smile on her face. She’s at the age where she’s aware of the major cause of her parents’ marriage failure, and she struggles with not seeing her father in a less affectionate light because of his actions.
“Bye, Mom!” Maggie calls. “Bye, Deek!” she adds.
“Yeah, Deek, bye,” Charlotte chimes. She looks to Ginny. “Have fun with the Pack.”
“She gets to see Liam?” Maggie demands, apparently not having realized before this that Ginny is going to see the wolves this weekend. Also apparent is the fact that Maggie is feeling proprietary over a boy who she considers her puppy. She turns pleading eyes onto Ginny. “He likes to be carried,” she tells her as if she’s an authority on this matter.
“I’ll remember that,” Ginny says wryly, the corner of her mouth quirked.
“They’ll be back on Sunday at six,” Julién announces from the driver’s seat. A clear indication he’d like to wrap this up and be on their way. And that’s fair. His time with our children is extremely limited.
With a final wave, I step back and bump into Deek.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, but he doesn’t edge away from me to give me room. Instead, we stand together, unified in watching my girls be driven away, Ginny behind us, exuding unhappiness so thickly, I think I can taste it.
“How often do you have to let them go like this?” Deek asks, not sounding the least bit pleased about this arrangement.
I make an appropriate answer. “When he can schedule time to have them. It’s only fair.”
“HOW?” Deek whispers, the word coming from deep in his chest, speaking without meaning to just behind the shell of my ear, making a shivery sensation travel up my spine.
I lock my knees and slap the back of my neck. “They’re half his,” I explain.
“You have the day off today, right, Sue?” Ginny asks from behind us.
I turn, moving further away from Deek because my body is strangely attuned to him and it needs to chill out a little. “Yep,” I confirm, searching her troubled eyes. “Why?”
She’s hugging herself. “Will you come with me? To this Pack visit?”
My lips part, my instinct almost making me say yes before I think to check with Deek. If he says no, I think I’m going to fight Finn on this. Fight all of them. If I can. I realize Ginny is sort of theirs, as far as they’re concerned.
But Ginny is also sort of mine.
This girl has practically been raised with my daughter. And Ginny is all alone. Sure, the Pack was welcoming. But it’s clear to see that she’s scared. She needs someone in her corner.
I look to Deek, my jaw tightening as I prepare my argument.
Sensing my attention on him, his gaze flicks up. He takes one look at the way I’m going on the defensive, and he jerks back.
Ginny laughs softly. “I don’t think Deek is the one who makes the rules.”
He shakes his head, eyes on the sidewalk. “I don’t. I don’t make any rules.”
Smiling at him, I reach out and place a reassuring hand on his arm, my touch making his eyes widen, making him go stock still, and I know I have all of his attention even though he never quite makes eye contact.
I move to Ginny, wrapping her up in a hug. She clings to me, a girl who needs someone she can trust at her back. “Time to visit the Pack.”
CHAPTER 28
LUCAN
I can tell that Susan is bracing herself for a fight. She’s probably thinking she’s going to meet resistance when she declares that she intends to stay instead of simply dropping Ginny off here.
But the moment we open up the car doors, we’re swamped with shifters—in both forms—who envelop Susan and Ginny alike by dragging them into the Half Moon House.
“Will you stay for lunch?” Jennifer asks Susan.
Gail scoffs and grins at our guests. “I’ll warn you, if you say yes for lunch, expect to find yourself still here for supper. You could be in the driveway and we’d haul you back in.”
Susan’s face undergoes several shuttered expressions that still betray her surprise—and her relief. She shares a look with Ginny, and tugs her into her side for a motherly squeeze. “I’d love to. Thank you for inviting me to your home again.”
“Of course!” Jenn cries. “Consider yourself family now. You’ve been adopted.”
Susan’s brows shoot up even as her eyes narrow. She shoots a look at me, making me duck. “You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that. Deek and Finn were