“You look so good, so healthy, your hair has grown, your losing your puppy face and…oh, god! What are you wearing?” Meadows face and tone completely drop as her eyes run up and down my attire and she visibly gawps. The look of sheer disgust which envelopes her expression makes me laugh.
“Escape clothes!” I shrug under her scrutiny, amused with the way she’s now holding the arm of my sweater between two nails like it’s an unhygienic rag and let’s go before rubbing her fingertips as if to expel the grime. I’m not dirty but her reaction is priceless as she shakes her head at me.
“Why do you keep letting that boy pick your clothes, huh? It’s not a good look. Colton has no taste when it comes to female things. I mean, he dated Carmen for two years, that says it all,
Chica.” She bobs her head side to side waving a very pointy red nail in the air and I let out an involuntary snort laugh. She’s so hood sometimes; I love her to bits.
“He didn’t … Dress me, I mean. He found me like this. It’s all I had to hand.” I look down pulling at the grey sweats a little as I take in my baggy outfit and oversized boots, but it’s not as bad as she’s making out.
“We need to remedy that. Once we get our Luna inside and comfortable, you and I, we need to burn these. Maybe bury them and perform some kind of last rights.” She tugs at the hemline of my sweater and then runs a set of talons through my hair to push it off my face and draws me back to her. “You do look different though…. like you maybe only left for a few weeks, but you’ve grown in years. You look beautiful, and less tortured. My baby growing up so fast.” It’s an insightful perspective, but she’s right. These past weeks I do feel like I’ve matured some, and definitely grown as a person in subtle ways, and I knew I had shed puppy fat while being out there in the wild. Eating less, exercising more, I probably look slimmer.
I’m no longer in that frame of mind that I’m some feeble no one that isn’t important. I know I’m the center of something, and this is where I need to be for now. I’m not sure about less tortured given my current state of affairs; cheating mate, relearning my past, and finding out my entire pack was murdered. I would say maybe, I’m just handling it better than I would have a few weeks ago. I feel mentally stronger.
“Why thank you, although I’m tired. I need sleep. I must look a wreck, but you’re right, we need to get Sierra inside.” I nod to where they all seem to have everything under control, catching sight of the bed coming into view and Colton stuck to his moms side, her hand in his once more, even though she is still dead to the world. He’s looking at her with so much adoration, fixated, that it does make me feel completely broken as I watch him. A longing for that without complication, without this mess between us. To have him look at me the way he’s looking at her, that unconditional love that’s so hard to find.
We move out of the way as they swing past and I flatten against the truck as the entire entourage gets by us and follow close behind, meadow sliding her hand in mine and guiding me with her to tag on at the end when they get past.
“Ahhh, Alora.” A voice comes from my side and then I’m dive bombed by an enthusiastic male who footballer style wrestles me into a hug before I’m hit from behind by another. Equal stealth and strength and I almost fall over with the weight of two heavy boys hugging the life out of me. Unable to breathe and not sure if this is an attack, I crumple almost to my knees.
Domi and Remi near choke me to death, ruffling my hair, picking me up between them before I get ground into the mud and I get a kiss on each side of my face in unison. Sloppy, wet, a bit ewww but overall, it’s kind of sweet.
“Our little sister came home. Our puppy!!” They both state in synchronized perfection, sounding like a melody in their sing song playfulness. I get yanked from side to side, set on my own feet then let go just as Cesar appears in front of me, Meadow moving aside with a look of joy on her face, smiling like a proud mother.
“Don’t you ever do that again, missy. Do you know how worried your pack has been?” Cesar swoops in between the twins, that equally heavy accent as his mates and a stern paternal tone to match that serious frown he is giving me. He gives me a less ferocious cuddle, a quick squeeze, and kiss on the cheek, before he pulls back, and the rest of the sub pack seem to appear around me.
Matteo, Radar, Jesus, all crowd in at me and I guess they were part of our escort to get us here. All of them take it in turns to lean in and welcome me back with a short embrace and a peck on the cheek, a few words of welcome back, until I’m blushing and awkward with all this attention.
“We missed you. Don’t run like that again. We’re your pack, man, we were all crazy worried.” It’s Jesus, and he bops me on the head with a soft closed fist and shakes his head at me, a real frown on that face that shows his genuine emotion.
“Yeah kid, little pups like you shouldn’t be out there alone!” Cesar reiterates his earlier statement.
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