The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 189

** Paige’s POV **

The cabin is humming with too much energy. Too many worried eyes, too many protective wolves outside. There are too many unanswered questions. Just too much… everything.

My skin still feels warm beneath the surface, like the glow hasn’t decided whether it wants to settle or burst out of me again. My mates hover like mother hens disguised as deadly predators, and I can practically hear the internal debate forming between them…

Does Paige need water? Should Paige lie down? Should we wrap Paige in seventeen blankets and build a fort so she never-leaves the cabin again?

They’re as subtle as a marching band.

Which is why, the second Poppy clears her throat in the doorway and lifts two cups of coffee, raising her brows at me, I nearly cry with relief.

“Paige,” she says gently, “come sit outside with me for a bit?”

“No,” Ryder says instantly.

“Nope,” Callen adds, crossing his arms like he’s about to throw my sister out the front door.

Parker steps closer to me. “I think it would be better tostay inside for the time being.”

Remy doesn’t even speak. Just narrows his eyes like Poppy might be a threat. Poppy… My little sister, whom I trust with my life. The same girl who once cried for twenty straight minutes because she stepped on a snail.

I sigh. “Guys. It’s just coffee.”

Callen gestures toward the window. “There are wolves out there.”

Poppy blinks. “Your wolves… or hers now, I guess.”

“Still counts,” Callen grumbles.

Ronnie doesn’t even look up from the book he’s scribbling in. “She has nine Twiceborn stationed in a perfect formation, attuned to her heartbeat, prepared to rip apart anything that so much as breathes wrong within a hundred miles.”

Poppy grins. “See? We’re safe.”

Ryder growls under his breath. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Rye, I love you deeply, but if I don’t breathe fresh air in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to start screaming… loudly, and dramatically.”

He flinches as if I just threatened to stab him.

Poppy holds out a cup, and I take it.”Go,” Parker says reluctantly, running a hand down my arm. “But yell if anything weird happens.”

“Define weird,” I say.

Callen’s lips twitch. “Anything Paige-weird.”

“Great,” I mutter. “So the bar is already on the floor.”

Remy huffs, but his eyes soften. “Don’t stay out long.”

Ryder whispers, “If one of them even breathes too close…”

“I’ll be fine,” I promise.

He cups my cheek for a moment, searching my eyes, then sighs like he’s being forced to watch me run into a burning building. I give him a soft smile and send a pulse of love through the bond to them all.

I step outside, Poppy, and the air hits me… cool, pine-scented and real. The porch creaks beneath us, birds sing, and the forest is still, not ominous but peaceful, like the world is pausing with us.

The nine wolves immediately adjust their positions, forming a slightly wider protective circle around the porch. Not threatening. Just… present, waiting.

Poppy and I settle on the steps, and she hands me my cup.

I take a sip, letting the warm liquid soothe me.

“Oh my god,” I breathe. “You do not know how much I needed this.”Poppy shrugs. “I know you, I know when you need a breather.”

I nod, and we sit in silence for a moment, letting the sunlight warm our faces. The wolves lie down one by one, Lowering their heads to their paws.

“Okay,” Poppy says at last. “Tell me how you’re feeling and don’t say ‘fine’ or ‘confused’ or ‘glowy””

“I wasn’t going to say glowy.”

“You absolutely were.”

I groan, letting my head fall against her shoulder. “I feel… everything. At once. Terrified, relieved, overwhelmed, floaty, grounded, like I want to nap for six years but also run eleven marathons.updated by j-ob-n:ib:.:c:om But most of all, I feel like I’m finally becoming who or what I was meant to be. Like everything I’ve been through was all to lead me here, to where I’m needed.”

Poppy hums.

‘I’m proud of you, Paige, really l am.”

“Thank you.” I breathe. “That matters. I don’t want people to see me as a different person now. I know I have these powers, and I might be this Dawn mother, but I’m still me too.”

Another silence settles, comfortable and familiar. It feels like being teens again, sitting outside after dinner, talking about crushes.

“Hey,” I say softly, nudging her. “How are things with Leo and Jake?”

She chokes on her coffee.

I blink. “Um. Is that… a bad sign?”

“No!” she squeaks, voice too high. “No, not bad! Just… uh… private.”

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