“I’m hungry,” Aden said to explain his purpose for waking his older brother.
Jim reached forward and plucked Aden from the floor. “Me, too. Let’s hope Emmitt hurries or we’ll have to leave without him.” He used his big hand to cover Aden’s stomach and flexed his fingers. Aden squealed and giggled, the childish laugh making me smile.
Freshly showered and dressed, Emmitt strode into the room. He spared me a quick wink then focused on Aden.
“I’m starving, too. Let’s go eat. If I get there first, I’m eating all the food.”
Aden flipped off Jim’s lap and made a dash for the door, but Emmitt reached it first. Jim and Liam shared a brief look. Jim smiled mischievously, and Liam took off running after Aden and Emmitt.
Jim laughed. “Come on, little sister, or you’ll be left crumbs.”
As we finished eating, Paul and Henry came and asked to take Liam and Aden on a tour. Jim immediately offered to go with. I watched my brothers leave the common room, both excitedly following the younger pair of werewolves, then helped Emmitt carry our plates to the adjoining kitchen.
He deposited the dishes into a large tub of soapy water and turned toward me.
“Are you ready?”
I looked at him blankly.
“The pack meeting.” His gaze flicked to the doorway behind us.
I looked over my shoulder. In those few moments since leaving the room, a growing number of people had entered it. I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. He smiled, gave me a tender look, and took my hand to lead me back. As I suspected, ready or not, I would be attending the meeting.
People gathered along the outskirts of the room. Those that didn’t have a place to sit stood near the picnic tables or the open patio doors. They looked like normal people, but I knew better. This was the pack.
As we headed toward Charlene, Thomas, Mary, and Gregory at the front of the room, I scanned the faces in the crowd. Thankfully, I didn’t see anyone I recognized. Most just looked curious about me. However, the intense stares of a few made me nervous. I tightened my hold on Emmitt’s hand.
The hush that fell as we delved deeper into the crowd drew Mary’s attention. She smiled reassuringly, and I tentatively smiled back.
Emmitt stopped next to his parents, and we turned to face the pack. My anxiety reached new heights as I stared into the sea of bodies that watched us. Thomas stepped forward, drawing their attention.
“There was a challenge last night, which Elder Winifred declined. Michelle has acknowledged Emmitt in front of Elder Winifred.”
Challenge? I’d acknowledged Emmitt? What were they talking about?
The collective eye of the pack focused on me. Emmitt’s hand lightly squeezed mine as I struggled not to squirm under the sudden attention.
“All challenges will end now,” Thomas said. “Not only is this a command from me—”
“It’s from me as well,” Nana Wini said from the back of the room.
There was a minute shuffling in the crowd then everything stilled.
“Just as we count Charlene as one of our own, we now count Michelle.” Thomas glanced at me and gave me a warm smile. “Michelle has brought two cubs with her.”
Cubs?
“They are under pack protection, but I am looking for a Mated pair to protect them as their own, to put the safety of the cubs above the safety of the pack.” There was a slight murmur at this.
“I’ll keep them as my own,” Mary said from beside me.
“We will,” Gregory agreed.
Thomas nodded to Gregory. As if it were a sign, people started to leave. Many of them looked back to study me before they quit the room, and I wondered what they were thinking. I wasn’t even sure what I was thinking. The six of us stayed where we were.
“I’m sorry about that, Michelle,” Charlene said. “We needed to lay down the law right away so you wouldn’t run into any trouble.”
“And my brothers?”
“That’s what Mary and Gregory are for. While you’re here, they will be an extra layer of protection. Mary and Gregory will always be close by, and if you need to leave your brothers for any reason, they will step in while you are gone, protecting Liam and Aden even more ferociously than you could. They were guardians for Jim and Emmitt while they were growing up.”
It touched me that they already knew Liam and Aden’s names. But I wasn’t sure I could trust complete strangers to watch over my brothers, even knowing they were friends of Emmitt’s for a very long time.
Charlene must have sensed my hesitancy. “Nana Wini also spoke a command to the room. No one will harm them.”
I wasn’t about to mention Nana Wini’s word didn’t seem to work too well if Nana hadn’t already mentioned it.
“Now that that’s settled, we are hoping you will discuss your past with us. We want to help you,” Charlene said.