The pain of telling my story—our story—lessened every year, but it would never go away. I tried to keep an easy smile on for the kids, and as I looked at Ray, the tension in my cheeks eased, the smile becoming natural. After decades of belonging with this man, he still made my heart miss a beat when that protective glint flashed in his eyes.

“A long time ago,” I began. For the kids, I dressed the tale in fairy tale trappings. The villains were real, as was the cautionary warning, but there were things innocent ears did not need to know. “Papa lived with a very bad man.”

I checked on Isaac, who was three now. He was probably still too young to understand this, but I would watch him every year as I told this story, just like I’d watched Noah. Waiting for that spark of understanding. The moment when I knew a sliver of his childhood had just slipped away.

It wasn’t fun. I didn’t like it. But better that sliver than his whole soul. Better just a sad story than what had happened to me.

“Was it Unca Boom?” one of Cain and Ezra’s girls asked. Faith, I thought. No—Destiny. Which meant it was probably Hope.

“Hope, why would you say that?” Cain fussed. “Uncle Boomer isn’t a bad man. Who told you that?”

It was always the last one I thought of.

“Fada sayed it.”

Ezra held up his hands in a defensive position. “I might bi—” Half the room glared at him, cutting off the swear-word in progress. “—complain about Boomer occasionally, but I’ve never said he’s a bad man.”

“Fada, you sayed you gonna beat Unca Boom if he sayed brudder again.”

“Brudder?” Ezra’s confused expression cleared after a second. “Oh! Brother! Why did I say that? Uncle Boomer is my brother-in-law. I wouldn’t be mad about that.”

“Maybe she misheard,” Levi drawled.

Cain was giving Ezra evil eyes. “I can think of some other B-words you might have used.”

“Ise not supposed to say the other word,” Hope stage-whispered.

“What other word, sweetie?” Cain’s eyes were still sharp, though his expression softened while looking at his daughter. One of them—I wasn’t even going to try to guess which one—was lying down next to the newest baby of our large extended family—David and Boomer’s six-month-old son, Marco—stroking his cheek and whispering the baby equivalent of sweet nothings. The other sat wedged between Dean and an uncomfortable Sam Remington—the leader of Ray’s Team Beta, who was nervously balancing little Allan on his lap—and watched her sister’s interaction with the adults with rapt attention.

“Fada sayed he gonna beat Unca Boom if he sayed brudder”—here she pressed her lips tightly together and leaned her head to the side, making it clear she wasn’t going to say the bad word. “And Fada only beats bad guys.”

Cain was glaring daggers at a sheepish Ezra.

“I didn’t realize they could hear me,” Ezra protested.

Cain’s expression indicated they would be talking later, but he turned everyone’s attention back to the story. “So Papa P lived with a bad man…”

“This bad man was my step-dad,” I said, picking up and moving right along. “My real dad died when I was just a baby, and then my mom died when I was a kid. She didn’t realize he was a bad man, because he had a very good disguise.”

“Like the wolf who ate Grandma and tried to eat Little Red Riding Hood,” Amy, Preston and Noah’s oldest, explained to the younger kids.

“And he sold me to the circus,” I said. This was where I really stretched the truth. “The circus was full of bad people who didn’t like shifters. They made us sleep in cages with no blankets. Sometimes, they forgot to feed us.”

“But what about on your birthday?” Tony Chiarelli, Boomer and David’s oldest, asked, his eyes wide. “They let you have cake, right?”

Oh my, the innocence of children. I shook my head solemnly. “No cake. No ice cream. No presents.”

Tony’s mouth dropped open in horror. I had to blink away my tears of gratefulness. So many of my loved ones had been through a hellish childhood and young adulthood. But none of these precious little ones would ever know what true pain and hunger felt like. I counted my blessings every day.

And this was the reason I shared my story, as painful as it was. If my experience could teach them early on to be wary, to watch out for those who might be in a bad situation—while maintaining their childlike joy—then it was worth it. If nothing else, Maurice Sendak and R. L. Stine proved that children could handle more truth and fear than we thought they could.

“How did you meet Grandpa, then?” Amy asked. Of all the kids, she’d heard my story the most, and she was anticipating each step of the story, ready to correct me if I got it wrong.

I hid my smile. “One day, my circus was set up near a county fair and I snuck away. I wanted to see people having fun. Maybe eat some funnel cake. I remembered that from before my mom died. And all of a sudden, I found your grandpa. I scented the most delicious cinnamon caramel man.” I smiled at my husband, and our gaze lingered, reliving the moment where all my fear and pain had faded away at the sight of this young, strong alpha. “Who knew an alpha could be so sweet?” I winked at that.

Ray groaned, as he did every year. “You’re going to make me out to be a cream puff tart.”

“You’re my cream puff tart,” I said.

“Did he save you?” Irene, Cody and Levi’s girl, asked.

“Yeah, did he save you?” her twin brother echoed from his spot on Sam’s lap.

I shook my head. “Not right then. I was walking toward him when the bad men found me. They grabbed me and pulled me away. He tried to fight his way to me, but they beat him. All I could do was yell my name so he would know who I was. ‘I’m Justin Alder!’ I kept yelling, even when I couldn’t see him again.”

“But he chased you and fought the bad men.” Amy’s voice held a little bloodthirst in it. Her dads were going to have their hands full when she hit the teenage years.

“I asked so many people to help me. I told them about the man I loved, but didn’t know his name. And everyone ignored me. It took him years to find me, but when he did, he beat the bad guys and freed me.”

“And you lived happily ever after,” Tony declared.

Ray and I shared a smile. “We certainly did,” I agreed. “But what I want you pups to learn is that you can’t ever ignore a request for help. Alpha or omega, we’re all strong in different ways. Some of you might go fight bad people like your alpha dads. Some of you might be counselors and comforters, like me and Dean. Everyone is important.”

The youngest ones’ eyes glazed over, but I saw the glint of determination in Amy’s eyes. That girl was going to be a force to be reckoned with.

“Okay!” Noah clapped his hands together. “Cookies, and then bedtime!”

“Papa P,” Levi said in his slow drawl, looking out the front window. “I don’t think any of us should be driving on these roads. Mind if we bunk down for the night? The kids might be a little upset about having to wait on their presents back home, but they’ll survive.”

“I’ve got presents for everyone here,” I assured him. “I was planning on sending them home. This works better for me. Let’s get everyone settled in.”

The families broke into chaos, and Ray took charge of settling Isaac down while I showed everyone to their rooms. Ray and I had always wanted more kids, and had planned the house for it. But none had come in the years after Noah, maybe as a result of the trauma I’d experienced. And then we’d had a really big surprise when Isaac came along, long after we thought we were done having kids.

It made my heart happy to see my house full of children.

I saved our single men for last, getting all the families with kids settled first. “Sam, Dean? What are your plans? You think you’re going to venture out in this snow?”

Dean looked out and shook his head. “No, sir. I’m a desert boy. I’d be risking my life just trying to walk back down your driveway.”

I clapped my hands. “Excellent. Sam?”

The alpha leader of Team Beta’s eyes lingered on my omega counselor protégé. “As long as you have room…”

“We always have room,” I assured him, keeping my thoughts about that lingering look to myself. Ray had given up fussing at me for my matchmaking, and I had learned it was best to let things take their own course. Especially with us shifters. You couldn’t fight fate.

As I showed Dean his room, he said, “I feel like there’s a lot more to your story than just bad men selling you to a circus.”

Of course my star counselor would pick up on that. “Ask me about it tomorrow when the kids are occupied.”

Dean was very serious as he said, “I will.”