Page 64 of Starting a New Life

“What about your parents?” I asked, nodding at a photo showing a teenage Gray, already bigger than his father, laughing into the camera.

Gray laughed. “They’re great.”

“But they’re not here?” At least they hadn’t been here today.

“I’m actually waiting for their call. I… uhh… wanted to tell them I found you.”

My heart stuttered, breath hitching in my throat.

“Me?”

As in a mage? Or his mate?

“Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck again, eyes meeting mine for a moment, then darting away. “Let’s sit on the couch, okay?”

I nodded, giving in to the pull between us and following him to a dark leather couch. We sat just inches apart, the air between us whirring with electricity. It’d be so easy to reach out, so easy to take his hand, so easy to…

“May I?” Gray asked, reaching out, spreading his arm on the backrest of the couch.

I breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, scooting over a little, pulling up my legs and resting my head against his forearm. Logic told me to stay away from him, but the way my magic surged then immediately calmed, and my worries quieted, drowned out the fear logic tried to overwhelm me with.

“My father handed over the pack almost five years ago,” Gray explained, his raspy voice quiet, surrounding me like a blanket. “It came as a complete surprise, you know? My father wasn’t old, merely in his sixties. I don’t know what you know about shifters, but we tend to live a bit longer than humans, and reaching a hundred and twenty isn’t a hardship for us. So, you might argue that being in his sixties is the equivalent of a human’s forties. The prime of his existence.”

“But he didn’t want to be the Alpha anymore?”

Gray shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure. He said the pack needed a new direction and that he wasn’t the right person to bring about that much change. It might be true. The year before I took over, we clashed a lot. I wanted to keep opening the pack up further, and he… it wasn’t that he wasn’t on my side, but he said change needed to come gradually. We fought a lot. One day, he called me to his office and told me he wanted to retire. Half a year later, I was the Alpha, and he and my mom left.”

My eyes widened, heart lurching.

“Your parents left your pack?”

Gray laughed, the tone soothing. “Yes and no. They’re still pack members. They visit often, and they have every intention of returning, but… my father felt like the pack needed him to leave for a while. He didn’t want people coming to him because they weren’t happy with me, so he took himself out of the picture. They planned on coming home next year, but I think they’re gonna be here much sooner once I tell them about you.”

He chuckled as if it a good thing, and maybe to him it was. The love he had for his parents was obvious in the way he talked about them and the way his aura was completely calm.

But for me, their return meant two more people scrutinizing my every move. Finding me lacking. A mage for their shifter son. A man at that. One without family, without a coven, with nothing to his name.

“Don’t worry,” Gray said, pulling me against his side, his scent and warmth engulfing me. “I can scent your fear spiking and hear your pulse hitching, but there’s no reason for that. They’re gonna love you. Trust me.”

Trusting him… easier said than done. Or maybe I was kidding myself. Maybe I was trying to tell myself I wasn’t already starting to trust him, that I wasn’t already falling for him. Thinking was hard right now, being surrounded by his warmth, his calm, grounding aura that drowned out the doubts and worries.

“Tell me about them,” I whispered, my eyes drooping. “What are they like?”

Gray laughed. “They’re amazing,” he said. “They had their hands full with me. Sometimes, I wonder if the reason they didn’t have more kids was that I was such a pain in their ass. But my mom was always patient. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a force to be reckoned with, but she had a lot of patience for my impulsive behaviour, and she makes these great pastries…”

I smiled and listened as Gray talked about one time he and Rhett stole a whole tray of lemon bars off the counter, devouring them out in the woods, thinking they were being stealthy.

I could just imagine him as a kid, his photo in mind—the wide smile, dark hair, dark eyes gleaming… I wished I’d known him back then. Wished child me would’ve had a friend like him.

For the first time in weeks, maybe months, I woke up feeling warm and rested, my mind calm, caught in that blissful half-conscious state where you were still floating, mind empty.

It smelled heavenly. Like cedar, with a hint of wood smoke. And warmth.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” a voice rasped close to my head, a big warm hand carefully petting my hair, brushing a strand out of my face. Calloused fingers caressed my cheek, and when I finally opened my eyes, my mate was crouched next to the couch, his smile oh so tender and warm.

“I’d love to let you sleep in, but Rhett and Levi are waiting for you. I think Rhett wants a lesson on barrier magic. Levi too. Or rather, Levi wants a lesson on magic, period. Also, he’s worried because you were nowhere to be found. He was freaking out a bit, but I told him you were very much not running away and that I’d get you. But I can send them away… at least for a while.”

I sat up, letting out a yawn.