“I’ll point out that I just had to have a conversation with your parents, who are in their nineties. If it weren’t for Tonya, I would’ve been talking to their ceiling because they couldn’t figure out the app.”
She grinned. If the conversation hadn’t been so serious, it would’ve been hilarious. Her parents bickered at each other for half of it, and fussed at an exasperated Tonya about the tablet. Tonya had threated Miracle with limb removal if she ever made her host a video call with her parents again.
“Ready?” he asked, bumping her shoulder with his as they sat on the couch in the suite. She stared at the tablet, which he’d placed at eye level using a stack of books from a bookshelf in the bedroom. It was tilted slightly in the case.
She swallowed and clenched her hands together. Then she exhaled slowly and relaxed her hands. “Yeah.”
He clicked the call button, and they waited for it to connect. He’d already texted with Whisper about the call, and she’d promised to get everyone together. It felt like a full hour before the call went through, when she knew that it had really only been a bare minute. The screen blinked and then revealed eleven people.
“Wow, the whole gang is here,” Mack said with a smile.
“Of course,” a pretty young female with dark hair and light brown eyes said. “Bliss insisted on being part of things, because, you know, she’s annoying.”
“That is totally uncool!” another brunette female said.
“Kids, this is my mate, Miracle Caprice. Miracle, this is everyone.” He named them one by one, and each of them waved and said hi. Whisper and her three hyena mates; Kross, Kayne, and their hyena mate; and Bliss, who was a non-shifting wolf, and her three hyena mates, who were Whisper’s biological brothers. After the initial introductions, everyone left the room except for Whisper, Kross, and Kayne.
“Since you found each other, does that mean you’re coming home soon?” Whisper asked.
“Um, no. We’re in Florida, sweetling, and you’re in cold New Jersey.”
Her nose wrinkled as she smiled at the teasing. “I can see why you want to stay. I’d take a beach in the sunshine over the snow any day.”
“We’ve decided to stay here for two weeks and enjoy the resort. Then we’ll head to her clan’s mountain in Pennsylvania. We’ve gotten approval from her king to stay for ten days to pack up her belongings, and then we’ll be back the day after the full moon.”
Mack had told Miracle that he was ready to retire from being alpha, but he hadn’t wanted to share that news with his kids yet. There was always a chance that Kross and Kayne wouldn’t be ready to take over the alphaship yet, so he wanted to give them the whole month to try out the position. He enjoyed being alpha, but he was ready to set aside that responsibility and focus on the bar. And he wanted to help Miracle grow her glassware business, starting with the bar as her first new customer.
“I know you guys want to know what will happen with the pack, but the truth is that I’m not sure yet. It’s early in the month, so I think that you don’t know yourselves how you feel about being alphas. When things are easy, being alpha is great. When they’re difficult because of pack issues, then it’s less great and can be a headache from morning to night.”
“It would be easier if we didn’t also have to run the bar,” Kayne said.
Mack shrugged. “Whisper and her mates are denning-in, so they can’t handle things without upsetting their hyena nature. The bar can’t be run only one day a week. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but you two need to suck it up.”
Kross grimaced. “We’re trying.”
“And you’ll do fine. If I didn’t think you could handle it, I wouldn’t have left you in charge. Finding balance is important for an alpha. There are two of you, after all, not including Heaven. Divvy up the duties as best you can. When Miracle and I come back to Beyton after the full moon, I’ll have made a decision. For now, keep moving forward as if this is permanent, because it might be.”
Whisper’s eyes widened. “You’re going to come back, though.”
Mack gave her a soft smile. “I said I would, sweetling.”
“But will you stay?” she asked.
Mack didn’t say anything for a moment, so Miracle answered. “Mack can’t stay in the mountains with me, it’s against clan customs. Now that we’re mated, we can visit, but the mountains are closed to us for residency. We’ve already decided to stay in Beyton, so that’s not going to change.”
“Thank you,” Whisper said.
Mack put his arm around Miracle’s shoulders and said, “Beyton is home for me, and Miracle is part of my life now, which means it’s home for her, too. Whatever happens once we’re back, Beyton is it for us, okay?”
Whisper nodded. “Okay.” Then her demeanor brightened. “Are you buying me a lot of souvenirs?”
“Of course.”
“Remember, I like large-sized shirts so I can be comfy.”
“I remember.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Kayne said.
“Thank you. It was nice to meet all of you, too.”