Chapter 24

Milo's POV:

The moment the sun rose above the horizon, I was out of my house and carrying Bubbles with me to visit the graves of my family.

I had been neglecting visiting them for the past few months, after all, and... it just felt right, to see them first on the morning of my eighteenth birthday. Reminding myself that, despite everything, they were still my family. Despite my father's betrayal to his best friend and despite that same best friend coming back to finish me off. Despite the fact that I'd killed that best friend, killed my father's best friend.

It was all just a lot.

"Hi," I mumbled when I sat down in the clearing before the graves, setting Bubbles beside me, where she settled down and clucked at me. "It's my eighteenth birthday today," I continued despite the lack of response.

All I could hear was the sound of birds in the sky, chirping their lilting song as though they had never experienced pain.

"Nothing feels different," I sighed, "I expected it to. I don't feel older or wiser or anything, I'm just really tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I did a lot of thinking."

Too much thinking, I wanted to say, but I didn't.

"I wish you guys were here," I mumbled. "It would be nice, to see you again. I know you knew Liam, though not personally or anything, and you knew Sage and Adriel. But they've changed- we've all changed. It has been eight years, after all. I wonder if you'd approve."

My breath caught in my throat as my fingernails dug painfully into my thighs. With a slow exhale, I tried to calm myself.

"I've told you this, but Liam's moving in today. We're probably gonna stay in that house until he becomes the alpha, when we'll move to the center of the pack for more protection. I don't know if that would bother you... the house feels like a really personal place. Only a few people have ever been inside. Liam, Adriel, Daniel... Sage has also been inside. They're all really nice. For a long time, I didn't really... well, I was really closed off. I think I'm more open now. Liam has helped with that.

"I really wish I could talk to you again. I have things I'd ask... questions I want answered. The closest thing I've been able to get to that was asking Daniel, and he didn't know a lot, either. The best we were able to do was guess. He did say you'd support me, though... if you were here. I hope that's true. I can't help but wonder how my story would be different if you were here." I let out a shaky laugh, before sighing and looking down at my hands. "For starters, the very first night when Adriel wouldn't let Liam come in, you'd all probably invite him in and drill him with questions for hours."

I flinched as I heard the soft sound of footsteps in the air and quickly reached out to Liam through our link. Is that you?

Walking near your house? Yeah, that's me, he replied pleasantly. Just dropping off my toothbrush. Where are you?

The graves.

Mind if I come say hi to the in-laws?

Okay.

I opened my eyes again and sighed as my sight landed on the worn names. Hesitating on what to say for a minute, I finally decided on, "I miss you," before Liam stepped in through the trees.

Instantly I could tell something had changed.

His scent hit me first. I had always been able to smell it, being a werewolf after all, but it was so much stronger. The mix of wildflowers, lemongrass, and lime hit my nose and all the sudden I couldn't stop inhaling it in.

Then I looked up and met his gaze, and suddenly I couldn't breathe at all.

Liam's lips stretched into a smile. "Good morning," he greeted me, walking closer and sitting down next to me, placing a hand on top of mine on the ground. "Take a breath, please. You look like you're gonna pass out."

I complied, taking a deep breath and blowing it out, before slowly looking up to meet his gaze again.

"Kinda overwhelming, isn't it?" he asked me, reaching to tuck a strand of my dark hair behind my ear. It was long enough to actually stay, meaning I probably needed a haircut.

I agreed by saying, "If there was ever a time I felt even slightly tempted to use a curse word to describe a feeling, this would be it."

Liam laughed aloud. "That would be a sight to see."

"How would you describe it?" I asked, listing my head slightly to the side in anticipation of his answer.

"Pretty much exactly what you said. A lot of curse words- something like 'it feels like I'm on a fucking rollercoaster and no matter what I do, I can't get off, but a lot of the time, I don't really want to,' was what I told Sage a few weeks after my birthday. But a lot of the time, my thoughts are basically fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck."

"I think that was six 'language's you just earned yourself."

"Mmm," he agreed.

"I'll have you know, my house is a strict no-cursing zone. I have soap to wash out your mouth if you do."

I giggled at his expression and leaned over to poke his nose.

He deftly avoided my movements. "Please say that's a joke."

"That was a joke. My grandmother used to wash my mouth out with soap."

Liam's eyes widened. "Seven-year-old Milo used cuss words?"

"No. She just got upset when I wouldn't reply to her."

"What a shitty thing to do," Liam muttered.

His hand squeezed mine on the ground, and for a moment we both sat still, just enjoying the feeling of fireworks going off at the simple touch.

"Have you had breakfast yet?" he asked a few minutes of silent touches later.

"No," I mumbled, lifting my head off of his shoulder and begrudgingly following when he stood. "I've only been awake for a few hours."

"Milo, it's six thirty in the morning," Liam deadpanned.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep."

His expression softening, Liam reached for my hand and squeezed it. "Did you take that sleep medicine Adriel said you have somewhere?"

"No," I mumbled.

"Well, you can take some tonight," Liam decided aloud, "and then you can actually sleep for a decent amount of time."

"Okay." I leaned down to pick up my pet chicken, cradling her in my grasp as I walked by my mate's side. Every inhale filled me with his scent and slowly, a smile spread on my face. I was surprised by that.

Everything had changed, but at the same time, nothing had.

An oddly comforting thought.

Liam ushered me to go sit down and I did, however begrudgingly. He turned on some music on his phone and nodded along to the beat as he opened the refrigerator, took out the tub of yogurt that hadn't yet been opened, then got out two bowls and spooned some yogurt into each. He sliced strawberries easily as he offered conversation, tossing them into the bowls. Finally, he took two spoons from the drawer before placing a bowl of yogurt and strawberries in front of me, handing me a spoon.

It was very... domestic. Somehow, I hadn't anticipated that.

Back when I was first starting to become his friend, I had assumed our relationship would be the typical one for alphas and omegas. I, as the lowest rank in the pack, would act like a housewife and full-time parent. Liam, as the highest rank in the pack, would be the breadwinner. The stereotypes reminded me of old television shows my parents would watch, where the woman was always in the kitchen and the man was always off having adventures at work.

I was very happy that those tropes had not turned out to be the case for us.

"Thank you," I said as I spooned myself a bite of yogurt.

"No problem," he smiled in response. "What are you thinking about?"

I wondered if I should answer honestly. "Us."

"Aww," he crooned, reaching across the small table to wipe off the corner of my mouth even though I was sure I didn't have any yogurt there. "You're so cute."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Well, you, now, but previously I was thinking about how a belly button is kind of our first mouths. When we're in the womb and everything."

I paused for a minute before wrinkling my nose in distaste. "That's an odd thought."

"I tend to have a lot of those."

"I've noticed."

Again, our conversation stopped, and we continued eating in a rare comfortable silence. One that made me feel like I deserved the happiness I now felt almost every day- and the odd thing was, Liam was the one who made me remember that I did.

Maybe that was cheesy, I didn't know. All I knew was that the emotions I felt, for him and for myself, were stronger than any I had encountered for a very long time.

-

"Happy birthday!" Sage exclaimed to me as he opened the door to Daniel's house. Even from where I was standing, I could see that the entire interior of the house seemed to be covered in balloons. Liam started laughing next to me until Sage fixed him with a look.

"Thank you," I replied when I got over my initial shock about the whole thing.

"Happy birthday," Adriel said, quieter, as he wrapped me into a hug. I buried my face in his chest for a moment, exhaling softly.

"Thanks," I said, my voice less tight than it had been when I responded to Sage. As much as I had grown comfortable with them all over the last nine months, Adriel was still my best friend.

"Finally, the last one of us is an adult," Julie remarked as Adriel turned and walked away and I stepped into the house, taking my shoes off and placing them on the shoe rack before straightening again and looking around in amazement.

"Goddess, how long did it take you to blow all of these up?" Liam asked, voicing the question I had been internally wondering as he leaned up to poke a purple balloon hovering in the air. "There must be hundreds!"

"All four of us pitched in, so it was only about three hours of work total," Sage shrugged as though it was no big deal. "Also, by the way, Adriel and Daniel are in the kitchen making the cake, so don't go in there."

Muffled shouts of agreement followed Sage's words from behind the closed door to the kitchen, quickly accompanied by a loud clang and curse words that were undoubtedly spewing from Adriel's mouth.

Sage winced, turning towards the door. "Maybe I should see if they're doing okay..."

Daniel opened the door, flour coating his cheek. "It's okay!" he frantically shouted. "I just dropped the bowl with the dry ingredients. Don't come in."

With that, he closed the door again.

"So?" Juliana asked eagerly, putting down her phone, as I sat next to her on the couch. "What's it like?"

I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to make her jealous. "Really good," I finally admitted. "I don't know how to describe it. Kind of like seeing the rainbow after a rainstorm?"

"A fitting analogy, since you're gay," Julie snorted. "Oh, by the way, I have a present for you. I'm assuming you're opening them later?"

"I think so," I agreed, only slightly uncomfortable taking the parcel from her hands and placing it on the coffee table and tactically avoiding Sage and Liam, who looked to be talking in low voices on the other side of the room.

"I do have to talk to you and Liam later," she said, following my gaze. "But that can wait. For now, come on! Tell me what it feels like. Give the poor mateless girl some sort of hope to keep searching."

I laughed uncomfortably. "Um, I don't know. It feels like a lot of things?"

An unamused look was all I received in return.

"I really don't know," I sighed.

"Give him a break, Julie," Liam's voice said from behind me, and though his tone was joking, the undertone was serious. Looking around, I didn't see Sage anywhere until I heard his unmistakable voice coming from the kitchen and realized he had probably decided to go supervise. "You already grilled Sage and me on it for hours on end." The couch dipped a bit as he sat down on my other side.

"I know, I know," she sighed. "Did you already give him your present?"

"Later," he smiled. I looked back and forth between them in confusion. "And no, we aren't in cahoots with each other. She just knows what I got you and is excited for you to see it."

"Does this mean I don't get to see his reaction?" she frowned, crossing her arms.

"Nope, you don't," Liam said sternly. "Now, come on. Didn't you have something to ask us?"

"Were you listening in on our very private conversation?" Julie fake-gasped, clasping a hand in front of her heart.

"I had to be sure you weren't threatening him or anything," Liam frowned.

"Okay, rude," she grumbled, but appeared to think for a moment before opening her mouth again. "Okay, so here's my sales pitch. Do you need an heir for, say, a pack or something? Do you have a female best friend who loves you very much in a very platonic way? Why not combine the two problems into one? Here's your solution: surrogacy! Take that best friend, use science to implement the genes of you and your mate, and nine months later, boom, baby!" Then, in a faster voice, she quickly said, "Terms and conditions may apply. Please only do this with consent from said female best friend. Surrogacy: The best option for two male mates."

After a moment of silence in which none of us said anything, I slowly started to clap.

"Milo?" Liam looked confused.

"It was a good sales pitch," I shrugged.

"So?" Julie asked, lacing her hands together on her lap. "Surrogacy, what do you think?"

"Julie, we can't do that to you," Liam sighed. "It would practically ruin your chances with your own mate. I can't in good faith let you, or any werewolf, do that for us."

"Well you can't exactly let a human carry your baby," Julana argued, crossing her arms. "Werewolf pregnancies are more dangerous than human ones. Our bodies are the only ones capable of doing this. Werewolves and humans aren't very compatible. And you need an heir- two heirs, actually. And alpha and an omega."

"I don't think we're ready for kids yet," I spoke up. "I mean, I just turned eighteen."

"Well, yeah. I'm just saying, in the future. If you need me, I'll be willing to offer my services. And if my mate can't accept that I want to help my best friends and pack, then they sure as hell don't deserve my love."

-

After we left Daniel's house late that afternoon with Sage shouting after us to use protection (I think we both turned red at that, but I didn't look up from the ground to see), Liam led me to the same small clearing we'd been in the night before, where a picnic was set up and Paisley sat with Caleb, slightly reminiscent of our first date.

"Paisley, how many times do I need to tell you, the deer are not going to steal the food," Liam sighed in annoyance. She looked up to meet his gaze, fire burning in her eyes.

"As many times as you want, but I don't trust the bunnies, so I was just being sure," she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Caleb, it's clear we're not wanted here." The cousins stood and walked off, leaving Liam and I alone in the clearing.

"This is nice," I commented as I sat down on the blanket, reaching for the picnic basket. "What's this?"

It was what looked like another gift, even though Liam had already given me one (a box of books even though he knew I was out of space on the bookshelf). This one was flatter and wider, wrapped in plain light blue paper.

Liam chuckled. "Goddess, I almost forgot... it's a gift, open it."

Eyes narrowed, I complied, carefully peeling off the paper in case whatever was inside was fragile even though the package bended like paper. When it was all removed, I found that it was an old notebook, one that Liam looked at with a reminiscent glance.

Instead of a name on the cover, it instead showed a thousand small hearts. I laughed aloud.

"When did you make this?" I asked in amusement.

"It was a project that spanned over the course of several years," he replied intelligently. "But I was pretty young. Open it up."

I obliged, flipping open the cover and reading the words written on the first page, inside a big green heart obviously drawn with crayon. 'Say 'I love you'', it read. Swallowing, I flipped the page again and read the next page. Then the next.

"These are all horrible," I laughed once I reached a page that read, 'Hug them a lot'.

"Not all of them," Liam disagreed. "Personally, I rather like hugs. And the first page holds very valuable advice from the mind of a second-grader."

'Say 'I love you'', I read again when he flipped the pages back.

"Milo," he said, his voice strong as his words implored me to meet his gaze. I did, studying those green eyes with the specks of gold like I had never seen them before. "Milo, I love you. I love you a lot, and I don't think I say it enough because I still don't think you know the span of the love I feel for you."

"I love you too," I breathed out, blinking away sudden tears. "I... I love you a lot, too."

He leaned down to capture my lips in his, and I complied.

"We should really talk about what Julie proposed earlier," I said breathlessly when he finally pulled away.

Liam hummed. "Later."

Another kiss silenced me, and we kept kissing and talking, and eventually eating the food that Liam's mother had lovingly prepared for us, until the sun dipped below the horizon, a perfect ending to this chapter of our story.

--

oof

sorry for not updating yesterday. not sure if anyone cares lol, but yesterday was busy af for me and i felt bad for forgetting.

only 1 chapter left, so make sure to follow me for more updates about possible future books in the series (I have one planned, but plans change y'know). i really appreciate all the support!

-bloom :)