Just past midnight, Rafe stands with his adult family on the roof of the palace, everyone’s face turned up to the sky and towards the steady pounding of chopper blades they can barely hear in the distance. A steady hum of excitement runs between them all. Roger and Cora in particular stand with their expressions rapt, his arms around her shoulders, her leaning against his chest.
But still, despite his excitement to see his cousin – his best friend – Rafe’s wolf keeps nipping at him inside, urging him to go back downstairs, to find the human girl, to grab her and mark her immediately.
Rafe growls a little, the sound rumbling in his throat, frustrated with his wolf for being so ridiculous and impractical. Ariel said it was like this but god – he didn’t realize how annoying it would be.
“You okay, baby?” Ella asks, reaching up and brushing her fingertips against her eldest son’s short dark hair. “You haven’t been…yourself today.”
Rafe glances to the side to see his mother looking at him curiously. His dad stands on Ella’s other side, listening but pretending he is not. Rafe smirks even as he sighs, appreciating their concern, even if he’s not ready to tell anyone at all what he discovered.
After all, Maryam herself doesn’t know. He watched her all day for some sort of sign, but she either ignored him or treated him with disdain. But how could she know? She doesn’t have a wolf.
“I’m okay,” Rafe says, turning his face back up to the sky where the chopper is quickly approaching. “Just…lots of changes, right? Jesse coming back from another world, with a mate of all things. We didn’t leave things on the best terms but…god, I hope he knows that none of that matters anymore. And Ariel is still missing, Junie too. It’s…” he shakes his head. “A lot.”
“I know, sugar,” Ella says, leaning against her son and resting her head against his arm. “But…piece by piece, we’ll figure it all out. We always do.”
Rafe nods down to his mother and gives her a tense smile and then, like the rest of the family, watches as the helicopter begins to land.
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