The Pack's Luna: The Pack Series Book 4 novel Chapter 18

Piper

I’ve never had anyone look at me the way Henry looks at me. It’s the way I’ve always dreamed that my mate would look at me, with absolute love and pure adoration. It’s the way Alpha Quirin looks at Luna Kennedy. It’s the way Yorick looks at Cyra and Alpha Warren looks at Luna Yara.

So when he presses his lips to mine with a tenderness that is so sweet it’s almost unbearable, when his woodsy scent surrounds me and his tongue swipes across my lips, Leaving his delicious taste in my mouth, I surrender to the mate bond.

Fallon begins purring so loudly in my head that I’m afraid Henry might be able to hear it. But then I feel the rumble in his chest, and it feels like Tyrus is just as happy as Fallon.

I grab his shirt, pulling him closer, needing his touch, needing him.

I feel his body respond to the kiss, his hard length pressing against my thigh and hip as I kiss him with a desperation that comes from more than my wolf.

may have teased him about being old, but underneath this shirt, he’s pure muscle. I’ve seen glimpses of it on his forearms when he rolls up his sleeves or at the V of the button-down shirts he likes to wear open at the top, just enough to see the curve of his pectoral muscles under his collarbone. Just enough for me to know that this is not an Alpha who is complacent about his workouts. Henry is still quite the fighter and that move of his proves that hemay be older than me, but he’s not too old to be a threat in a fight.

He pulls away from the kiss long before I’m ready for it to end. He has that same look in his eyes, only now he also looks like he’s in total awe of me. I feel my heart melting -and the emotions he’s eliciting from me feel much too powerful and overwhelming.

He gently slides his fingers over my cheek. “We should probably stop before we cause a scene,” he murmurs looking at my face like he’s committing it to memory.

I jolt, suddenly remembering that we’re in the middle of the sparring field with every one of Quirin’s warriors out here as well as his two pups.

“Oh my goddess,” I say, pushing him off me as I sit up, looking around quickly.

Kaylee and Kendra are sitting nearby, watching us.

“Did Uncle Henry hurt you again?” Kendra asks.

“It looked like he needed to kiss and make up again,”

Kaylee says.

“He, uh…” I say, trying to make my brain work and come up with something that makes sense.

Henry pushes back onto his feet and holds out his hands.

“I startled Piper by showing her a new move,” Henry tells them, helping me to my feet.

“Yeah, how did you do that?” I ask him, grasping onto something, anything that feels stable and not full of theseoverwhelming emotions that I’m feeling.

“I’ll be happy to show you,” he says.

“Yeah?” I ask, surprised.

“Yeah. Come visit me in my pack next weekend and I’ll show you. I’ll help you practice until you get it.”

“Why don’t you show me now? We have time,” I say, not wanting to commit to going to his pack. What would that even be like? Here, I have Vivienne, Quirin, his pups, any number of reasons that I can avoid Henry. In his pack …

In his pack there would be no need to stop kissing, Fallon purrs in my head.

Exactly. And that is VERY dangerous.

“I think Kaylee and Kendra have waited long enough for their turn, right girls?” he asks, turning toward the twins.

He hasn’t let go of my hands and the tingles that lit up all over my body while we were kissing are still shooting spikes of desire from where he’s rubbing his thumbs across the tops of my hands.

“How’s it going?” Alpha Quirin asks, coming up behind me.

Without thinking, because that’s just how l am, lask what’s on my mind.

“Is he always like this?”

I turn and see that rare softness in Alpha Quirin’s face. ” Yeah, he is. He’s the real deal. I promise I’d tell you if he wasn’t. But I can’t do that.”

He looks at me, his face serious. “You know that there are very few people in this world that I love. I think you, more than most, understand that.”

I nod. I could probably count on two hands the people that I love in this world. Before the Academy, I’d have been lucky to say I loved enough people to fill one hand. Unlike most, my family doesn’t qualify for my love.”Henry is one of those people for me. He’s special in a way that most people aren’t. He’s genuine, Piper. He means everything he says, even if it’s so fucking corny that you roll your eyes and want to believe that it’s bullshit. It’s not. He’s not. He’s the real fucking deal. And if you don’t believe me, look at my girls. They don’t tolerate bullshit any more than I do. He made a mistake. He was stupid. I told him so. But he was feeling desperate. From what I can tell, he’s figured his shit out. I’m not telling you what to do. You have to make that decision for yourself. I’m just telling you what I know about my brother. He’s my best friend. He was my friend when I didn’t want one and when I didn’t know how to be one. He treated me like family when I didn’t know what family meant. He’s given me so much in this life that I will never be able to repay him and he would never ask me to. That’s the kind of man he is.

Take that with a grain of salt and do with it what you will.

But you should know the truth about Henry. And that,” he says, nodding to Henry showing his girls how to throw a stronger punch. “That is who he is. I don’t know what your family is like, but I have an idea based on our past interactions. Henry’s not like that. He’s a family man all the way. He’s not a part-time Alpha. He’s not a part-time mate. And he won’t be a part-time father. He’s all in when he makes a commitment and believe me, he has wanted to find you since the day he turned eighteen.”

He gives me a gentle punch to the shoulder, then walks over to have his daughters show him what Henry has taught them.

As,I watch, Henry continues to instruct the twins while they show their father what they’ve learned. I realize that Henry has also incorporated what I taught them into histraining for them, showing them in different ways what k showed them when we were sparring.

“You okay, babe?” Vivienne asks, coming up beside me.

“I don’t know. Viv. I really don’t know.”