Fated for Her Wolves - Tara West Page 0,82

put on their coats before going outside to help Annie and her mates get their luggage out of Hakon’s truck. Annie’s big, gray husky was the first to jump out, hopping through the snow like a bunny, his bushy tail acting like a rudder as he cut a path through drifts at least three feet tall.

Amara was shocked at how much Annie had changed. She’d chopped her long, beautiful hair into a short, chin-length bob. But that was the least of it. She looked like a blimp, with a stomach that matched Amara’s.

When her cousin finally made it inside and had stripped away layers of clothes, Amara greeted Annie with a sideways hug, a necessity, given their advanced stages of pregnancy.

Amara patted her cousin’s belly. “You look ready to pop.”

“I am, just about.” Annie beamed, elbowing her in the ribs. “I wanted you to deliver my first baby, but we might give birth at the same time.”

“Maybe.” She frowned at her stomach. According to the chart, she had four days to go, but her baby might not last that long. “I’ll help deliver yours and then you can help my mates deliver mine.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Annie laughed.

She suddenly wished she hadn’t joked about delivering their babies together. What if it came true?

She froze at the sound of a little yelp, followed by a whimper. Hakon was brushing snow off his boots on the front porch, a wiggly bulge that reminded her of a caterpillar trying to escape its cocoon under his fleece jacket.

She pointed at his chest. “What is that?”

Chuckling, he unbuttoned his coat, revealing a ball of yellow with a tail that slapped his chest. “I can’t hide him in my coat forever.” He offered her the squirmy puppy as he entered the house. “He wants out.”

“Oh, Hakon!” It took all her willpower not to break into tears. Damn pregnancy hormones. She held the puppy close, and he gave her several sloppy kisses on the mouth. She stared into his big brown eyes, her heart aching. He looked much like Buster when he’d been a puppy, and something about his scent was familiar.

“Aw,” Annie said, patting his head. “He’s so sweet. A yellow Lab, just like your Buster.”

She nodded, too choked up to answer.

Her dogs circled her legs as she carried the puppy into the living room. She sat on the rug with him, pleased when her dogs greeted him as if he was an old friend. Max circled the pup, sniffing. Then he laid in front of him and licked the top of his head like a mother cleaning her babe.

When Hakon sat beside her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a big kiss on his cheek. “He’s perfect. Thank you.”

He shrugged. “They were selling these at a gas station outside Fairbanks. I knew I had to get you one.”

Clutching his bottle, Evin toddled over and patted him on the head. “Budder!’ he exclaimed, his cherubic cheeks flushing.

A chill swept up Amara’s spine. She had never heard Evin speak Buster’s name before, and yet he chose to say it two months after his death. She smiled. “He looks like Buster, doesn’t he?”

Evin pointed at the pup. “Budder.”

A strange feeling swelled inside her chest like a balloon filing up with air. “How old is this puppy?” she asked Hakon.

He rubbed his beard. “The breeder said eight weeks.”

Amara clutched her throat. “My goddess!”

When the puppy crawled into her lap and rolled onto his back, demanding pets, she knew what she was feeling was no coincidence.

She picked him up and inhaled his familiar scent. “He smells like Buster,” she said. Her heart raced.

Hakon leaned over her, sniffing the puppy, which licked his nose. “Why do you think I picked him?” he said with a wink.

Could it be true? Had her loyal Lab found his way back to her?

When Luc came into the house and dropped a suitcase on the floor, Amra waived him over. “Smell him.” Luc had a better sense of smell than any of them. If he believed this puppy was Buster reincarnated, then it had to be so.

He smelled the puppy’s head, and his eyes widened. “Great Ancients! He smells just like Buster.”

Her heart soared. Holding up her puppy, she looked at him with misty eyes. “You’ve come back to me.”

Buster Junior answered with a yelp, his tail slapping the air.

She kissed and petted him while her dogs sniffed him again, tails wagging. Blinking up at Hakon, her smile widened. “Thank you.”

He patted Buster