“Ayup, this is the one,” I said holding up a rock to Clark and Parker. “Thank your father for narrowing it down to these few dozen though,” I chuckled as I set the chosen rock to the side and pushed the shoebox full of the remaining miscellaneous rocks back toward the twin bear shifters.

“Yeah, he was afraid that if he didn’t send everything, he would send the wrong thing.” Clark explained.

I held up a hand with a smile. “No, I’m not faulting him. He was absolutely right.” I glanced over at the other end of the table where Tau was busy sorting a similar box that Kent and Peter’s father had sent. So far, he hadn’t found the right one from what I could see.

“Did ya have a chance to check me Mam’s stone out yet?” Sean asked as he dropped into the empty seat beside Cody.

Shaking my head, I pointed to where the Irishman’s rock sat waiting to be examined. “You’re up next, but first I need to go over Cody’s.”

Cody squirmed and scratched his jaw stubble. “Yeah, I’m not exactly positive that any of these will be what you’re looking for, but it’s all I have from my father that even comes close to what we’re looking for.”

I nodded, and took a deep breath before picking up the first of Cody’s collection. One by one, I examined each individual piece. From pretty pieces of quartz to different samples of igneous and sedimentary pieces, it was a nice rock collection.

Unfortunately, not a single one gave me the imagery I was looking for, that little sparkle of something extra that would link it to the ancient shamans circle.

Shaking my head with a sigh, I put his offerings back in the box and pushed it gently across the table.

“I’m sorry, Cody. But none of those comes close.”

“I guess my family screwed up in protecting our history then, because I can’t think of anything else that would fill the bill,” Cody said.

River walked up beside Cody and leaned over his shoulder, his fingers moving to an obsidian cross that hung from Cody’s neck on a leather cord.

“Where did this come from, doll? Something about it keeps calling to me, although I couldn’t say why.”

Cody’s hand closed around the charm as he smiled shyly up at my mate. “This? Oh. Well, it was also my dads, but I doubt it’s nearly ancient enough to meet the requirements, aye?”

I held out my hand. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just give it a quick look see. If it’s calling out to River, then I feel that it deserves my attention.”

Cody shrugged indifferently as he reached up to pull the necklace off. He passed it over without comment, and the moment my hand closed around it a collage of imagery flooded my senses.

“This is it, Cody. I hope this isn’t a special piece for you, because this was definitely carved from the rock your shaman ancestor brought home from the circle that day.”

Pointing toward it as I added the necklace to the pair of rocks that I already had sitting to the side, Cody smiled wistfully.

“My grandfather gave me that necklace, although I’ve replaced the cord a few times over the years. He told me to always wear it and good fortune would find me. I figured it was just a pretty piece of protection, I had no idea it was that old.”

“To be fair, all rocks are old. It’s only that we happen to know the history of these particular ones,” River said kindly as he patted Cody on the shoulder.

“True enough,” Cody agreed. “My only request would be that if it’s at all possible to have that returned to me when this is all over, I would be in your debt.”

“Sure and what the hell would Mark want with your old shite necklace anyway, boyo?” Sean teased as he pushed his own family rock toward me to examine.

It only took touching his offered piece of quartzite to know that this was yet another example from the shamans circle.

I grinned at Sean as I pushed it over to join my growing collection. “One and done for you, son.”

Sean chuckled while River groaned at my playful rhyme. “No, just… no. Seriously, I will lose all respect for you if you assault my ears like that.”

“Sorry, snowflake but I’m pretty sure you’re stuck with me at this point anyway—awful puns, rhymes, jokes and all.”

River turned to Heath. “You’re an American, tell me the truth. Is this alpha of mine the polar opposite of the every stereotype we’ve ever heard about pretty much anyone from the Northeast? Aren’t they supposed to be strong and silent types?”

“Actually, I’ve always heard they were meant to be eccentric and kooky.” Heath grinned. “It’s all those long, dark winters, you know?”

“If you’d like to find out for yourself, we need to take a trip back to my hometown anyway,” I suggested.

River quirked a brow, then nodded as understanding filled his eyes. “You need to go retrieve your own family rock.”

“Ayup,” I said laying on my thickest home accent. “We’ll need ta get goin’ sooner than later because I’m not sure where they are in my storage unit. If everythin’ was properly labeled, there’s a collection that my father kept in a glass case in the den. It’s funny, but I’ve never touched any of them. They were off limits when I was a pup, and I really never paid them much attention as an adult.”

Clark started tapping on his phone, only looking up briefly to ask a quick question. “How soon can you leave? I’ll get one of our family planes to take you.”

I started to argue, because I could certainly buy tickets home for me and my mate, but Parker shook his head. “Don’t even bother, the plane is just sitting here in Dublin anyway. Our father-in-law keeps at least one here at all times for our disposal.

River shuddered. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him turn your offer down. Have you ever flown coach for an international flight? Yeah, we will take your cozy private jet and simply say thank you very much.”

“And here I thought you were a hippie type who could travel anywhere as long as you had your backpack.” Parker teased.

River waved a hand. “Just because I can rough it, doesn’t mean I don’t also enjoy my creature comforts.”

Heath came over and sat down beside me, passing me another corded necklace, this one on an old, rawhide strip of leather that was barely staying together, and held a smooth arrowhead.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever heard my birth story, and how I was found on the side of the road in my dead father’s arms? But yeah… this necklace was found around my neck, and I was allowed to keep it. It’s a miracle given the vagaries of my childhood that I did manage to hold onto it, but…”

He trailed off for a moment before turning his attention back to me. “At any rate, this is the only possible link that I have to my family’s rock. Anything else from my omega line is long gone.”

Gently, I took it from him with a smile. “Yes, I’d heard of your past. But if you ask me, that must make your present just all that much sweeter?”

He nodded happily, smiling affectionately across the table at Sean. “Yeah, who knew that I would find my happiness with a pocket-sized Irishman with a heart of gold?”

“Sure and pocket-sized ain’t what I was hearin’ last night, darlin’,” Sean said with a wink.

Heath merely rolled his eyes and stared back down at the necklace I now held. Hoping for the best, I closed my hand around the arrowhead. Sure enough, I immediately saw what I needed to see. I set it carefully to the side before turning back to Heath.

“Just like Sean, yours is also an immediate yes.” Hesitantly, I rested my hand over his clasped hands that were set rigidly on the table in front of him. “I also saw your dad, and the moment when he put this around your neck. He said a prayer for you in a language I don’t understand, and his final words were for you, if you’re interested?”

The room grew quiet as everybody focused on Heath and me. He nodded quickly, taking a deep calming breath.

“Please tell me, Mark.”

“He kissed the top of your head and told you that you’d find your wings and soar one day, and to know that he would always been the whisper in the wind at your back.”

Heath’s eyes swelled with tears, and I wondered if it was my place to give him a hug, when River beat me to it. He pulled the other omega up, and the two lanky men stood there embracing.

Sean inclined his head to me. “It’s me that’s in yer debt now, boyo. I’ll be thankin’ you fer this, that was a kind thing fer ya ta share.”

I swallowed, and nodded quickly. “Sometimes I get images, other times I see visions. It depends on the emotions that have been put into a particular object. Heath’s arrowhead was pretty full in that department.”

* * *

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” River asked quietly as I rolled up the door to my storage unit.

“I’m about as ready as I’m ever going to be—which is pretty much not at all? Although, at some point I’ll probably need to have all of this shipped to wherever we decide to settle down.”

“Did we decide we’re settling down? I thought the jury was still out on that one,” River winked as he moved past me to start looking at labels on the neatly stacked boxes.

I walked down the opposite side of the storage shed, looking at the boxes on my row while River checked out the ones on his side.

“You know what? Why don’t I pull out the few personal things I really want, and arrange to have the rest sold? Aside from a few knick-knacks, pictures, and personal papers, I don’t really have a personal attachment to anything here. And I think we can both agree that this furniture isn’t to your taste.”

River coughed as a swirl of dust puffed up when he brushed off the top of a box. “Hey, you don’t know. Maybe I like tacky mid-century furniture with large floral patterns on the upholstery.”

“Snowflake, even the people who bought this furniture probably hated it. I’m pretty sure there were no tasteful options available back then, at least not based on what I’ve seen. Shit, you should’ve seen the kitchen in my house. All the appliances were gold, and the laminate floor had a god-awful pattern that would make you blind if you stared at it too long.”

River looked over the row of boxes that separated us. “Yes, but was your bathroom pink and gawdy? That right there was the true landmark of a mid-century home.”

“What, did you find one of the old family picture albums? Because I’m pretty sure the bathroom you just described is shown in at least one of my baby pictures.”

“Wait, are you being serious right now? Is there really a picture in here somewhere of a baby Mark in the bathtub? Oh, shit. We are definitely rescuing your pictures from this place.”

After what felt like hours but was probably more like about twenty minutes or so, we located the boxes of personal items. All told, there were only three boxes that I wanted to keep. River looked down at my meager stack, then back at me.

“Are you sure about this, Mark? I mean, are you sure you don’t have some family china or heirloom silver that you’d like to save? No special holiday platters or Christmas ornaments? I wouldn’t know personally, never having had roots like that of my own—but I’ve heard that those items are usually treasured by those of you who did.”

I shook my head. “Anything like that would be tainted by having shared it with Gary. I want for us to have new things together, we both deserve that.”

After I thought for a moment, I held up a finger and moved back into the unit. I looked for the kitchen boxes, then quickly dug through to find the object I was looking for. Once I’d found my prize, I held it up to River with a wide smile.

“Here, this is the one thing that was my grandmother’s, that Gary and I honestly never used. You’re the first tea drinker to be in my family since my grandmother, and I think it’s fitting that you should have her tea pot.”

River’s eyes lit up at the sight of the dinged-up old kettle in my hand; he smiled at it like I was giving him a treasure. I made my way back to him, putting it into his hands with a grin.

“See? I wasn’t wrong. This was meant to be yours, and now you can be happy that I’ve saved something from my family aside from a bunch of rocks and a few pictures and papers.”

“Are you kidding me? I will treasure this forever. Others might look at it and see old scrap metal, but I see something that was used and appreciated by an earlier generation.”

I looked into River’s shining eyes as he spoke, realizing suddenly that his need for roots were a little deeper than he probably realized. That’s okay, he didn’t need to express a wish for me to grant it. My job as an alpha was to predict and provide for my mate... even before he ever knew he wanted something.

While River got into the passenger side of our rental car cradling his treasure, I loaded the boxes into the trunk. After a moment’s thought, I opened the box labeled rock collection and opened the small case inside that held my father’s prizes. It only took a moment of running my hand over them before I felt the vibes coming from one plain, dull one in the back of the case.

I picked it up, and was swept back through years of my own family history until I was back at that shaman’s circle seeing this very rock get carved from the larger monolith that represented my tribe. Satisfied, I tucked the rock carefully into my pocket, and closed the trunk.

After taking one last look into the storage locker, I lowered the door and locked it. When we got back to our hotel I would call the local auction house and arrange to have everything sold or donated.

This chapter of my life was done; it was time now to move forward into my future with River.

The next morning found River and me waiting for the ferry. We left the car parked in line, and walked out near the water to look at the view while we waited.

River stood at the edge of the dock, his long dark hair blowing in the ocean breeze while he munched on a cinnamon sugar donut. I was struck again by his quiet beauty as I watched him standing there, highlighted by the familiar, harsh ocean landscape of my youth.

“Mark? Is that really you?” I turned to see Gary and his flatlander mate standing there. Gary was older and plumper than I’d remembered him, as he stood there with a baby in his arm, while the now balding flatlander held the hand of their older child.

Gary smirked at River, before turning his flat brown eyes on me. “I thought you’d left town forever, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”

River looked Gary over, before turning back to me with a knowing look in his eye as he rested a hand on his now prominent baby bump. “Is this an old friend of yours, Mark?”

Looping in arm around River’s waist, I smiled at Gary. For the first time since the day I’d found that letter, I felt nothing other than the nostalgia of seeing a childhood friend when I looked at him. Any residual pain was thankfully a thing of the past.

“Ayup, this someone I used to know, snowflake. How are you doing there, Gary?” I nodded to the flatlander, and wiggled my fingers at their pup. “I’d like you to meet my River—turns out that I had a fated mate of my own out there.”

Gary’s eyes traveled over my mate as though he were sizing him up, while River was nothing but pleasant as he greeted him.

“Oh, so you’re Gary? It’s a pleasure to meet you and your family. It’s too bad we’re leaving so soon, but unfortunately we’re on a tight schedule of our own at the moment.”

Looking extremely uncomfortable, Gary swallowed roughly and jerked his chin in my direction. “Well, I saw you here Mark, and didn’t want to miss the chance to say hello. Travis understands that you and I used to be close, all the way back to when we were in diapers, in fact.”

My eyes narrowed as I looked at my former mate. I wasn’t jealous of him and this Travis person. In fact, I was happy to know that he was doing well. However, the way he was ignoring River didn’t sit right with me at all.

“It’s good that Travis and River both know that we used to be close, but I’m sure we’ll both agree that used to be are the key words there. I’ll always treasure the memories of our childhood, but I think anything beyond that is best forgotten, don’t you agree?”

River smiled gently at Gary. “It’s always a shame when our friends’ lives take divergent paths from our own, but at least you and Mark both have your own families now. Still, it was good to meet you and to put a face to your name.”

Gary ignored River, aiming his words to me. “I hope my happiness didn’t run you out of our town forever, that would be a shame.”

Thankfully, I heard the warning horn of the incoming ferry that would put an end to this annoying meeting. Talk about being saved by the bell.

“No, Gary, not at all. I’m happy for you and Travis just as I’m sure that you’re happy for me and River.” I put a proprietary hand over River’s baby bump, and smiled gently back at Gary.

“As you can see, the fates have blessed me with my own family now too. But anyway, the ferry’s coming in, so we’d best get back to our car. Good seeing you all.”

Travis looked at me curiously, but held out a hand. “Glad to know there’s no hard feelings, you guys have a good day now.”

“Thank you, Travis. You two do the same, and in case I’ve never said it before, congratulations on those precious pups of yours.” With one last nod to Gary, I took River’s hand to guide him away from the scene.

River inclined his head to Gary as we walked past them on our way back to our car. “Once again, it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May the goddess smile upon you and yours, and give you the blessings of a long life.”

Once we were safely back in the car, River looked over at me with interest. “So that was Gary, huh? Kind of a dick, right?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know why he was dismissive toward you, but that pissed me off. I mean, I’m not the one who left him. He doesn’t have a right to judge my life or my mate. But that’s his deal, I didn’t have any issues. Strangely enough, when I saw him there, it only felt like I’d run into an insignificant old acquaintance. Is that weird?”

River smiled gently. “No, it’s not weird at all. I think it’s that you get why he did what he did now, even though it sucked the way it went down. As for his obvious jealousy? That probably goes down to you having a younger mate and no longer being stuck in the rut of your old life here.”

“Yeah, I think that’s what it is too. And you’re right, I do get why he did it now. His methods were bullshit, but his compulsion to do it makes sense. Now that I have my bond with you, everything else pales next to what we have together.”

I leaned over and kissed River gently before putting the car in gear. “And I need you to know something. Everything I had to go through that led me to you was worth the pain, when you were the prize waiting at the end of the road. I love you, River.”

River’s eyes were moist with unshed tears as he reached up and cupped my cheek before kissing me back. When he pulled away, River murmured in a husky voice.

“And I love you, Mark. Now drive us onto that boat that will take us back to the mainland. I don’t know about you, but I’m past ready to get back home to Ireland.”

It didn’t escape my notice that he’d referred to Ireland as home, but I’d address that another day. This was something I could work with...