He sighed then. It had been so long since he’d truly felt the bonds to his own. They’d always been there, sure, but coming home made them flair once more, pulsating between him and his Alpha, his family, and those with special connections to the moon goddess.
As a child, he hadn’t had that, and he hadn’t known what he’d been missing. His Uncle Logan and mother had escaped the Talon Pack back in the days of the old Alpha’s reign because of Parker’s birth. He was the birth son of a traitor, adopted son of a Redwood, with the heart and soul of a true leader. Without his father, North, he wasn’t sure he’d have become the man he was today.
“Parker!”
He turned at the sound of Charlotte’s shout, a grin forming on his face even through his exhaustion. Charlotte was his favorite cousin, though he was sure never to tell the others that. They were similar in age, and had come to the Pack later on in life, adopted in when their childhoods were torn apart. Their adoptive fathers were brothers, twins in fact, and that had always made them close.
He’d been gone so long, though, that he’d missed what had put the new shadows in her eyes. He would have thought by now she’d be mated to Bram, perhaps thinking of having a child of her own, but that wasn’t the case. Instead of asking, he pushed those thoughts away and opened his arms for her.
She threw herself into his hold and tightened her grip. “I didn’t know you were coming home! You didn’t say anything the last time we talked.”
He kissed her temple and hugged her close, needing her wolf more than he thought possible. She was family, home. He hadn’t known how much he needed her and the rest of them to center him.
He was getting older, his wolf a little wilder. What he truly needed was a mate and to start the next journey of his life. But with the government sanctions for wolves on the horizon, and this other player, General Montag, in the wind, he was afraid his time wouldn’t be coming for far too long.
And Parker wasn’t sure his wolf had that time to give.
When he pulled away and cupped her face, he frowned. “What happened, Charlotte?”
She looked at him, and his brave and strong Charlotte, the same girl who hadn’t cried when her world had fallen apart and she’d had to pick herself up out of the ashes, burst into tears.
“Oh, baby,” he soothed as he held her close once more. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s all wrong, Park. Everything.” Her words were sobs, and he knew it was killing her to break down like this.
“Tell me.”
And when she did, he knew there was a reason he’d come back. His family needed him. The world had changed once before, and here it was, shifting on its axis again. His wolf might desperately need a mate, but before he could worry about himself, he needed to ensure that his family was safe.
That was what he’d been raised to do, and damn it, he was a Redwood.
Family first. Pack first. His wolf would just have to wait.
He only prayed he had enough time.
Chapter Six
Shane stood in his new home, his body tense and his mind going in a thousand different directions. He couldn’t quite understand how he’d ended up in the middle of a wolf den with a new life and the loyalties he’d once held so close torn away forever.
He’d grown up with two parents who’d tried to love him but worked themselves to death trying to raise him and keep a roof over their heads. His mother had died when he was a teenager, his father the month after Shane graduated high school. He’d had no family, no close connections, nothing holding him to the ramshackle house he’d lived in, and had eagerly joined the military to find some sense of belonging.
And he’d found it, that was for sure. He’d worked his ass off, learned to be the man he was today, fought for his country, and had made a new family out of the men and women he fought side-by-side with.
He hadn’t always agreed with every decision those in higher positions made, but it hadn’t been his job to go against them. He’d done his duty, and he’d been proud. It wasn’t until the Unveiling that things had gone awry.
He’d come to the Talon den that fateful day with the rest of his division, but he hadn’t fired a round. He’d been there on orders from his commanding officer to oversee the world finding out about the existence of shifters from this tiny part of the US. And in the year between the Unveiling and the rise of General Montag and Senator McMaster, he had considered leaving the job that had given him so much and had taken even more. His reenlistment term had come up recently, and Shane had actually put in to leave the military, rather than stay just a few more years to retire. He’d figured out that he wasn’t the kind of man this new force needed.