Unsure if he should go to Layla? Surprised at seeing her? Megan wasn’t sure.

“Go on, it’s okay,” she murmured to him and nodded at Layla.

Sid approached and enveloped Megan into a hug. “You’re so awesome,” he said into her ear. “You know it’s nothing compared to what he has with you, right?”

“I don’t. I mean, I guess. All I have to guide me is how I feel about Adam. But I know Layla wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Or you for that matter.”

Still, she didn’t want to look at them. It was difficult, knowing he shared an older bond with her sister, that he’d created a level of trust she didn’t have with him yet. She hadn’t lied to Sid, she knew Layla would never do anything with Shane outside what was acceptable. It was their intimacy she was jealous of.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you in a few days. Don’t I get a hug?” Layla called out and Megan turned to her sister with a smile pasted on her face.

Layla noted it, her posture stiffening a bit before she hugged Megan.

“Enough of this stuff. I’d like to meet my new son-in-law!”

Trust her father to cut through the shit. Henri walked into the room with Beth on one side and Lex on the other.Lex’s eyes cut to Megan immediately, narrowing a bit as he looked between her and Layla for a brief moment and then swung his gaze to Shane.

“Dad, this is Shane, you remember him I’m sure from when he anchored with Layla and Sid.”

Her father shook Shane’s hand and then welcomed him to the Pack. She felt Shane’s wolf respond to her father’s and a rush of lupine energy filled the room. It was exhilarating but Shane looked a bit overwhelmed.

She reached out to squeeze his hand and he clung to her like a lifeline.

“Welcome to Cascadia, Shane. I hope you’ll find the land welcoming.” Lex shook Shane’s hand and then touched his chest over his heart. Tears stung Megan’s eyes at the gesture of brotherhood.

“Hey, everyone’s here. Sorry I’m late!” Adam walked in and Megan relaxed a bit at his presence.

He walked straight to her and gave her a hug, intuiting just what she needed. Someone who was all about her at the moment with no other motivations.

Adam and Shane did that male clap back hug thing they do and everyone headed into the dining room where the table must have been groaning under the weight of four hundred

pounds of food.

“Jeez, Mom! There’s enough food here to feed a hundred people.”

“I figured you’d be so busy over the weekend you’d appreciate the leftovers.”

Her mother really rocked sometimes.

“So how are you doing?” Layla asked him as they stood out on the deck overlooking acres upon acres of forest. Megan was off putting Gabby to bed and he suspected, giving him a chance to visit alone with Layla.

“It’s a bit overwhelming. She’s really close to Lex. I guess I hadn’t really understood it until I saw them together. It’s um…a bit intimidating I suppose. He doesn’t like me much.”

Layla put her head on his shoulder. “Of course he likes you. Trust me, if he didn’t like you, you’d be in the emergency room right now. But yes, he and Megan are close, they always have been. She keeps him from being too tight assed. She’s very close to Nina and I think is a bit of a calming influence on her. They just want the best for her. They worry that you won’t live up to your bond with her.”

“And what do about it?”

“I think you’re scared. This is like a whole foreign universe to you and you’ve been raised to be suspicious of it and suddenly you must know the only way to truly be with Megan is to embrace the very thing you’ve rejected your whole life.”

“Not scared really. But you guys can be like a cult. I have a life. I resent this take it all or leave it ultimatum I’ve been given.”

She snorted. “You’re so full of shit. I’m not as close with Megan as I am with Tee but I know my sister well enough to know she’d never give you an ultimatum like that. But what is it you’re asking of her?”

He began to pace, the moonlight on his skin agitating him. “Is it too much to want her

there with me? I have a medical practice there! A house. My parents live there. Why should I give that all up to come here?”

“You’re the only one who can answer that in the end. You know what she has here and what you’re asking her to give up. What she is. Who she is. And for what? Can you only be a doctor in Las Vegas?”

“Can she only be a werewolf in Seattle?”

Layla shrugged. “She can’t be what she is here in another Pack. Also, she’d have to fight her way up. Do you want that? She’d be challenged again and again and in truth they wouldn’t accept her because her mate has repudiated what they are. What sort of life would that be for either of you? Why would you want that for her?” She heaved a big sigh and shook her head. “I’m not going to engage in this with you any more. If you want to have a serious conversation and you’re willing to be totally honest with me and with yourself, let me know. I’m going for a run. The moon is full, can’t you feel it pulling your wolf? How long has it been?”

“I’m tired.”

“Suit yourself. You know, what would it hurt to give just a tiny bit? To yourself? To her?”

She walked away and he struggled to breathe as his wolf paced inside . He felt it, his other self, insistent in a way he’d not felt since his early twenties.