"I'm going to miss you so much. I can't believe you're not coming home with me." Carolyn dropped onto the sofa next to me. She smiled at the little bump now visible on my belly. Her bags were by Lucille's front door. Her impromptu visit after Antoine had gone had done us both the world of good.

I leaned my head on her shoulder. "A master's degree isn't for me. I don't think it ever was. There's a wider world, and Benton is my home now." My eyes found Paul already staring at me from across the room with a silly grin on his face. In the weeks that followed, Lucille returned to us but never wished to challenge my lead. In our downtime, Paul encouraged me to paint, draw, to do anything but study the art of others.

I hated to admit it; the boy had been right. There was a therapeutic solace in creating something from nothing, and as Paul had said, ′It wasn't like I didn't have an incredible view out of my bedroom window to inspire me'—our bedroom window, that is.

It wasn't long before my art adorned the walls of our house, garage, and the law practice of Arthur Jenkins. I even donated one to the diner, but Pamela had turned her nose up and asked if it was returnable. If Arthur was surprised when we instructed him we were no longer selling Lucille's, he didn't show it.

The house on the bluff was now officially ours.

Through the double doors to the Juliet balcony, we watched our boyfriends talking. Dressed in lived-in dark jeans, a simple t-shirt, and signature sandy bedroom hair, Paul was as devastatingly handsome as the day I had met him. Maybe even more so now the pregnancy hormones had kicked up a gear. Paul paused mid-conversation and threw a cursory glance over his shoulder. He mouthed the words, ′I can hear you.′

I grinned. Didn't I know it? After ascending as Alpha, my ability to read Paul's thoughts became instinctual, the frequency regular and I found it difficult not to do all the time. For the first week, he'd stomped about like a child, screaming for me to get out of his head. When he was really wound up, his protests made me laugh even harder.

Welcome to my world, Mr. Benton.

It wasn't always that way; there were times when it became more than handy, and not only when I'd forgotten something at the grocery store. The sex went from mind-blowing to other-worldly. Knowing what ran through his head at the same time he was in mine was indescribable.

Paul turned again and flashed me a wicked grin. This was the other upside. I could now make that boy blush quicker than he could make me. Seven billion smiles on Earth, and Paul's was the only one I wanted to see for the rest of my life.

For a moment, I prayed for our child if it were a girl and for all of the teenage boys who would attempt to date her. May the powers that be help them both, especially if she was stuck in her ways as Paul or as naïve as I had been. This very idea was the sole reason why Paul was insistent we were having a boy. His brain could not comprehend the idea of internally vetting boyfriends.

Luke's funeral was rough. Carlyle, Jenny, and Paul banded together, dusted themselves off, and made a pact to celebrate him each and every day in any way they could honor his memory, but with a knowledge that power corrupts and they would never allow it to happen again. The loss for Paul had been too great.

It had been a double blow. The part that shook me the most was—Paul had known this was the only plan B. It was the idea Paul had refused to entertain after leaving his father's house, but for the sake of his unborn child and myself, both had allowed trade to happen.

As loving towards his children as David always was, he would be an even better grandfather if he survived long enough to see it. Lucille, ever present in my life now, would make sure of it.

Long gone were the days when I questioned my trust in Paul or any other man currently in my life. Peace was made with the past and everyone in it. It helped that Antoine's body, along with the car he'd driven from Georgia, found its way into Benton Ridge. Paul never said how, and I never asked. Luckily for all of us, this town is one when it comes to family, for our pack, my pack. For outsiders, that would be the only story they'd hear—If you don't drive safely in Benton, it's your bad luck. Take it from someone who knows. And let's face it, who would come looking?

The sale of our apartment in Georgia would afford me time off when our baby arrived. And not only that, unbeknown to Paul, I'd started to frequent a cramped indie art gallery in town.

They'd seen my work, understood I'd graduated with a major in Art History, and seemed keen to expand our horizons together. When a larger industrial property on the central high street became available—I couldn't resist. A joint venture. After back-and-forth inquiries with the realtor, we'd agreed on a price. The dream of selling my art with the backing of an established indie gallery became tangible.

I was beyond excited to share the news with Paul when it became official if I could keep my mouth and brain shut until then.

After a tearful goodbye with Carolyn and several insistences that I would come and visit over Christmas break, she took the trip back to Georgia. Carolyn and Sam's relationship had come on leaps and bounds after their forced cohabitation. They were now "living in sin," as she called it, with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, and my God, did she plan on being immoral. Sam was good for her, perhaps a little innocent, but nothing she wouldn't change.

Paul's arms wound around my shoulders from behind and squeezed. He pressed his lips against the side of my head. Like a guard dog, Paul never left my side for long. He was lucky I tolerated his company exceptionally well. Everything about our future sparkled. There were no limits to where we would go and what either of us could achieve. I studied the simple diamond band on my finger, and a wide grin touched each cheek at the thought of my future name—Dana Benton.

I'd waited two long weeks before I gave Paul my answer. By the end of the first, he'd outright called me a sadist—but a sexy one. Maybe I was. When I finally put him out of his misery, I'd not been able to wipe the smug grin off his face ever since.

Carlyle stood in the kitchen. He looked like a different man already. You were more likely to see a smile grace his face than a scowl nowadays, and he was busy preparing to go traveling—with Jenny. It was my first act as Alpha—enabling Carlyle to be the lone wolf we always should have been. Any pack wolf was free to come and go, and travel the world if they wanted to. Good luck to him. He would need it by the truckload.

My memories of that night were fragmented, like watching a movie that you fall asleep to, but the words still filter through, influencing your dreams. And Paul, against all odds, had let it go. Now, my focus was on Paul, helping him heal.

We all made a deal to say what we felt and do what our hearts yearned to do most at that moment. That way, we would never have to suffer an uprising again, live with regrets, or feel the need to return once our lives on this side of heaven had been extinguished.

With one last kiss that almost had me kicking the guests out, Paul retreated over to Carlyle. The sense of belonging that surged up from the pit of my stomach as I watched them all was overwhelming. But again, that may have been the hormones. Sometimes, identity isn't a label. You don't have to be one thing or another. It can be a feeling, a knowing that you are right where you are supposed to be. I had a place to lay roots now. A home and a family of my own. And as Paul would say, after that, nothing else should matter. This was my family, my life now, and I could not wait to start living it.

I rubbed my belly, pride and hope bursting from my cheeks in equal measure. "Go easy on your daddy. Always apologize in advance to all the people you date. Remember, we love you and that we'll never really leave you. The pack knows your business, as do the crows, little one. This is where you will always belong, with them, with us."

~The End~