Howls of the Lost | Now Published!

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

There he was. All six foot four of my older brother. He smiled ear to ear when he saw me and within seconds his strong arms were wrapped around me, nearly crushing me. He spun me around in a circle while I laughed, hanging onto him for dear life.

"Jake . . . Can't . . . Breathe," I gasped out.

"Sorry, Rin!" he said as he set me back on my feet, holding me at arm's length. "God, you've grown."

"And you dyed your hair!" I exclaimed, reaching up to ruffle his blonde locks.

He shrugged, absently running a hand through it. "The whole uniform perfection thing was really starting to piss me off," he said with his usual crooked grin. My eyes flickered over every feature in his face. His strong jaw line, high cheekbones, and chocolate eyes were pretty much exactly the same as they had always been.

"I missed you so much," I admitted.

"Ditto, kid," he replied.

"Shut up!" I said, mock punching him in the arm. "I'm only two years younger than you!"

"God, it's good to see you," he said, laughing as he pulled me into another hug,

The clearing of a throat behind me caused me to pull away from Jacob. Turning around, I found that it had been Logan, who was standing rigid. My mate and my brother were staring each other down and the tension in the air was tangible. Logan was an Alpha, and Jacob was next in line to take over the Pierce pack. So, when their chests swelled, I knew it was time to intervene.

"Jake," I began, walking over to Logan and taking his hand before leading him back to my brother. "This is my mate, Logan," I introduced. As I looked back and forth between the two, I noticed that they had both taken protective steps towards me. "Both of you calm down and be civil." Logan's gaze flicked to mine and I did my best to plead with my eyes. It seemed to work because his expression softened, and he raised his hand to cup my cheek. Then he turned to Jacob and extended his hand.

"Logan Grey," he said, the tiniest amount of an Alpha's tone creeping into his voice.

"Jacob Pierce," he replied taking Logan's hand and shaking it firmly. "So you're my sister's mate, huh?"

"Yeah," Logan said, snagging my waist and pulling me into his side.

"She's a handful," Jacob told him, smiling as he gave me a knowing look. "Take care of her."

"You two ought to get along just fine," I huffed, shrugging away from Logan. "You both think I'm some fragile little doll that needs to be handled with caution." Jacob opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by the sound of heavy footfalls. My mouth ran dry as I whipped around to face Logan. The small smile he offered was meant to be reassuring, but I found I knew him better than that. The corners of his eyes were tight with worry, which didn't help my mini anxiety attack all that much.

"They're shifting," Jacob murmured just loud enough for me to hear as he came to my side.

Logan's front door creaked, and I knew it was the rest of our packs coming out into the night. David moved to stand at my side and Logan wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. Everyone else just filtered in. Some of my worry ebbed away as I drew strength from having my pack near me.

Slowly, they began moving out of the woods. My father was at the head of the crowd with my mother and sister flanking him. Always ones for making a grand entrance, they were walking towards us in a pyramid formation. My father's eyes found mine and we stared at each other as the entire Pierce pack continued to advance on our much smaller group. As they halted not even ten feet away from us, Logan squeezed my waist tighter and placed a feather light kiss on my neck. When my father spoke, his voice was somewhere between irritation and relief.