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Gray Back Alpha Bear(38)

By:T. S. Joyce


The baby bumped against her hand, and Gia smiled because she was making the right decision to leave this place and explore the meaning of home. She hadn’t ever had that before—a place where she felt completely comfortable to relax into the person she was. Not until Creed. He was home. The Gray Backs were home.

She offered Mom and Dad one last sad smile and left them there in their silent anger. This had gone as expected except for one thing. She’d thought she would be broken all over again at their rejection, but she wasn’t. She felt relieved she finally had someone who stuck up for her, and that for the first time ever, she’d been brave enough to defend herself against their callous words.

Dad had called her privileged, and she was.

She was privileged to have found Creed to open new possibilities at a life she’d never dreamed of. To open the possibility of family and friendships she hadn’t known existed.

As she looked up at Creed walking beside her, his churning gray eyes worried as he pulled her against his side, she realized something life-changing.

Money didn’t make a home.

The people she surrounded herself with—that she loved and allowed to love her back—they were home.





Chapter Thirteen




“Trailer park, how I’ve missed you!” Willa crowed, flopping out of Creed’s truck onto the gravel road that curved through the Grayland Mobile Park.

Gia shook her head and laughed as her friend kissed the ground, then flicked her tongue all around, spitting and complaining about dirt in her mouth.

Peanut Butter Spike barked constantly, his Mohawk bouncing as he jumped up at her knees in a happy doggy greeting. Jason and Clinton surged forward and hugged her and Willa up as if they hadn’t seen them in years. They took turns clapping Creed on the back and shoving Matt in the shoulder.

Damn, it was good to be back here. She’d even missed Nards.

Easton paced along the tree line outside of the park, limping on his bad leg. Gia waved and strode toward him to reunite with the last of the Gray Back Crew.

“Hey Easton,” she said, slightly out of breath from the walk.

“I made you something,” he said, eyes flicking to her, then over her shoulder where she could hear the rest of the crew trailing her.

“Another knife?”

“No, better. A present for the cub.”

Shocked, she ghosted a glance to Creed behind her, who was donning a slow-spreading smile.

“Well,” Creed said easily, “show us then. I want to see it, too.”

Easton headed off into the woods, his gait uneven, and Gia followed right behind.

“I’ve decided you aren’t going to die,” Easton said, allowing her to catch up.

“If Beaston says it’s true, it must be so. She’ll live!” Clinton said from behind them.

Easton threw him a lethal glare with those unsettling green eyes of his. “I bought a book about it and read it. You’ll be okay.”

“Wait, you went into town to buy a book? And you let him?” Creed asked, turning a glare on Jason.

“It’s not like I can control him, Creed. You can barely control him. I felt like living, so no, I didn’t stop him from going into Saratoga.” Jason’s voice dipped to a grumpy mutter. “I value my life.”

“There,” Easton said, slowing down to gesture at an ancient pine.

A sturdy ladder led up to a rough plank porch, and on top of that sat a sprawling treehouse.

Gia skidded to a stop and stared at the structure. It even had a cedar shingle roof and refurbished glass windows. “Oh, Easton, it’s incredible!”

“Willa said you had a treehouse growing up,” Easton said, watching her. “Now your baby can have a treehouse, too. Cubs like trees.”

She approached it in awe. Above the door was a wooden rafter that read Willamena Junior or Darth Vader.

Willa giggled and wrapped her arm around Gia’s neck. “I may or may not have told Easton if you had a boy, his name would be Darth Vader.”

Gia laughed as Creed and the boys scaled the ladder to check it out. Gia climbed up last, and she was surprised at how much room was inside the treehouse. Easton’s craftsmanship was incredible. It was one large room with a little wooden table against the wall and branches snaking through the corners of the house.

It did remind her of the sanctuary she’d found in the treehouse in the woods behind her childhood home. Gia lay down in the middle of the floor and looked up at the vaulted ceiling. Little dust tornadoes swirled in the bright morning light that filtered through the warped windows. Willa lay down on one side of her and Creed on the other, their heads creating a semi-circle. Easton and the others settled onto the smooth wood floors, too, completing the circle.