Az had been trying to tell him all along was true. This was her family. Maybe not her birth family, but the family of her heart. Her life was here in New Jersey, not in Kentucky where she didn’t know anyone but them.
Fade growled. “I didn’t realize how much she loves us for her to walk away from this.”
Azrael frowned, his brows drawing together. “It’s not right to take her away from her family.”
Whisper sat at a keyboard on the stage, adjusted the microphone, and glanced out at the crowd. She found them and smiled, but even from a distance it was clear that she was sad.
“Fuck that. I don’t want to go back to Kentucky to live.” Fade shook his head, turning away from the beauty on the stage and the beautiful words she sang, and looked at his brothers. “We haven’t really felt settled in Dalton, and we’ve been there for months. I think the reason we didn’t feel right there is because we weren’t meant to be there, not permanently.”
“We made a commitment to Dante and the others,” Nyte said. It wasn’t a protest, just a statement.
“They’ll understand. Whisper has been through so much in a short amount of time. It’s unfair to ask her to walk away from Mack, her brothers, and her birth family for us. I think it’s the best for her.”
“I agree,” Azrael
said.
“We’ll ask her when she’s done singing. If she wants us to move here together, to stay close to both her families, then I’m okay with that. I just want her to be happy,” Nyte said.
They all wanted that. Now it was up to her.
She and her brothers sang and played music for an hour, until her voice became strained and her emotions got to be too much for her. She struggled to finish a song about saying goodbye, one that she said Bliss requested specifically, with big tears rolling down her cheeks. Tyler darted backstage and music came over the speakers to drown out the sound of her crying. Together, Fade and his brothers walked up onto the stage to where her brothers were comforting her. She left her brothers’ arms and came to them, burying her face in Nyte’s chest and gripping him and Azrael with her hands.
“We need to talk, Whisper,” Nyte said.
She nodded, struggling to stop crying. They led her down the stage steps and out a side door that led to an equipment room. When the door shut and the music and bar noise was muffled considerably, Nyte pushed her gently away and wiped her tears from her cheeks.
“We want to ask you a question, love, and we want you to be one hundred percent honest, no matter what.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice catching.
“If we were willing to move here, would you want to stay in New Jersey, with your dad and brothers?”
Her mouth dropped open, and her caramel eyes widened. “Really?”
They all nodded.
“Yes. I want to stay here. But I’ll go with you to Kentucky; I want us to be together as a clan.”
Fade squeezed her hand. “We’re already a clan, love. And being part of a baro isn’t a requirement for us to be happy. All we want is for you to be happy, and we’d be real idiots if we didn’t see how much you love this place and your family. It’s unfair of us to ask you to give up everything for us after just a few weeks.”
“But aren’t you doing that for me by moving here?”
Fade shrugged. “It’s different. Dalton’s not our home, not really. It hasn’t felt like home to us since we’ve been there, which is probably why we haven’t built a real house yet.”
Nyte said, “I just have one requirement.”
“Oh?” She laughed.
Nyte hummed. “We’re not living over this damn bar. This might be the family business, but we raise our family away from here. Maybe back on the property a ways so that you’re still close enough to check on your dad and work.”
She threw her arms around Nyte’s neck and kissed him. “I agree. But what about your jobs at the gym?”
She released his neck and turned around, leaning against Nyte’s chest and grabbing Fade and Azrael’s hands with her own.
“They’re just jobs,” Fade pointed out. “I can do graphic design from anywhere. And Nyte bartended in college, and you know what a great cook Azrael is. I think we’ll fit right in.”
She sighed happily, tugging him and Azrael close until they surrounded her. “You do fit, because you’re my family now, too. I love you guys so much. Thank you for loving me enough to do this.”
“It’s no hardship to give up Dalton when it means that you get to be close to your family,” Az pointed out.
“Did I say I love you and thank you?” She grinned.
“You mentioned it once or twice.” Nyte kissed her cheek.
“I’ll say thank you upstairs, after the set is over.”
“Uh, not tonight, baby,” Fade said. “You’re having a sleepover.”
“Oh balls. I can cancel.”
All three shook their heads vehemently. “Not tonight. Tomorrow we’ll really celebrate, okay?”
Her eyes sparkled. “I guess I can do without you for a night, but it’ll be hard. I’ll have to eat a lot of ice cream.”
They hugged and kissed a little while longer, and Fade felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. This was the right thing to do for their clan. Not only would they be closer to her birth family, but she’d still be part of the pack and able to keep her job as a music teacher and play in the band.
He rubbed the inside of her wrist where her family tattoo lay. “I think we need to get our own Stone family crest. How do you feel about another tattoo?”
“I’d love that.”
After visiting the bathroom to clean up, she went with them to see Mack and share the news that they were staying, and then she brought Mack to meet her birth parents. She wasn’t aware that they’d spoken on the phone, and no one wanted to spoil the surprise of the wedding, so she wasn’t told. Lena threw her arms around Mack’s neck and thanked him for taking care of Whisper and raising her to be such a wonderful, caring woman.
Whisper joined her brothers on the stage, and Kayne announced that Whisper and her mates were staying in Beyton. The pack cheered and hollered in appreciation as if they’d all been given winning lottery tickets.
“Our sweetheart is really loved here,” Az mused.
“It’s no wonder. She’s easy to love.”
Fade and his brothers joined Whisper’s brothers and Bliss at their table and watched the rest of Whisper’s set, and then they walked the women up to the apartment for the night and returned to the bar to help Mack.
“Ever thought you’d be back behind a bar again?” Fade asked Nyte as he watched him fill a pitcher with draft beer.
“Not in a million years, but I sure as hell like it better than being a trainer. It was a good job, but it definitely wasn’t my forte.”
Fade raised a brow. “Bartending is?”
“It’s the Callahan family business, man. And business is good.”
Chapter 17
Whisper groaned as she rolled over and promptly fell off the couch. “Ouch!”
“Oof!” Bliss grouched as Whisper landed on her and then rolled to the side.
“Sorry, B,” Whisper laughed as she sat up, winged the coffee table with her head, and fell backwards in a fit of laughter. “This place is hazardous to my health.”
“You just fell on me. My health is more at stake than yours.”
“Go back to sleep,” Angel yelled. Whisper sat up and looked around the family room.
“Angel?”
After a loud, aggravated groan, Angel stood from behind the kitchen counter and slumped over it. “How the hell did I wind up on the kitchen floor?”
Whisper laughed. They must have made quite a sight. “Is it possible to have an ice cream hangover? That Cherry Garcia is addictive.”
Angel straightened as a knock sounded at the door. Whisper looked around and found her phone, pressing the button so she could see what time it was.
“Who knocks on the door at eight a.m. on Saturday?”
“Better answer it,” Bliss said with a secret smile that made Whisper immediately suspicious.
“What are you up to?”
“Nothing, Captain Suspicious. Answer the door and then be a good bunny and hop to the donut shop.”
“Hop yourself.” Whisper threw a pillow at Bliss, who snagged it and tucked it under her head.
Whisper stood and righted her clothes before trudging to the door and opening it. She expected her mates or her brothers, and was completely surprised when she found herself looking at her birth parents, Mack, and Heaven.
“Morning?”
“Morning, Sweetling,” Mack said as he pushed her back into the apartment gently and kissed her cheek. “Your mates have a surprise for you.”
“Where are they?” she asked as she hugged her parents and Heaven shut the door.
Whisper sat down on the couch between Angel and Bliss as Mack gave Whisper his iPad and told her to press the play button on the video.
Her mates were standing together in front of the fireplace in Mack’s home. Nyte said, “Good morning, sweetheart. Today is your wedding day.”
She gasped in surprise.
Az said, “We’ll meet you at 11:30 at your dad’s house.”
Fade said, “We’ll be the ones at
the altar.”
The video panned out, and she saw that the family room of Mack’s home had been transformed into a chapel of sorts, with an arbor of flowers in front of the fireplace, chairs set in rows, and an aisle of white fabric down the center.
They said goodbye and the video ended; she blinked tear-filled eyes up at her family. “They’re surprising me with a wedding?”
Her mom said, “You have the sweetest mates, honey. They handled everything that they could from Dalton, and Mack, Bliss, and Angel handled the rest. They even flew their parents and their baro in.”
“This is the most amazing thing they could have done for me!” She wiped at the tears and hugged her besties and her mom, thanking them.
She gasped. “I don’t have a dress!”
Her mom smiled. “Bliss and Angel picked one out for you; it’s in your brother’s closet. Now say goodbye to your dads — they have to go get ready and so do we!”
Overwhelmed, she said goodbye to the male members of her family and sat staring at her mom for several long moments.
“Did you stroke out or something?” Angel asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
“No, I’m just shocked. Today is my wedding day!”
“We were the decoys, last night was your bachelorette party.” Bliss grinned as she stood.
“Aw, man, I could have had strippers.”
“I’m really sure your mates would have allowed that,” Angel snorted.
Whisper, Bliss, and Angel stood and followed her mom and Heaven to Kayne’s room, where five garment bags were hung and two suitcases sat on the bed. “Go shower,” her mother said, shooing her out of the room. “You can see your dress when you’re ready. We’ve only got three hours before you’re getting married.”
“I need coffee. And donuts.”
Heaven said, “I’ll pick them up. There’s a box of goodies outside.”