His giggles made my heart feel overfull. “No! I like this.”
That he hadn’t been played with was another given, so I just wandered over to the patio doors and said, “See this land, Daniel?”
“Nope,” he replied with another giggle. “I see your legs.”
I had to grin as I shuffled around so he could see better. “How about now?”
“I do.”
“The land is all we have. You should remember that.”
He sighed. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Maybe you don’t now, maybe you will when you’re older, but don’t forget I said it, hmm?”
“I won’t, sir.”
“You don’t have to call me ‘sir,’” I corrected, like I’d corrected him every night for the past three nights of his stay here.
“E-Eli.”
Had to figure the kid would loosen up some when he was hanging upside down over my shoulder.
I let him down though, and said, “You caused no trouble. I’m pleased to have you here. If people huff and puff over it, well, it’s what they do, isn’t it?”
His eyes were troubled. “I wasn’t welcome at home anymore.”
I nodded. “Not because of you. Just because of your father.” His tension told me what he felt about him. “But it wasn’t personal.” I needed to ram that home, because otherwise, he’d grow up filled with a bitterness that saw him only wanting revenge on those who’d tossed him out. That was why it was important for him to know that only the land mattered. Not power struggles and strife. The land counted more than anything, because it housed us all, nourished us all, and gave us leave to gather together, to form a community.
Community being the key word.
But I wasn’t about to bamboozle him.
I was having to teach a kid how to be an alpha when he wasn’t ready for it, at all, but shit, what choice did I have?
Not for the first time, I wondered why all this was happening in the order it was.
What had Mom triggered when she’d set that rite into action. Where had the rite even come from?
It was fishy.
And I had a feeling that, at some point, it would bite us in the nuts, but as it stood, I wasn’t concerned, just wary as to what came next for us.
“Your father’s pack might not welcome you anymore, but this one will after a short span of time. They just need to see you’re a good boy is all.”
His eyes were big and bleak in his face. “What if I’m not? What if I’m like—”
I crouched down in front of him. “Did you know I met your dad a few times?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t know that.”
I hummed. “He wasn’t a nice man. You’re nice.”
His smile was shy. “You think so?”
“I know so.” I reached over and scrubbed a hand over his hair. “Now, you go and get some food in you.”
His eyes, so somber before, lit up at that. “Really?”
My lips twitched. “Really.”
When he scampered off, Ethan murmured, “Gonna eat us out of house and home.”
“We can afford it.”
“Surprised you’re being so diplomatic about this.”
I shrugged, got to my feet, and turned back to the patio doors. “Sabina asked me. Her logic made sense.”
“So, get her to ask you about all the shitty things we need to do in the future. Gotcha.”
I sniffed at that. “Fuck you.”
He grinned. “No. I’ll ask her to do that as well.”
I sniffed again, but muttered, “Everything’s happening for a reason.”
“You don’t say, Sherlock,” he replied wryly, but he started tapping his fingers on the armrest, rolling them in a rhythmic tap that was, surprisingly enough, not irritating. “You worried?”
“No.” I blew out a breath. “I’m not. Maybe I should be, but I’m not.”
“It all started when Merinda passed over.”
Merinda, not mother. Never mother.
I got it.
I did.
But it prompted me to ask, “You really want nothing to do with Frank and that side of the family?”
He shrugged. “Why would I? Austin feels the same as me.”
“You’ve talked about it?”
His features crumpled with impatience. “What’s to talk about? I know how he feels, and he knows I feel the same way. We’re disinterested because no good can come from learning about that side of our blood.”
“Family’s all we have,” I informed him softly. “Consider yourself lucky you have so much of it.”
“You do now too,” he countered, acknowledging the bond.
I hummed. “Always had it. It’s different.”
“Can’t believe you didn’t tell us,” he said on a sigh as he tipped his head back.
Our eyes clashed and held, but I told him the truth. “Wasn’t the