Guido, the hero of the night, received more than one kiss of gratitude from the women of OOPS, which he’d accepted humbly before heading into surgery. Except Nina. She’d slapped him on the back and told him the next time she said create a distraction, yell or some such shit. Don’t jump on a crazy bitch with a gun. Because she’ll use it.
Guido had shaken his head. He’d done it for a reason. For all the wrong he’d done, for all the money he’d taken from others when he knew he couldn’t provide the service he’d promised, had left him empty. Just this once, he’d wanted to do something selfless.
Yet, his simple act of loyalty had helped save the children, and that was something none of them would ever forget.
“I’m afraid to leave them,” Harry murmured against the top of her head.
Mara nodded, her throat tightening up. The sight of them vulnerable in sleep, the complete abandon as they sprawled out in all their innocence, made Mara send up a silent prayer of thanks: for friends like Nina and Wanda—for Marty and Keegan—and Guido, too. “Ditto.”
“I was so scared we’d never find them.”
His gruff confession made her smile. She loved that Harry wasn’t afraid to say it out loud. “But we did. That’s all that matters.” She squeezed his now-healing hand, tucking it close.
“You didn’t turn me.”
“Phew. What a relief, right? All that shift-shaming was wearin’ me down,” she teased.
Harry chuckled, pulling her from the entry to her guest bedroom and closing the door. He led her into the bedroom and patted the bed where he sat down, his eyes lined with weariness. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. How could you have known Leah was the one who’d turned you by scratching you? You have nothing to be sorry for.” Mara still couldn’t reconcile the Leah she knew and the one she’d seen waving a gun in her face tonight. It would be a long time before she was able to connect those dots. Her cluelessness. How completely unaware she’d been of Leah’s insanity.
Harry ran a hand over his eyes. “I didn’t even remember all the details of that lunchroom incident until Guido talked about it today. I knew Leah and Astrid were there, but . . . Right up until that point, I thought he was going to tell us it was—”
“Astrid,” Mara finished for him with a nod. “Me, too. She’s pretty moody and temperamental, very possessive of me. It made complete sense she’d be the culprit. Especially after she behaved the way she did when we told her we were pretend lovers.”
“Speaking of that,” he wiggled his eyebrows.
Mara fought a sigh of happiness, full of hope. “Not before we talk about a couple of things. First, I want to apologize to you for being so offended by the notion you didn’t want to be one of us. I get why. Because of Mimi and Fletcher. I realized it after I told you how old I was.” She turned to him, cupping his face. “You’ll outlive them. I wouldn’t want that for my children either.”
His hand circled her wrist, bringing her palm to his cheek and planting a kiss on it. “But being one of you tonight was a gift. If not for these ears that can hear Nina grousing under her breath here at the cottage when I’m at Pack, I would never have heard Mimi’s breathing. If not for my uncanny eyesight, I wouldn’t have seen those straws.”
Mara’s breath hitched on its way out. “If not for Leah, none of this would have happened.”
“But then I never would have known you fantasized about me all day long, if not for Leah.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Oh, stop patting yourself on the back. It wasn’t all day long. Couple hours, tops,” she joked.
“You liked me all that time, and you never said a word.”
She wiggled an admonishing finger. “Not true, Mr. Emmerson. I said a word, or ten drunken words to be precise, at the Christmas party last year. You just didn’t take heed.”
Harry scratched his hair and grinned. “Have I mentioned I’m not so good at hints—flirting—especially when they come from women as hot as you?”
She giggled, with ease, with joy. “So you thought I was hot, but never said a word either? You’re just as much to blame.”
“I suck at striking up conversation—especially with a woman.”
“Stalemate then. But look at us now, all small-talking.”
His face took a serious turn, but he put his arm around her, sliding her near. “What will the council do now, do you think?”
“What can they do now? Officially, there is no serum. If you did drink it, it clearly didn’t matter because you were already a werewolf. The only turn that counts is Leah’s.”