Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,60

us stronger, right?

"You know," I told Lev, "sometimes, I think that our kids accept things a lot easier than we do. I kinda feel like we might learn a thing or two from them. I'm sure Gabby will be happy to introduce him to a few people."

"She seems like a very good kid," he told me. "Her eyes are a little darker than I expected, but so far as I care, that's a good thing. Now I'll get out of your hair. Thank you again for inviting us, ma'am."

He bobbed his head and stepped back, fading into the crowd as easily as he would a forest, I suspected. The strange thing was that I wasn't scared of him. Not even a bit. The bears had shocked me when we first met, but the tiger? Oh, I would probably have a mild-freakout when I saw him in his other form, but as a man, he just seemed like a struggling single dad. That was something I could relate to.

But I wasn't done yet. With the guests leaving, I needed to thank them all for coming. So many had brought presents, and Gabby had managed quite the haul. Considering that most of these people had never even heard of a quinceañera before this? I wanted to make sure they all knew we weren't taking it for granted.

I was standing beside the door shaking hands and thanking people when my darling daughter showed up with her entourage. "Mom!" she said, all but pushing into the line. "Hey, I wanted you to meet my friends. I didn't really get the chance to introduce you earlier." And she glanced at my parents pointedly.

"It's ok," I assured her. "It was a little hectic at first."

"This," she said, "is Nikolai. He's in Roman's grade." The boy smiled and nodded, looking only slightly awkward. "And this," Gabby went on, "is Zaria. She's a sophomore too. That's her sister Ridley, who graduated last year. And the redhead is Sheridan, their oldest sister. I've already decided that Zaria and Nikolai are going to end up hanging out with us."

I just nodded. "Sounds like you have it all figured out. But, you still have a date with your grandparents tonight."

"Yeah, my abuelos are taking me out for dessert!" And she gestured to the door. "Let me walk them out and I'll be right back, Mom!"

It took her a while, though. Ian found me not long after that and proceeded to help thank everyone. Ashley and Henry made it clear that they'd handle cleaning everything up. The entire Sisterhood promised they'd pitch in with gathering up Gabby's presents, but Ian said they could drop them off tomorrow, and the little smile he flashed me made it clear he had plans for tonight.

Then, after what felt like the longest day of my life, it was all finally over. We headed back to my place, Gabby headed upstairs to change out of her dress, and then came back down with a backpack that she left beside the door. I noticed, but didn't want to say anything. Not until my daughter - still wearing her tiara, even if she was in jeans now - and my parents left for their big evening out.

And then I sighed and flopped back into the nearest chair. "Oh my goodness, that was a long day," I groaned.

"About to get longer," Ian said as he pulled out his phone. "Evidently, your darling daughter asked Seth for a little help, and he's now conspiring with her."

"Uh..." That sounded almost nefarious. "What are they doing?"

Ian quickly typed out a message and then put his phone back into his pocket. "It seems that she wanted to do something special when she tells her boyfriend how she feels." He pushed his hands into his pockets, still standing before me. "So, Lane and Seth have offered to hang out in the living room while Gabby and Roman have a hot tub date. Since it's her big day, we made a guess that she'd be allowed to stay out late so long as she's mostly supervised, and then she can just crash in my room for the night. The guys will make sure that Roman leaves."

"And those two will hear if anything gets out of hand, so they don't even have to watch," I realized. "Ok, that's actually kinda cute."

"Yeah, well, we were going on the theory that you keep saying you wanted her to make her own decisions, but guessed that you'd prefer they aren't