Growl

POV: James

I let myself watch her for half a second, just her hair whipping behind her like she owned the damn wind. Then it hit me, that gut-punch feeling, when she blew right past me without even a glance. Not one. I'd been so sure she saw me. So sure tonight was going to be different.

She saw me. She had to have seen me.

I spun around and there she was, wrapped up tight in some guy's arms. Some guy I didn't know, didn't recognize, didn't like the smell of. Her face was tucked into the stranger's shoulder like she'd done it a hundred times before, like she belonged there.

A growl ripped out of me before I could catch it. My claws pricked under my skin, sharp and hungry, and heat rolled through me, ugly and possessive and completely wrong for a crowd this size. Mine. The thought slammed through me hard and fast, animal and unreasonable. If a pack of kids hadn't picked that second to crash into my legs, screaming and laughing, high on cake and chaos, I might have done something stupid. Something I couldn't walk back.

Not here. Not in front of the pups. Get a grip, James.

I dragged a smile onto my face and looked down at them, all those small trusting faces turned up at me, clueless to the storm I was barely holding together. Something about their easy, uncomplicated happiness cooled me off faster than anything else could. It always worked. I unclenched my fists, dragged in a breath, and let my chest loosen up, one slow inch at a time.

Then I went to find my Gamma. I needed answers before the jealousy chewed me down to nothing.

Steve will know. Steve always knows.

POV: Trishelle

I was hanging the last string of lights when a voice called my name, warm and familiar in a way that froze me solid on the ladder.

No way. It couldn't be.

Only one person besides Rosie had ever called me by my real name without being told to first. I turned slow, scanning the crowd, my heart already climbing up my throat before my eyes even landed on him. And there he was.

Sammy.

I scrambled down the ladder so fast I nearly ate it on the last rung, heart pounding for a completely different reason now, hands shaking just enough to notice.

Is this what a birthday's supposed to feel like? First I find a place I belong, and now this. If I dropped dead tomorrow, I think today would still win.

I ran to him, laughing before I even hit his arms, the sound of my own joy catching me off guard almost as much as him showing up out of nowhere had. It wasn't until his thumbs swept across my cheeks that I realized I was crying too, tears sliding free without asking permission, like my body had been hoarding them just for this.

"Hey, Rosebud." His voice rumbled low against my hair. "How've you been?"

I laughed again, louder, the old nickname yanking something loose in my chest I hadn't touched in years. He'd started calling me that back when I used to trail after Rosie everywhere, an actual rosebud chasing the flower around, small and stubborn and hopelessly devoted.

Sammy was an orphan too. Technically an Omega, though his blood ran half human, half wolf. No shift of his own, but strength and speed that put regular humans and Omegas to shame. Toss in a brain sharp enough to cut glass, and it made total sense the Gamma had scooped him up for pack business training. His job kept him planted in the city most of the time, tight to the main office, which meant visits were rare as hell. Two years since I'd last laid eyes on him. Before that, only at Rosie's funeral the year before, a day so soaked in grief I barely remembered him standing there at all. Just the steady weight of his hand on my shoulder, holding me together when nothing else could.

I pulled back to get a real look at him. He'd always been older and taller than me growing up, but we stood eye to eye now, and damn, he'd packed on serious muscle since I'd seen him last. Shoulders broader. Frame sturdier, built like every inch the trained Gamma operative he'd become. I couldn't resist giving his bicep an exaggerated squeeze.

"But Grandma, what big arms you have."

Sammy grinned, sliding right back into our old rhythm like no time had passed at all. "The better to hug you with, my dear."

"And Grandma, what big hands you have."

"The better to tickle you with, my dear."

He lunged before I could brace, fingers digging into my ribs, and my laugh ripped out loud enough to turn heads clean across the yard. People stared. The pack had never once heard me laugh like this, wild and unguarded, and within minutes the mind link lit up all over again, curiosity rippling wolf to wolf faster than I cared to track.

"Okay, okay, I give, you win!" My laughter broke into breathless giggles as I clutched my sides, cheeks aching from smiling too hard. Once I caught my breath, Sammy slung an arm around my waist and steered me toward the pack house, easy as anything, like the two years apart had simply melted away.