The next few days pass in a blur. I sleep, a lot. And it’s not because of the pregnancy—it’s because it’s been forever since I’ve had a warm bed to sleep in. The guys tease me for being such a sleepyhead, but I know they understand how much it means for me to have a place to rest where I’m not sleeping with one eye open.

In the afternoons, River pulls out an old game of Scrabble and we make words out of tiles, sitting on the floor of the living room. Today there is a beautiful fire in front of us. Hot cocoa with whipped cream in mugs on the coffee table. It is like make-believe— all this perfection.

River keeps score, looking impressed when I get a seven-letter word.

“What, you didn’t expect me to have such a good vocabulary?” I ask, eyebrows raised.

He shakes his head. “That’s not what I was thinking at all.”

“Tell me then.”

He leans close, his fingers running the length of my thigh. “I was thinking how you are everything I’ve ever wanted.”

I shake my head, almost imperceptibly. Not wanting to believe the words he says. Because it’s too much—the idea that I might be enough.

“You’re just saying that because you might have knocked me up.”

“I did knock you up.”

“Well, you mean, one of you guys did.” I’ve taken a pregnancy test—and even though it makes zero sense that it could already read positive—it does.

“No, all of us. You keep forgetting that when you mated, you mated with all of us.”

I twist my lips. “Feels a little too good to be true, doesn’t it?”

River smiles. “So, you’re saying you like me?”

I laugh, rolling my eyes, as he grabs my waist, tickling me. “Yes, River, I like you.” He loosens his hold and our foreheads touch. “I do like you. So much. It just feels a little like magic. The whole three daddies thing.”

River tilts his head to the side. “And you don’t believe in magic?”

“Do you?”

He shakes his head, looking back at his Scrabble tiles. “I grew up shifting into a wolf, Rem. Yes, I believe in magic. All kinds of it, in fact.”

“And finding me, was that magic too?”

He picks up his wooden tiles, forming a word. “You aren’t the only one getting a seven-letter bonus.” He places his tiles on the board.

D-E-S-T-I-N-Y

I bite my bottom lip, steadying myself. I don’t know how this happened—but it is happening.

My life is changing whether I like it or not.

But for the first time in literally forever, I do like it.

I like it so much it actually hurts.

* * *

After explaining my past with Callum, I tell East and River too, wanting us all to be on the same page. It’s hard— they know things about me I always try to hide, but at the same time, they have seen me in a state no one else ever has—as a freaking wolf.

And so, I tell them all the gory details of my childhood—the fucked-up foster moms and the perky foster dads. I tell them about why I got separated from Sadie all those years ago, why I got kicked out of art school—how I constantly screw myself over.

In some ways, I want my past to shock them—horrify them even, make them rethink their decision to keep me here.

Because, to be honest, I kinda feel like I’m using them.

And maybe leaving now, before my heart is all wrapped up in theirs, would be for the best.

I’ve told myself this for three days straight, but then I wake up and see their smiling faces and I can’t bear to go.

Like I said, I’m selfish.

Today, I pad down the stairs, smelling coffee and something sweet as I walk into the kitchen where the three guys are talking heatedly.

“What am I missing now?” I ask, reaching for a mug in the cabinet. I know when I reach my arm up, my butt cheeks are in plain sight, and I’m not wearing panties.

“You know how hard it is to argue when you walk in here, looking like that,” East jokes.

I smile, pouring coffee and adding creamer. “And what is it you’re arguing about?”

“Cal wants to go to the pack meeting.”

My lips purse, knowing there must be more to this. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“It’s not bad,” Callum says a little defensively. “I just want to go and see what people are up to.”

River shakes his head. “Not true. You want to go and show off your mate.”

I pull up a chair and join them at the circle table in the breakfast nook and listen.

“It’s not about that.”

“Bullshit.” East cuts a piece of coffee cake from the center of the table and offers it to me. “Just got it in town this morning.”

I swallow, feeling nervous every time they mention town… wondering if they will hear something about a murderer on the loose. East doesn’t say anymore though, instead, he turns back to Callum.

“I thought we didn’t give a shit about the rest of the pack? We disagreed with one thing and they practically threw us out.”

Callum looks at me across the table. “Fine, you’re right. I do want to show off Rem.” My cheeks grow hot as he looks at me. “I want them to know Remedy is ours.”