Chapter 381: Good Cheer

Chapter 381: Chapter 115: Good Cheer

They decided to go down together.

Dane walked beside Destiny into the living room, her hand still in his. Seth stood by the windows with Henrik, the two of them speaking low. On the far side of the room Cade and Wolfe sat with their knees angled toward the hearth, a tray of Sonia’s tea cooling between them.

Cade got to his feet the moment he saw them.

“There he is.”

“Uncle Cade.” Dane let go of Destiny only long enough to clasp his forearm, and Cade hauled him into a short, back-thumping embrace.

“Too long,” Cade said into his shoulder.

“It has been.”

Wolfe came around the low table and gripped the back of Dane’s neck the way he had when Dane was a boy. “Good to see you, nephew.”

“You too, Uncle Wolfe.”

Behind them Cade’s wife had risen, hands folded at her waist, smiling. Her eyes had already gone to Destiny.

“And this must be Destiny.”

Destiny’s fingers tightened once on Dane’s before she stepped forward. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, dear.” She crossed the rug and drew her into a hug, one palm resting between Destiny’s shoulder blades. “I’ve wanted to meet you properly for weeks.”

Destiny hesitated half a breath, then returned it. “I’m glad to finally meet you too.”

Over his aunt’s shoulder, Dane caught Cade’s eye. “You’re early.”

“We wanted Sonia before the day swallowed her,” Cade said.

“Your mother threatened to stop speaking to us,” Wolfe put in, “if we postponed one more time.”

Dane laughed. “That sounds like her.”

“She said we’d become strangers.” Cade’s wife released Destiny and gave her arm a last pat. “It’s been months. And once this one ran out of excuses…”

“I don’t make excuses.”

“You made three yesterday.”

“Those were reasons.”

“They were excuses, love.”

Henrik snorted from the window. Cade jabbed a finger in his direction. “Don’t encourage her.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Henrik said.

Dane shook his head. “So you came for Mom.”

“Of course we did.” Wolfe dropped onto the sofa with a grunt. “A man can only be scolded by letter so many times.”

Cade lowered himself into his chair. “She had us caught up on everything we’d missed before we got our coats off.”

“She does that.”

“Including the part where you got married.”

Dane glanced at Destiny, who was studying the hem of her sleeve with great interest. “I gathered she’d mentioned it.”

“Your mother is very proud of the pair of you,” Cade’s wife said.

Destiny looked up, and something in her shoulders eased. “She’s been kind to me. More than I expected.”

“Good,” said Cade’s wife, and the single word carried enough weight that Destiny smiled for real.

Dane sat and pulled her down beside him, keeping her hand wrapped in his on the cushion between them.

“We thought we’d stay for lunch,” Cade said. “If it’s no trouble. Sonia’s already made it clear nobody leaves this house hungry.”

“Then you picked the right house.”

Wolfe gave a short bark of a laugh. “She was like that at nine years old. Fed the whole street.”

“Still does.”

The talk wandered after that. Sonia’s cooking led to the last time Cade and Wolfe had visited, which led to an argument over whether the roof had leaked then or the year before, which Wolfe lost. Cade’s wife told a story about the northern road and a cart axle, and Seth surprised everyone by laughing out loud. The small grievances of a family that had gone too long between visits came out one at a time, none of them with any real heat.

Nobody said the word *records*. Nobody asked after Aurora. The matters that had crowded the household for days stayed outside the door, and for once no one went to fetch them.

Dane felt his back settle into the cushions. Destiny’s thumb moved slowly over his knuckles, and the clatter of Sonia’s pans carried faintly from the kitchen.

The talk had barely settled when two maids came in with trays.

One carried a heavy pot of tea, steam curling from the spout. The other balanced plates of eggs, torn bread, sliced pears and a dish of honey. They set it all out across the low tables between the sofas, enough for everyone, so nobody would have to troop to the dining room.

Dane glanced toward the hallway. “Where’s Mom?”

“Coming,” Cade said. “She was mid-sentence when we left her.”

Sonia appeared in the doorway as if the words had pulled her there, Ramon a step behind with a hand at her back.

“Good morning, Mom,” Dane said.

Her face lit when she took in her brothers, though she kept her mouth stern. “Months.”

Cade stood. “We were busy.”

“You were lazy.”

Wolfe’s laugh rolled out of him. “She’s been saving that one since the door.”

Sonia crossed the rug and held Cade by the elbows for a moment before folding him into a hug. Then she turned. “And you.”

Wolfe opened his arms. “I knew I’d come second.”

“You earned second.”

Ramon shook his head while the brothers laughed. “Good morning, everyone.”

“Alpha,” Cade said, with a dip of his chin.

Ramon waved it off. “Drop that in this room. You’re family.”

“Old habits.”

Sonia sat beside Ramon, and the room found its level again.

Dane shifted to make space for Destiny. A maid filled the cups and the plates began to travel. Nobody arranged themselves with any ceremony. Plates balanced on knees, people talked across one another, and someone’s elbow knocked someone else’s while they reached for the honey.

Cade tore the heel off the loaf. “Your mother still feeds us like we’re marching on somebody.”

“You arrived hungry,” Sonia said.

“We always arrive hungry.”

“Then I’ve done my job.”

Destiny smiled into her cup.

“Quiet this morning,” Ramon told her.

“I’m enjoying it. Everyone in one room.”

Sonia reached across the table and covered Destiny’s hand with her own. “We don’t get enough mornings like this.”

Dane watched the two of them. With the fire popping and the tea going round, it was easy to forget the world on the other side of the door.

Almost.

Wolfe set his cup down. The porcelain clicked against the saucer, loud in a pause nobody had meant to leave. “So. We hear there’s a great deal going on here.”

Dane felt his jaw set before he could stop it.

“The king under your roof,” Cade said. “The temple. Your cursed wolf’s trouble.”

“And the girl,” Wolfe added. “Aurora.”

Across the table a spoon stopped moving.

Dane put his cup down. “Yes.”

“How bad?” Cade asked.

“Complicated.”

“That usually means bad.”

A faint smile. “Usually.”

“You don’t have to lay all of it out,” Sonia said.

“I know.” He looked around at his family. “But you should know enough to see why the house is tense.”

Ramon leaned back and folded his arms. “Vance is still here. Aurora is still in BloodMoon.”

“I’d heard she came because she wanted to give Dane and his wife trouble,” Cade said, and his voice had hardened.

“That’s how it began,” Ramon said. “It stopped being about that once she arrived.”

Wolfe turned to Dane. “Is that why Vance is here?”

“Yes.”

“So, what happened?”

Dane ran his thumb along the rim of the cup. “Too much has happened.”

Destiny found something interesting on her plate.

Cade saw it. When he spoke again the edge had gone out of him. “And you?”

“I’m fine.” It came a beat too fast.

“That’s what everyone says,” Sonia said, “when they’d rather we didn’t worry.”

“I am, truly.”

Beneath the edge of the table, Dane squeezed her hand.

Cade’s eyes rested on Dane and Destiny. He picked up his tea. “Then I expect today won’t stay as peaceful as this breakfast.”

A knock sounded.

Every head turned. A BloodMoon guard stepped in and stopped just past the threshold.

“Alpha Dane.”

Dane straightened. “Yes?”

The guard’s eyes swept the crowded room before he went on. “King Vance has sent word. He asks to see you, Destiny, and Alpha Ramon.”

Dane and Ramon traded a look.

“Now?” Sonia said, her face tightening.

“He says it’s important.”

For a few seconds nobody moved. The eggs went on cooling on their plates.

The ordinary morning had run straight into the reason the house had been tense in the first place.

Dane looked down at Destiny. She was already looking at him. He reached for her hand.

“All right,” he said. “We’ll go.”