Coming Back Home by Megan Linden

Jack had loved the nights of Full Moon Run ever since he’d been a kid. There was something special about the pack gathering to run together under the night sky, surrounded only by the sounds of the forest and each other. It was a symbol of both belonging and freedom. It gave them a chance to come together as one and to run without worry, knowing that there was always someone close by, ready to come when called upon.

The participation wasn’t mandatory and most members of the pack missed a run from time to time, but not Jack. He had attended all of them except one—and that had been because he’d been eight at the time, he’d been sick, and his mothers had insisted he stay in bed. He had tried to sneak out, even then, but Mom B had caught him before he’d gotten down the stairs.

Jack had run with either Julia, his twin sister, or Terry, his best friend, among others, but with both of them away for college, these days he usually stayed with the main group, unless he needed some time alone.

Tonight, he’d started out with the big group, but then he’d grown restless and had ultimately taken off on his own, following his instincts. He hadn’t realized where he was going at first, but when he got to the outskirts of the forest and saw an old house through the trees, he knew—and he wasn’t all that happy about it.

He came to a halt. No, you’re not doing this, he told himself, but his wolf whined under his breath. The pull was strong and, after a short struggle, Jack finally let himself move closer. Some things never changed. Tomorrow there would be time to berate himself, but tonight he wanted… He needed to be right where he was.

He hadn’t seen Connor since that day over two weeks ago when they’d literally crashed into each other, almost precisely eighteen months after Jack had watched him leave Harrington Hills behind.

Jake had been on the way to help his friend David pick up new tiles for the bathroom when the car coming from up ahead had swerved on the road and had headed straight at them. David had managed to avoid a head-on collision, but they’d hit a tree instead, and the other car had bumped into their side. After checking on David, Jack had jumped from the truck and run to the other car to make sure everyone was fine. Then he’d frozen a few steps from the driver’s door.

Connor Warsen. Connor Warsen, who hadn’t even noticed him, had stumbled out of the car in a hurry to check something in the backseat. And before Jack had been able to back away—hell, before he’d been able to take another breath—Connor had been standing there, barely a few feet away, holding a baby who’d smelled like fear and misery and had wailed painfully loud.

Then Connor had looked up, and, when he’d seen Jack, his eyes had opened wide. He’d stopped rocking from side to side and making shushing noises, which had made the baby cry louder.

The baby. The baby who’d smelled like Connor.

Jack had taken a step back—and another. Then he’d turned, walked to the other side of David’s truck and leaned against it, facing the forest. In the back of his mind, he’d registered David making a call then saying help was on the way. Jack hadn’t known if David had been talking to him or to Connor—with the baby—but he’d nodded. He hadn’t been able to even open his mouth to speak.

And now, two weeks later, Jack was standing on the outskirts of the forest behind Connor’s family house and he was reaching out with his senses before he could talk himself out of it. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. There were rules about privacy and boundaries in the pack, but he just— He just had to. He was powerless to do anything else, to be anywhere else.

He’d been at this house numerous times years ago, but it smelled different now. The bitterness, while sharper than before, was mixed with a fresh, sweeter scent. Jack lifted his head and inhaled deeply again, focusing further. The sweetness was likely due to the baby in the house, but he wondered about the other part. Was it Connor’s father? He’d always been bitter and cold but had he become more so, living on his own? Or was it Connor? Could he regret coming home this much already?

Jack’s sense of smell had always been better than his hearing, so it took him a while before he finally heard the murmur of conversation. After another minute, he could recognize the voices and the words.

“I meant what I said. Don’t think I didn’t.” Leonard Warsen’s voice was biting and hard. “If you think I’ll change my mind, that I’ll take pity on you again and—”

“I don’t need your pity,” Connor cut in and something sour twisted in Jack’s stomach.

“You did need it as recently as two weeks ago, as I recall. I told you then you could stay three weeks and the clock’s running out. You better believe me or you’ll be very surprised come Thursday morning.”

“This house is half mine.”

Connor’s father snorted. “Are you gonna fight me for it? Take me to court? Or, better yet, go running to the Harringtons?” Jack tensed at the venom in the man’s voice. “That I’d like to see. The Alpha could enforce the law, but she won’t, will she? Not after you broke her precious little son’s heart.”

“Watch it.” Connor’s voice sounded like he was grinding his teeth and Jack tensed even more. He had only seen Connor angry twice, and both those times had been because of his father. It hadn’t been a pretty sight.

“You’re the one who needs to watch it.” There was a sound of a glass against glass and a chair being shoved. “Come Thursday morning, you and the kid better be gone—or I will make sure you leave.”

A moment later the door shut loudly. The silence that followed was full of anger and bitterness and an underlying note of loneliness.

Jack swallowed a whine that wanted out and he dropped down to rest on his stomach. He wasn’t any kind of a guard but he could just…be there. Then maybe Connor wouldn’t feel so alone.

He had no idea how long he had been lying there, staring through the trees at the Warsen house, when he heard something to his right. Someone was coming. Jack got up and faced the direction of the sounds of crushed leaves and snapping branches.

He caught her scent right before he saw her. Of course. Mom B appeared between the trees and paused when her gaze fell on him. She looked from Jack to the Warsen house, then back at him. She shook her head. Under different circumstances, Jack usually found it funny how similar she acted as a wolf and a human. Right now, he just felt ashamed.

He hung his head low, putting his ears flat against his skull. He could hear her coming closer, so he just stood there, waiting.

She bumped her head under his chin then rubbed the arch of her snout over his neck. She breathed out warm air right into his ear and he almost yapped in a laugh. It had been her way of tickling him ever since he’d been a little boy, but she hadn’t done it in years. Jack nuzzled her, too, inhaling the scent of home and family. He hooked his head around her neck and closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind and wishing he could forget what he’d just witnessed.

Finally, she drew back a bit and tilted her head in the direction they’d both come from. Jack nodded and followed her through the forest, forcing himself not to look back. There was nothing there for him, anyway.

* * * *

The next morning, Jack wasn’t even a bit surprised when he went down for breakfast and found both his mothers waiting for him in the kitchen.

“Hi.” He took a glass out from the cabinet and poured himself orange juice after he sat down at the table. “Have Taylor and Kevin eaten yet?” It was likely, since Jack’s brother and his mate tended to get up early, but Jack still hoped there was a chance they’d offer a diversion.

“Yes. They’ve already left.” Mom A looked up at him from above her coffee cup. “Did you sleep well?”

Jack bit the inside of his cheek but decided to play along. “Yes, but now I’m starving.” He reached for the tower of pancakes in the middle of the table and loaded three onto his plate.

As both his mothers watched him eat, he counted the seconds until one of them would break. He got up to sixty-four.

“Your mom told me where she found you last night.” Mom A, predictably, was the one who spoke first.

“Mm-hmm,” Jack hummed, his mouth full. He would gladly stuff himself with pancakes until the end of days if it would take him out of this conversation, but he knew he had zero chance of that happening. And he had something he needed to say, too, so he swallowed the rest of the food and nodded.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Jack,” Mom A said, shaking her head. “You can’t just…”

Mom B leaned on her elbows on the table. “I know you cared about Connor very much, but we were hoping you’d left it behind you.”

Jack had no answer for that. ‘So was I’ would sound like a lie, because he knew better. He was far from leaving it behind. He wasn’t going to admit it to his mothers, though.

“I get that him coming back to Harrington Hills, especially with a child, has to be difficult for you.” Mom B glanced at Mom A. “But going there in the middle of the night—”

“I wasn’t planning to go any closer,” Jack defended himself.

“But how long would you have stayed up there if I hadn’t found you?”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. Why did you come after me, anyway?” They were always allowed to go wherever they wanted on these runs and no one supervised them once they’d turned seventeen.

Mom B shrugged. “I sensed you needed me, kiddo.”

He frowned, but before he could ask anything else, Mom A spoke up again. “Even if you wouldn’t go farther, you still shouldn’t have done what you did. You know that, right?”

Jack looked down at his plate. “I know.”

Mom A sighed. “You reached out, didn’t you?”

There was no point in lying to them. “Yes.”

Both his mothers started to talk at the same time.

“There are rules in place for a reason—”

“You can’t just do something like this—”

“I know!” Jack cut in, and they fell silent. “I know, okay? I know about the rules and I know I shouldn’t have done it. I get it. It’s not like I planned the whole thing.” He folded his hands over his stomach. “This was the first time I did it and I’m not going to do that again. But I’ve heard something I need to tell you about.”

Mom A shook her head. “This is—”

“I’m not telling you because you’re my moms. I’m telling you because you’re the Alpha pair of the pack, okay?”

That got their attention. As Jack repeated everything he’d heard last night, he watched Mom A go from irritated to pissed off. He was glad it wasn’t directed at him.

“I will show this—”

“Calm down,” Mom B cut her off, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. “We need a plan. We can’t just go there with our claws out without talking to Connor.”

Mom A shook her head. “And he won’t come to us.”

“He may not have a choice.”

“I’m not waiting for that.”

Jack’s eyes widened as the realization hit him. “He didn’t come to you, did he? After he’d come back?”

Mom A hesitated before she shook her head.

“He didn’t. I assumed he might be waiting for the Full Moon Run. We could’ve had the Joining Ceremony on the fly. It’s not like we need preparations for a baby. She’s already a part of the pack by proxy, since he is.” She rattled her fingers over her cup, making Mom B grimace. “We’ve been patient, but now I have to do something.”

Jack couldn’t believe this. One of the first things Connor should have done after arriving in town was to ask for a meeting with the Alpha, especially since he’d been arriving with a baby.

“I thought you’d met with him and just…didn’t tell me about it.”

He’d been both disappointed and relieved not to see Connor and the baby last night, but he’d figured it had been discussed with the Alpha. A baby of a pack member didn’t necessarily have to go through the Joining Ceremony right after the first full moon, but to not even contact the head of the pack for so long…

“Wow, he really doesn’t want to deal with anything related to me,” Jack blurted out before he could stop himself, then grimaced. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

Mom B leaned closer to him and caught his gaze. “It’s not on you, you hear me?”

“Your mom is right.” Mom A nodded. “He should have come to me, and if he was too afraid to look you in the eye, he could have arranged the meeting somewhere else. I’ve been patient, but that’s not going to fly any longer.”

Jack sat up. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go talk to him, of course.” Mom A shrugged with that quirked-up smirk that meant trouble.

Jack leaned toward her. “Mom, don’t be too harsh on him just because he”—broke my heart—“messed up in the past. I know he did, but if his father is serious, Connor’s in trouble and we have to help him.”

“We.” Mom A pointed at herself and Mom B. “We have to help him, and we will. You need to stay out of it.”

“You just told me it’s not on me,” Jack protested.

“And fixing it isn’t on you, either. And Jack, honey”—Mom A’s tone turned gentle—“I don’t want you to get mixed up in this. I don’t want you to get hurt again, okay? And seeing you hurting won’t endear Connor to me, to be honest.”

Obviously. “You’ll still help him, though.” Jack didn’t turn it into a question, but he still needed to hear her say it.

“Of course, I will. I’m the Alpha to the entire pack, not only to those I like. But I can help him then teach him a lesson or two about—”

“Jolene,” Mom B cut in.

“Fine.” Mom A raised her hands and sat back. “I’m going to help him. Jack stays out of it. Period.”

He was fine with it. It wasn’t like he wanted to get involved in all this.

No, really, I don’t.

Redefining Home by Megan Linden

Adrian Marlow was usually a pretty upbeat guy, if he said so himself, but the closer they got to Harrington Hills, the more sour his mood was becoming.

“I told you that you didn’t have to drive me,” Patrick muttered from the back seat where he‘d relocated earlier to try—and had failed at—catching up on sleep. Their road trip had been great and all, but they weren’t sleeping late most days.

“I told you I don’t mind.” Adrian shot his friend a glance in the rearview mirror. “It’s not like I have a place to be or a deadline to meet.”

The more times he said it, the quicker he should have been used to it, but after three weeks and counting since he’d walked out of his former employer’s office one last time, he still hadn’t gotten there yet.

“You could always drop me in the nearest town or—”

“Dude, what is it with you? I told you. I’m fine.”

Patrick gave him a look in the rearview mirror that Adrian pretended not to see. “You do remember I can sce—sense the anxiety coming off from you, right?”

Scent. That was what Patrick had been about to say and Adrian knew it. He grimaced. “Privacy, please.”

“Can’t help it,” Patrick said with his eyes closed.

If Adrian were lucky, maybe his friend would fall asleep soon—or preferably right this second.

But, no, of course not.

“Also, don’t change the subject. You obviously don’t want to go there, so why are you doing it to yourself?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go there,” he protested. He wasn’t even lying—much. “I’ve read so many cool things about that pack in the last few years that I’d really like to see it. I’m curious about what makes them so famous.”

“Well, two women at the top of the pack, for one thing,” Patrick told him.

“That would make people talk but wouldn’t gather so much of a good reputation, so you know it’s something else,” Adrian said. They’d had this conversation before, but after they’d spent the last three weeks glued to one another, they were bound to circle around to the same topics.

And Adrian would much rather argue sociopolitics of the werewolf culture for the hundredth time than talk about why he couldn’t quite make himself pass on this visit.

The memories of bright blue eyes and a dimpled smile came back uninvited and Adrian clasped the steering wheel harder.

It might be the most masochistic thing he had ever done, but he just had to… He had to know. He had no desire to see the two of them together, but he hoped that learning Roy was mated, maybe even married, would finally let him move on.

“Whatever,” Patrick muttered, closing his eyes again. “I don’t care what special mojo they have. As long as they let me stay, I’m good.”

“They will.”

Adrian got no response but he didn’t expect one. For all Patrick’s bravado, he had to be stressed about moving across half the country in search of a new pack after being thrown out of the old one. Harrington Pack did seem like the best bet, but it was still a big change. One that Adrian, as a human, couldn’t even fully understand.

He stared at the road ahead. Everything that had happened in the last few weeks—leaving his job, packing up, the long road trip with Patrick—seemed to be coming to some kind of a resolution. It wasn’t going to end in Harrington Hills, not for Adrian, who had plans to continue heading east until he hit the coast, but something was going to happen there. He could feel it.

If he were lucky, he’d be able to free himself of his baggage before leaving the town. If not, he would leave heartbroken, after having an old wound scratched open again. But regardless of the outcome, Harrington Hills would be the last stop on his quest to have a real cleanse of his entire life.

If only his stomach didn’t clench as he passed the sign proclaiming Harrington Hills was only twenty-seven miles out.

If only.

* * * *

The town looked lovely at first glance. It had that small-town, cozy feel that was pretty foreign to Adrian, who had spent all his life in San Francisco. He’d seen a lot of small towns in the last few weeks, though. As they had been traveling through the country, they’d usually spent nights in places similar to this one—away from a big city, close to nature, with one area where most of the town life concentrated.

Patrick was wide awake now, staring through the window and taking in the sights.

“Let’s stop for something to eat before we do anything else, all right?” Adrian suggested. The tension in the car was obvious, even to his human senses, and it had to be a nightmare for Patrick. Getting out of the car should help both of them.

“Yeah, let’s. I’m starving.” Patrick pointed to the left. “How about here?”

Adrian caught sight of the diner sign out of the side window and shrugged. He was thinking about something a bit farther away from the center of the town but… “Sure.”

It took him a minute to find a place to park, but they stopped at a little lot in front of a supermarket. He stretched as soon as he left the car and watched Patrick do the same. Then his friend closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The change was instantaneous. His shoulders dropped and the lines on his face cleared.

“What the hell?” Adrian muttered, more to himself than to Patrick, but of course the guy picked up on it.

He opened his eyes. “It’s a werewolf thing.” At Adrian’s raised eyebrows, he shrugged. “You forbade me to mention anything about smell.”

Adrian rolled his eyes. “I meant it as ‘stop smelling me’ and you know it.” He glanced around. The parking lot was pretty empty, but it was early in the day. Most locals were probably at work. A few people that passed them sent them curious looks but seemed friendly enough.

He still couldn’t relax.

“The smell is… It’s right,” Patrick said, peering around as well. “Peaceful and content. People are happy here, in general.”

Adrian nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s nice,” he told his friend, not knowing what else to say. “Come on.”

As they walked to the diner, they attracted more looks but, like before, the people seemed friendly enough. Most of them focused on Patrick, anyway.

“It’s because I’m a lone werewolf, outside of their pack,” Patrick told him when he pointed it out. “That drags every wolf’s attention.”

Adrian nodded. He figured it might have been that.

Patrick smirked as he threw his arm around Adrian’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. Your pretty face can still turn some heads, too.”

Adrian snorted. “What a relief.” They walked into the diner and he searched around. No Roy. He knew that even in a small town like Harrington Hills the chance he would run into Roy was small. Still, he couldn’t help himself.

“You boys looking for something?” A waitress with a big smile and an even bigger hairdo came up to them with a swagger in her hips that women half her age would be jealous of. Hell, Adrian was jealous. He had no ‘game’ to speak of, as his friends had repeatedly told him over the years.

“For a big, good breakfast, ma’am,” Patrick told her with a smile and a nod.

Yeah, Patrick definitely had game.

“Oh, I like you.” The waitress grinned at him. “Pick the table. I’ll be right there with you.”

They took a seat at one of the booths next to the windows.

“Stop staring,” Patrick whispered, grabbing the laminated menu and Adrian turned away from the window.

“I can’t help it,” he said but reached for the menu as well. He was hungry. He just wasn’t sure if his tight stomach would tolerate anything.

Then the smells from the kitchen hit him and, oh yeah, he needed to eat something right now.

The waitress—Betty, according to her nametag—came up to them with two mugs and a coffee pot.

“So, what brings two pretty boys like yourselves to Hills?” she asked, pouring them coffee.

“I’m thinking of staying,” Patrick said, picking up his mug in a gesture of a toast. “My friend here gave me a ride.”

Betty searched Adrian up and down then winked. “What a ride that must have been.”

Adrian coughed and heat rose in his face but Patrick just grinned. “Long and hard, of course. Is there any other kind worth talking about?”

Adrian sent him a murderous glare as Betty threw her head back as she laughed.

“We drove from San Francisco,” Adrian said after clearing his throat. “It took us a while.”

“Lovely sights along the way, I bet,” Betty told him, but she winked at Patrick. Adrian just shook his head. He wasn’t going to win with these two.

“Do you know anyone around here or are you just taking a chance?” she asked, leaning her hip against the edge of the booth.

“I don’t, but your town’s reputation precedes you.” Patrick shrugged. “Seemed like a safe enough bet to take a chance on.”

“I knew a guy from around here once,” Adrian found himself saying when Betty glanced at him.

“Oh?” She perked up. “Who?”

“Roy Cocker?”

She nodded and smiled. “Roy’s born and bred in Hills. Where did you meet? In college?”

Adrian shook his head. “We did an internship in San Francisco at the same law firm years ago.” Ten. Ten years and Adrian still couldn’t let go.

“He has his own law practice here,” Betty said. “He and William handle most of the pack’s business.”

There it was, the name Adrian both expected and feared to hear. Under the table, he curled the fingers of one hand around the wrist of the other.

“They’re running the firm together?” He tried to make it sound like he was just making conversation and Betty seemed to buy it, but Patrick sent him a look that called bullshit.

“Oh, they do everything together, those two.” Betty shook her head with a soft smile.

That…that hurt, but it was what he had expected.

Then, because sometimes it was better to pull off the Band-Aid fast, he asked, “Are they married yet?”

Betty chuckled. “We wish, but no. Still, half the town’s rooting for them, so, there’s always hope.”

Oh, great. That’s what this story needed. Not only are they destined mates or whatever, but they have a fan club, too.

Adrian had to get away from this town as soon as this lunch was over.

“We’d have to convince them to mate first, though,” she added.

Wait, what? They’ve been together for years and haven’t mated? Even with Adrian’s limited knowledge about werewolves, that seemed weird. “Aren’t they…?”

She shrugged. “No, and we don’t know why not, unless you have some insider information you want to share.” She raised one of her very on-point eyebrows, leaning closer, and Adrian coughed.

He had some insider information but apparently it wasn’t worth much. “No, sorry. I haven’t seen Roy in years. You’re definitely more up-to-date.”

“Shoot.” She shrugged before topping off their coffee mugs again. “There’s hoping, though, right?”

Hoping. Yeah, right. He nodded at her and she got around to taking their orders and let them be, leaving Adrian to wallow in the regret of asking her anything at all.

Patrick waited before she disappeared into the kitchen then turned to stare at him. “Dude.”

If ever one word could sound more like ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’, Adrian was yet to hear it.

He shrugged then hid his face in his arms he’d folded on the table. “I know,” he muttered before turning to gaze through the window again.

And that was when he saw him.

Roy Cocker was crossing the street, and it looked like he was heading to the diner. Adrian hid his face as his heart tried to jump out of his chest. He was so fucked.