Abigail met Thomas for the afternoon of house hunting at their farmhouse. He was gorgeous, leaning against his sports car as she drove up in his truck. She was overly full of the pie she ate with Riley and had the second on the seat next to her. She couldn’t even look at it. It made her feel guilty for the four pieces she ate at the mansion.

“Did you have fun?” Thomas asked her as she slid out of his truck, Fenrir following her slowly. He was exhausted from his day. She nodded and held up the pie, watching Thomas’ eyes narrow on it. “Who made it?”

“Riley, under Andrew’s supervision. They made two. Riley and I ate one, and she wanted me to bring this one to you guys,” Abigail answered him. She laughed as he took several long strides to close the distance, stole the pie, and sniffed it.

“Cherry. His cherry pie recipe is fucking amazing.” Thomas growled possessively when Abigail went to take it back.

“I’ll put it away.” She laughed. “Give it back, Thomas.”

“She gave it to me.” His eyes shined at the statement. She knew he cared a lot about Riley, and she knew how deep it went, since Riley reminded him of his sister. Riley probably didn’t realize what a gift like this meant to him.

“She gave it to you, James, and Antonio.” Abigail reached for it again and Thomas bared his teeth. She stopped trying, letting him look at the pie happily.

“I’ll take it in,” he told her.

“Of course.” Abigail held back on a laugh until he was out of sight. She devolved into giggles over it. She couldn’t feel jealous of Thomas’ attachment to Riley, only glad he had it and vice versa, Riley to him.

When she caught her breath, finally able to stop laughing over his devotion to the pie, she looked at the car. Running her fingers over the paint gently, she admired the blue. It was a startling, nearly electric, blue. She’d never even sat in it.

“Like it?” Thomas asked as he walked back out. “We’re riding in style today.”

“I love it. I was wondering if I would ever get to.”

“I was just waiting for the weather to clear up. This is my baby.” Thomas wrapped an arm around her waist. “I bought it for myself when I got out of the Marines.”

“You boys and your toys,” Abigail chuckled.

“You must have seen Brenton’s little red car, then,” Thomas laughed, nodding. “We Alphas do like our status cars.”

“You really do,” she murmured, turning to kiss his cheek. She had seen Brenton’s little red sports car once, and Riley had told her stories about what’d happened in that car.

“It’s my baby, but you’re my girl, so no need to feel jealous,” Thomas teased. “Hop in.”

She did, sliding in on the passenger’s side as he brought the top down.

“I’m going to take you to three houses, all smaller, two-bedroom to three-bedroom places. I figured you would never have overnight guests unless it was us. You can use the extra bedrooms as an office, or even a spare if you have the space,” Thomas began to tell her.

Abigail just nodded, listening to him explain. One was in town, near the square. He had looked at the space on the square, but thought she would like to have some more quiet than the square’s apartment near the bars. The other two were on the outskirts of town, much like the farmhouse. Secluded, and they gave her some wooded space to enjoy for herself if she needed to get out for a moment.

They went to one of the secluded houses first. Abigail just closed her eyes for the ride, enjoying the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. She breathed in the fresh mountain air and just reveled in it, the free feeling of riding in a convertible.

When they got to the house, Abigail loved the look of it from the outside. “It’s a bit like the farmhouse,” she noted.

“It is and it’s the three-bedroom, so it has more space than the other two,” Thomas informed her. They got out of the car after he parked and walked up. He pulled out a key from his pocket and opened it up.

The inside was well taken care of, Abigail noticed, nodding as they wandered through the house. The kitchen was large, and so were the bedrooms. The entire house had wood floors, which she enjoyed.

“Have you been thinking about the SSTF?” Thomas asked her as they walked through.

“I have,” Abigail answered, looking into the last bedroom. This was a nice home.

“And?”

“I’m not taking the job,” Abigail replied nonchalantly.

She heard him stumble, cough, then growl. She just kept her tour of the house going, looking into the bathrooms, exploring the unfinished basement. She didn’t really need this much space for a place she was just going to see patients in.

“Excuse me?” he finally said, after several minutes. “I think I misheard that.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said politely.

“Abigail.”

“Thomas.”

“As your Alpha, I do need to tell you that it’s a bad idea to pass up on a job that you enjoy and could give you satisfying work.”

“I know.” Abigail was smiling to herself, out of Thomas’ sight. Her back was to him as she walked through the house. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes?”

“Is there anything you want, not as my Alpha?” She turned to him slowly and watched him. She saw the worry in his eyes, the hard set of his jaw as if he was holding back words, keeping himself from talking. “Thomas. I’m not taking the job.”

“Why not?” he growled.

“Because I don’t want to leave you, James, and Antonio,” she answered simply. To her, it was obvious. “I would need to move to DC.”

“We can do long distance.”

“Or that would confirm the very fears you’re harboring. That I’ll leave, we’ll drift apart, and end this relationship. If you weren’t my Alpha, what would you do?”

“Abigail, take the job.”

“I can’t. I called them this morning and told them I couldn’t accept.”

“Call them back,” Thomas bit out.

“No,” she whispered.

“You…” He looked away from her. “Abigail, why?”

“The answer I gave you.” Abigail told him honestly. “Thomas, I’m not asking you for forever, but I won’t let you decide my future either. Don’t try.”

“I don’t want you giving up your career for us.” He growled after he said it, looking peeved. “We’re too new of a relationship for that.”

“They wanted me to leave the Pack completely, Thomas. Would that have been okay with you?”

“No,” he snarled. “It wouldn’t have been.”

“I could only have one or the other. I’ve made my decision. If I’ve chosen wrong, then you need to tell me - but you need to stop thinking like an Alpha and about my future. Think about what you want.”

“Let’s go to the next house.” Thomas sighed. He looked defeated in a way, his eyes closing as he rubbed his forehead.

She narrowed her eyes at his avoidance. She wasn’t asking him to say that he loved her or anything like that. She just wanted him to tell her what he wanted.

“No. I like this one. A bit too much space. We’ll stay for a moment longer.” Abigail leaned on a wall and waited.

“What I want?” He opened his eyes again. “I want a simple life, and you’ve made it all very complicated.”

Abigail’s eyebrows felt like they were going to fly off her face. “What?” she gasped. That hadn’t been what she thought she was going to hear.

“Let me finish,” he mumbled. “When this started, I had no idea it was going to go so far. I told you from the beginning I have an ex. I’m not…” Thomas took a deep breath. “People leave me, Abigail. My mother left my siblings and me. My ex found someone else who wasn’t gone all the time. My brother…He just fucking hates me and didn’t want to have any sort of life with me.”

“And I’m trying to tell you that I’m not,” she cut in. “I’m not taking the job because it will make me leave you. All of you. Not just the Pack, but my friendships with Riley, Jessie, and Phoebe. Why would I want to give any of this up?”

“Because you shouldn’t stop your life for other people,” he answered.

“Maybe I shouldn’t give up my life for things that don’t matter, like money.”

“Like being happy, which your job makes you. It fulfills you - I see it in your eyes when you talk about it.” Thomas growled in frustration.

“Not as happy as any of you make me,” she whispered. They stared at each other. “You are so convinced I’ll leave you that you’ll push me away.”

“I’m trying to make sure you don’t do anything you’ll regret,” he muttered. “It’s my job as-”

“As my Alpha,” Abigail huffed. “Stop that. Thomas. I love you. I’m not expecting you to love me tomorrow, or even a year from now. I’m just telling you that I’m staying here because I want to. Because I love all of you. The Pack, the Pride, Phoebe, and Finn, and Jessie. Stop fucking telling me what’s best for me and tell me what you actually want.”

“I want you to tell your parents about us,” he snapped. “I want you to stop hiding us from everyone important to you. If you want this to keep going, I want you to claim us.”

Abigail opened her mouth and closed it again. She dug her hand into her purse and yanked out her cell phone. She was about to hit call on her father when Thomas grabbed her wrist.

“I’m telling them right now,” Abigail growled. She never growled. She was angry, and she didn’t really know why. She knew she was frustrated by Thomas’ insistence that she should leave, but something about his idea of her hiding them had pissed her off. Everyone in Wild Junction knew about them; she just didn’t contact her family often enough to tell them. It wasn’t like she was avoiding it.

“I’m sorry, no. Not while you’re angry. I’m so fucking bad at this. You don’t need to tell them right now.” Thomas sighed. “Abigail, I want you in my space every day. I want you around. I want you here in my arms, loving me. I want to be the one you come home to, with James and Antonio. I want you happy. I’m also terrified that one day you won’t want me. That you’ll leave me too and not just me…James and Antonio. Or I could lose them when they follow you. You telling your family is just…I don’t know. The idea of them knowing makes me feel better. Like you might be less inclined to leave.”

“Thomas,” Abigail whispered, her anger fading immediately. “I won’t leave you.” She knew it in her core. “Not ever. There’s nothing I can fathom that would ever convince me to go.” She could only hope he smelled the honesty of her words.

“I know, and it terrifies me,” he whispered back hoarsely. She looked up from her phone and he kissed her immediately, forcing her back to the wall with a growl. She dropped her phone, then her purse, ignoring if anything broke. She could replace the phone or whatever was in her purse that made the cracking noise.

Thomas yanked up her shirt and slid his hands on her skin around her sides to her back. She yanked at his to run her fingers down his cut abs and toy with the button on his pants.

“This isn’t our house,” he growled, pulling away.

“Who cares?” Abigail asked, tugging open the button of his jeans.

“I don’t,” he growled, shoving her shirt up further to expose her lacy blue bra.

“Me neither.” She shoved his jeans and boxer briefs down far enough to expose him.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips before kissing her again. The kiss was just as frenzied as the first. He owned her, shoved up against the wall. She knew she wasn’t going anywhere until he let her go.

“I love you too,” she purred, taking his erection in her hand.

“Fuck,” Thomas groaned. “We’ve created a monster.”

“Yes, you have,” Abigail teased, stroking him. Something about being with these men made her greedy and open. She wanted them, and if no one was around, she was going to have them.

“Turn around.” His words were guttural and demanding.

She let him flip her, so she was chest to the wall. He undid her jeans as well, shoving them down. She noticed her boy shorts didn’t go down as well. He ground up against her ass, caging her, pinning her to the wall. “You realize I might never let you leave now. We are going to need to make this fast, though. Other people might come to tour the place.”

“I know,” she replied.

He pushed her boy shorts down as he nudged her legs open wide. There, against the wall in a house that didn’t belong to them, Thomas grabbed her hips and pushed into her hard, making her scream. He leaned over her and bit down on her shoulder as he thrust roughly into her. She clawed the wall, hoping for some way to hold on. He took no mercy on her, his hands moving down to rub her clit with those callused fingertips. She threw her head back in ecstasy, crying out his name.

Every stroke on her clit was as rough as the previous. Every one of his thrusts was hard and unforgiving. He growled, keeping his teeth locked on her shoulder. His other hand yanked one of her cups down and pinched her nipple, but not too roughly. It was just a moment of pain that made her more excited.

He pushed her to the peak furiously. She couldn’t think, only trying to remain standing as she tumbled over the edge and climaxed. He snarled, biting down hard enough to nearly break the skin as he buried himself completely in her. She panted as she felt him shiver and twitch, filling her.

They stayed like that, panting against the wall. He didn’t pull out of her, only nuzzled her neck. She could feel him softening in her and didn’t want to end so quickly.

“We’ll have more fun at home,” he whispered, as if he could read her mind.

“I hope so.” She couldn’t catch her breath. Her body was screaming for him to pick her up and find a bed for more right then, but that wasn’t an option. It wasn’t like the quickie wasn’t satisfying; she just desperately wanted more. She always wanted more of her Pack.

“We should finish looking at the houses,” he groaned.

“We should,” she agreed. “I’ll call my parents tonight.”

“You don’t have to,” Thomas sighed. “I love you and you love us. That’s all that matters.”

“If it will make you feel easier, then it does matter. It will always matter.”

“When I think I can’t love you more, you say something like that,” he murmured, kissing her neck. He eased away from her after that. She sighed, her back cooling now that his chest wasn’t pressed against it. She felt empty as he pulled back further and slid out of her. She didn’t move for a moment. “You need to get fixed up, Abigail.”

She groaned and nodded. She had to put her clothes back on right. What was wrong with her? She decided: absolutely nothing. She was perfectly okay with the tryst in the home for sale. She pulled up her boy shorts and jeans, then pulled Thomas to kiss her as he buttoned his pants.

“The other houses, Abigail,” he chuckled.

“We’ll get to them.” She laughed and took his hand. She pulled him out of the house with her. “Let’s look at the space on the square.”

“Why?” He asked, frowning at her.

“Because I only need a work space, not a place to live. I have one of those already.”

“Really?” Thomas wrapped his arms around her as they got to the car.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she told him one last time, kissing him again as he reached around her to open the car door for her.

Abigail looked at Thomas with a smile as she took his cell phone from him.

“Are you sure?” he asked, smirking.

“She better be sure, because I sure as fuck am,” Antonio chuckled. “Time to tell the world and to say to hell with them.”

“I am,” she giggled. They had lazily made love since getting home, with James and Antonio joining when they arrived home from their errands as well.

Now, sitting in the living room, Abigail and her wolves only had one more thing to do. Call her parents, like she promised Thomas she would.

“What happened to your phone?” James asked, sitting down next to her on the couch.

“I dropped it,” Abigail replied, trying to keep a straight face.

“Huh.” He gave her a disbelieving look.

“She really did,” Thomas confirmed. “She just let go of it and started undoing my pants.”

“I’m really upset I missed that,” Antonio groaned. “You two have a quickie in some random person’s house and no one called me.”

“It wouldn’t be a quickie if we had to wait for you to show up,” Thomas said while laughing.

“Good point,” Antonio accepted, shrugging. “Next time, I’m taking her house hunting.”

“No house hunting. I’ll keep an office in town and that’s the end of that. I’ll rent out the upstairs apartment or something. It has access through the back, which means whoever lives up there won’t have access to my work.”

“Fine. Let’s just get this done and get back to what we were doing.” James pointed at Thomas’ phone and Abigail nodded. She dialed her father and waited.

“Daniel Harris speaking.”

“Hello, Father,” Abigail greeted him nervously. Not because she was nervous about this conversation, but she hadn’t spoken to him since before she stormed off during the holidays.

“Abigail. How are you?” Her father sounded pleased to hear from her so she took that as a good sign.

“I’m doing wonderfully, Father. I wanted to share some news with you.”

“Oh?”

“I’m seeing someone,” she told him innocently.

“Oh, that’s wonderful.” He laughed, and she heard him call her mother closer. She also heard Karli in the background begin to cheer and ask who. They were all deer shifters with sensitive hearing, so nothing on this call was going to be private. “Tell us who.”

“Hello, Mr. Harris. This is Thomas Marek,” Thomas cut in, making Abigail grin.

Abigail waited on her father to stop breathing hard, trying to find words. Karli was laughing so hard Abigail wondered if her sister could even breathe.

“James and Antonio are here, too,” she told him, trying to hold back a giggle. She didn’t care if he disapproved but his attempt to control himself was amusing.

“Abigail,” was all her father could say after a few minutes.

“I love them, Father,” she whispered. “I turned down a job with the SSTF and will be living in Wild Junction permanently now.”

“Didn’t we have a talk about you and wolves?” he asked.

“We did,” Abigail sighed. “We did. I got some good ones this time.”

“You’re with three men,” he huffed. “Take me off speaker phone.”

“They would still hear you,” Abigail reminded him. “Just say it.”

“Daniel, why don’t we meet them and see?” he mother whispered. “It’s been a long time since our daughter has dated, after what Gavin did. Thomas Marek was always a good man here in South Dakota. I’m sure the others are as well.”

“There’s three of them,” he father mumbled, sounding petulant. Abigail rolled her eyes to look at her men. Antonio was chuckling, covering his face. Thomas was waiting patiently, smiling calmly at her. James was completely at ease, even a bit distracted, tracing circles on her thigh. He didn’t care about any of it. Abigail knew he thought this was a pointless formality.

“Well, I want to meet them,” her father declared. “As soon as possible. How long has this been going on?”

“January,” Abigail answered.

“Bring them here. Want to lay eyes on them.”

“Father, stop being a hard ass,” Karli called out, laughing still. “Abigail is obviously very happy.”

“I won’t have my other little girl completely heartbroken by some wolves again,” he father said stubbornly.

“Well, sir, we can’t visit the Herd,” Thomas interjected again. “Heather doesn’t want us on her territory, and I can’t blame her for it. Wild Junction is a gorgeous place, though. I would be honored if you let me schedule you a small family vacation out this way, maybe after Karli’s boys are born?”

Abigail raised her eyebrows at Thomas, who shrugged. She knew he was playing this so that her father had no reason not to like him.

“Certainly.” Her father grunted. “That sounds lovely. We definitely will. Abigail, though, can visit us still, right?”

“I can,” Abigail answered. It was something she and Heather had worked out months before. Abigail could still go to the Herd when she wanted to visit family. Just because she was a member of Thomas’ Pack, she wasn’t a threat to Heather’s position and shouldn’t be treated like one.

“Well, come see us for the birth?” her mother asked tentatively. “I’ve missed you since the holidays. I wish we saw you more. I’m willing to meet your wolves and give them a chance, if you promise to stop avoiding us.”

“Please!” Karli called out. “I’ll text you my due date!”

“Okay,” Abigail agreed. “I wouldn’t miss my new nephews for the world. I wasn’t avoiding you.”

“Of course, you weren’t,” her father grunted. He sighed heavily. “I just want you happy, Abigail. If this makes you happy…”

“It does,” Abigail whispered. “It’s not what you planned for me. It’s not what you thought my life would become, I know, but it’s mine and it makes me happy.”

“Then I’ll try,” he agreed, sounding like he was choking over a bone. It was the best Abigail had.

“Father, be nice!” Karli snapped. “Don’t make me come over there and take that phone from you.”

“I said I’ll try!” her father told her. Abigail could envision the glare, the indignation her father was probably displaying. “Well, if that’s all, I’ll let you go, Abigail.”

“I love you, Father,” she told him. “And Mother, and Karli.”

“We love you, too,” he replied. “Keep in touch and if anything goes wrong with those wolves-”

“Come home,” Abigail finished for him. “Father, I already am home.”

More goodbyes were exchanged, and she handed Thomas back his phone. He dropped it on the coffee table with his wallet.

“Happy?” she asked him.

“Very,” he answered.

“Nothing is ever going to go wrong.” She turned to James, amazed he was speaking. He just shrugged at his statement. “It’s not. I won’t let it.”

“Me neither,” Antonio crooned, leaning to kiss her shoulder on the bruise they could see from Thomas. She had a few more at this point. They were going to need to talk about too many in a short period. “What’s next?”

“What do you mean?” She turned to him.

“I don’t know,” Antonio answered.

“I think we just live our lives,” Thomas chuckled.

“Yeah,” Antonio sighed. “When do we get to ask her to marry us though?” He grinned wickedly after he said that. “What do you say, Abigail? Would you? Marry us? We have parental approval and everything. Kind of.”

She knew he was teasing. She knew it was a joke to make them all a little uncomfortable, to make them laugh and tell him to stop. Thomas was throwing a pillow at him, and James reached over her to thump Antonio, who was laughing, on the bicep.

She didn’t really know what else to say except one thing. What was the difference between saying it now or a few years from now? She already knew her answer.

“Yes.”