Chapter 455: Chapter 455

Chapter 455

Mason The minute I heard the doubt in Monroe’s voice, I almost got up from the table. I should’ve known they weren’t going to welcome me here. I might’ve been a Constantine by blood, but I’d known for my entire life that blood was not necessarily thicker than water.

“What do you mean?” Xander asked in a cold, hard tone. Full Alpha mode.

Monroe shrugged. “It just sucks to find out that your dad really wasn’t the great guy we all thought he was. That’s all.”

He turned to me. “Xander says you’re his brother, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s enough for me.”

“Same goes for me,” Maxim said so firmly that I knew he meant it.

“Mason, you’re super tense, man. Relax a bit.” Zane’s calming voice reached me through the mind link we shared with my brother.

“They’re cool,” Xander added.

I forced a smile I hoped looked natural as I offered my forearm to Monroe to grip. Then to his…were they brothers? They looked like they could be. I offered my forearm to Maxim for a grip.

“I’m glad to be a part of the pack and share the leadership challenges with Xander,” I told them both, making sure I made eye contact with each of them to show my sincerity. “I vow to do my best to stand by his side and also have his back.”

The other two men nodded with nearly identical grins. They looked down the table toward their mate. Mindy and Lanie were giggling, heads together, while Stella watched with wide eyes. She joined their laughter a moment later.

Isaac and Alaina came into the dining room, both looking sleepy and grumpy. Alaina rushed to Xander, who held out his arm to pull her close. Isaac walked a little slower, his eyes already on the food.

“Morning,” our son grunted as he headed right for the buffet.

Alaina hugged Zane next, then me. She leaned her head against mine for a few seconds, and I felt a small press of reassurance swirling around her. I looked at her in surprise, although I shouldn’t have been shocked that she was able to affect me like that. The twins would always share a bond with Xander and Zane from being raised by them from birth, just like Stella shared the same with me. But Alaina was my daughter. My blood.

“I love you, Abba,” she said.

“Love you, too,” I said. “You’d better get some breakfast before your brother eats it all.”

Alaina rolled her eyes. “Ugh. He’s being so gross.”

“He’s growing,” Xander said with a laugh.

“I’m growing, too,” Alaina said, putting her small hands on her hips. Her scowl was fierce and formidable…and I saw a lot of her mother, Alice, in that expression.

Xander and Zane saw it, too. Guilt swept over me like a tidal wave. This was the house where Xander, Zane, and Alice had thought they’d live and be mates together. Where they’d raise their pups. And hadn’t I had some of the same thoughts and feelings about her?

The three of us looked toward our Luna as she tipped her head back in a sweet flurry of giggles. I could never have imagined loving another woman as much as I loved her. Never thought I could share my mate with anyone else. Yet there the three of us were, sharing her the way we’d unwittingly shared Alice.

It was a bit of a mindfuck.

“Abba?” Alaina frowned. “Why does your face look like you just ate something sour?”

I quickly pushed away those thoughts. It shouldn’t be a secret that Lanie was not the twins’

biological mother, but yet we’d never really talked about it. They were babies, and then they grew up, but not quite as fast as Stella. It was probably time we let them know the truth. Now that we were all back in Constantine, we’d be fools to think that nobody would ever talk about Alice.

“They’ll have to find out, and better from us,” Zane thought to me and Xander. He’d caught my thoughts, but Xander hadn’t.

My brother looked at Alaina though, brow furrowed, and figured it out. He nodded and thought to us both, “We’ll tell them, but privately. I want them to know we all love them. And Lanie will want to make sure they know that she loves them, too.”

Gently, I pushed Alaina in the direction of the buffet. “Go get yourself a plate. You need a good breakfast so you can keep on growing and not let your brother get bigger than you.”

Lanie’s sudden cry of joy had us all turning. Our Luna stood up so fast she overturned her chair with a clatter. She ran toward the woman in the doorway to the dining room.

Alaina looked surprised. “Who’s that lady and that girl?”