Knightly
I take Phoebe’s hand and lead her out. She scoots in close to me as questions are fired at us as soon as we step outside. The grands are pushing the reporters back as I lead her to the car She keeps her head down until we get to the open door. thelp her inside and shut the door. I make it into the cft beside her without incident or a scratch
The dashboard reads eight PM.
“Are you in a hurry to get home? Lask her
“It’s very early and all of the preparations for tomorrow a good to go, she shakes her head
“I really want to show you the beach house,” I admit “My mom is having it renovated but I think you should see it first,”
“Fine,” she laughs
Without another word, I head home. That’s what it’s always been. Home. I hated the packhouse. I hated being surrounded all the time. It made me nervous and it drove my wolf insane. I don’t want our pups or her to feel that way. It’s peaceful there Open, quiet, and beautiful.
I pull up to the gate and lower the window to punch in the code.
There are tools and piles of building supplies all over the place as I move us in. She waits for me to go around to open the door for her it’s cold, I know she feels it so I cover her with the coat I took from the waiter. I just place it over her shoulders until we get inside
“Does this porch wrap all the way around?” she asks leaning forward to look down the porch when we get to the top of the stairs. “Why is the house lifted like this?”
“In case of flooding” I smile at her eagerness. “And yes. It wraps around the entire front side of the house,”
“Ayrie is going to love that,” she mumbles to herself.
I open the door for her. She walks under my arm as she goes inside. The warmth coming from inside lifts her scent only making it sweeter. My wolf stirs but he doesn’t push against me like he’s done before.
A little gasp comes out of her as we step inside together. I almost jump out of my skin. I close my eyes and listen to make sure we’re the only ones here. The two staircases that connect at the top have been sanded down. There’s a silver and glass chandelier where the black iron one was when I was a kid. The dark walls have been textured and painted.
To the right, is the archway to the living room. There used to be a doorway here. She walks in with a hand over her mouth as she takes everything in. There isn’t any furniture. The shelves are all empty.
“This is the study,” I say moving to the double doors on the other side of the room.
She follows looking around wide–eyed and smiles. I can practically see the gears in her head turning as she looks around. My mom put a fucking fireplace in here for her and a chandelier similar to the one at the entrance.
“What’s through here?” she asks moving to the doors that lead to the kitchen and into the backyard.
I let her open the doors. She peeks out the windows but continues to move into the kitchen. A squeak comes out of her. Fuck, my mom is moving insanely fast on these renovations. Where the hell does she find the time when she’s with the twins all day long? I have a hard time fitting more time with them after training with my dad.
“This is the dining room,” I open the doors that lead out of the kitchen.
“This place is gorgeous. This is one hundred percent better than Barbie’s Beach House,” she grins.
“You haven’t even seen the rooms upstairs,”
“You grew up here?” she turns back to look at me.
“Yeah, this was the first permanent home I had after we left my father’s pack,” I nod. “The first place that I felt safe in. I picked it for that reason”
I take her hand and lead her upstairs. She wants to stop and look around but I take her to the top patio so I can show her why I want her and our pups here. It’s the safest place for them.
“Oh, my god. The view from up here,” she says covering her mouth with both hands. I adjust her coat so it doesn’t slip “See how high those hills are? There is nothing behind them. No wa uwer them either. The same on the other side,” I point out and pull her to the other side. “All around u Successfully unlocked! o sneak in or out. It’s the perfect place to hold
in case of an attack or a threat. It’s safe here,”
“That’s why you want us here,” she nods understanding
“Yes. I love the packhouse and I love being there with my parents, but I can only take so much of them. All of them. The ranch is designed to allow wolves in and out comfortably. Anyone can just walk in. We have security measures and with
my guard and my dad’s guards, things are safe for now,”
“But this is better,” she nods understanding “I love it,”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, it’s beautiful here. Quiet,”
“We can still go to the packhouse whenever the twins want and during flood warnings.”
“Are you going to live here with us?” she asks.
“If that’s okay with you. There are four rooms,”
“The twins have never not shared a room. Maybe when they get older. But yeah. That would be okay with me,”
She turns around and steps on the belt hanging from her coat and she stumbles forward. I reach out before she hits the floor and pull her up into my arms.
“Careful,”
“I swear I’m not this ditsy,” she laughs and slips her arms into my jacket.
“Good, I don’t need you falling for anyone else,” I smirk. Her laughter only becomes more contagious.
“No offense, Nate. But you’re kind of a tool,” she looks up at me.
“Nate, huh?”
“It’s a cool name. Nathan was one of the names I was going to give your son,”
“How did that turn into Aizen?” I ask. She shimmies the coat off her shoulder and reaches for a couple of Japanese characters on her shoulder
“In Japanese the way it’s written means love and affection,”
“And Ayrie?” I ask tracing the characters. Her skin breaks out in goosebumps.
“Ayrie didn’t have a name for about six or seven months,” she says sheepishly. “But when I brought her home, I had this weird phase with her. Aizen doesn’t like to be bundled up, but she loves it. And she would cry when she wasn’t with me. “I had a terrible case of nesting with her. The blankets smelled wrong and we would both get really upset about that. We couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t wash the sheets and her clothes, I would stuff them in the pillows and it was a nightmare for the two of us to get comfy. That’s what Ayrie means. Eagle’s nest high up in a mountain. It was crazy.”
“It’s a she–wolf thing” I bring her back into me. “You couldn’t get comfortable because the scent both of you were missing was mine. Ayrie didn’t question when you told her I was her father because she knows. She feels it. My scent, my presence, and my voice.
“Aizen is a male. While he’s very submissive with Ayrie, he’s still very dominant. Especially because there haven’t been other males around him and you. He knows me, but it takes more for us to make that connection. He has to accept that I am a person trying to protect him. Had I been there when he was born, we wouldn’t have that problem,”
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