Laurie’s Wolves(102)
Laurie lifted her gaze to find Zach smiling. “Laurie will be so pleased. Yes. I’ll tell Logan and Sharon to keep their distance.” He chuckled. “Great… I’ll let her know… Awesome… Bye.” He ended the call and set the phone on the coffee table.
“He’s coming?”
“Yep. This weekend.”
“How did you convince him?”
“I did nothing. I think he finally caved at the visual of his niece growing every day without him ever holding her.”
“Liar.” She narrowed her gaze at Zach. “You’re keeping something from me.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Guess you’ll find out for yourself on Friday.”
“Well, whatever works.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him down for a kiss. “I love you. Thank you.”
Corbin stepped back into the room from the kitchen. “I still can’t get used to finding everything in this house.”
Zach laughed. “We used almost the same floor plan as Griffen. You’ve been to their house dozens of times. I don’t know why it’s so much trouble.”
Corbin leaned over and kissed Laurie from the other side of her rocking chair. “It’s not the floor plan I have trouble with, dolt. It’s the dishes. I can’t find a glass or a plate to save my soul.”
“I keep moving them while you sleep,” Laurie teased. They had moved into the house a month ago after building it at a breakneck pace when they found out she was pregnant. It was on the land her grandfather had left his grandchildren. The man had only known about Miles and Melinda, but the two half-siblings had graciously divided it among the other three also. Cooper and Sawyer would eventually come around and claim their sections. They had to. It was Fated. She could feel it in her bones.
Laurie loved the location, halfway between Sojourn and Cambridge with half a mile separating her from the sister and brother she’d met nine months ago.
“Are you shitting me?” Corbin lifted one brow.
“Of course. Do I look like I have the energy to pull a prank like that? I’m dead on my feet as it is.”
Both men plopped down on the couch across from her, equally exhausted.
“Who should we invite for dinner the first night Sawyer’s here?” Zach asked. “Sharon or Logan or both?”
“You wouldn’t.” Laurie gasped, but a grin spread across her face.
Corbin chuckled. “He so totally would.”
It was evil. She knew that. But then again, she also knew her brother needed to face his fate eventually. He might not be pleased with the idea of mating, but once he stepped into the room and found himself tethered to another human being, he would forget all else.
She wanted to see him happy. Settled. He’d always been too serious. It was time for him to settle down and find himself. In her heart, she knew he would find either Sharon or Logan to be his mate. She also knew the idea was unsettling to him, but Fate had a way of making everything right with the world.
Look what She had done for Laurie. It had been rocky at first as Laurie came into her powers and learned to pay attention to the spirits and the weather, but she was more in tune now.
She understood better what had been her destiny. The people of Sojourn and Cambridge weren’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but they had grown accustomed to the three sets of people living together on the edge of the reservation between the two cities.
The Caucasian humans and parishioners of the Church on the Hill weren’t pleased, but no one was breaking any laws, so they settled into a sort of truce.
The Native American humans, on the other hand, seemed to be plotting and grumbling. Mary called every once in a while with some new piece of information she mysteriously managed to acquire.
Laurie didn’t know who Mary had contact with on the rez, but she suspected it had something to do with whoever she met in the middle of the night nine months ago on a dark gravel road. Hidden. Laurie respected Mary’s privacy. They’d become friends over the last months. She never asked about the dark encounter.
Laurie managed the newly established resort daycare that permitted families to leave their small children so they could ski and enjoy their vacations. Zach was almost always close by, so she felt safe.
As hard as the Church on the Hill worked to deter people from skiing at the Masters’s lodge, they had not won over many people. The resort continued without a blip on their radar.
A small contingency of shifters on the reservation were still up in arms, but since Joyce had arrived, things had calmed down. She even led a women’s group that met once a month to discuss current issues. It helped several members of the community see how absurd it was for them to hold on to deep-seated racism.