“You are the Luna?” She asks, as Zane tugs his shirt over her head. “But you’re a rogue?” The woman says, looking between Sage and me.
Her eyes linger on my neck before they focus on Sage’s, and I know she must find it odd that I wear her mark, but she doesn’t have mine.
“I am… Andrei is my mate,” she admits.
“But you’re still Omega. He hasn’t marked you yet?” She keeps questioning Sage, eyeing me.
“I’m Sage, and he will, we have just been a little distracted.” Sage explains, looking up at me.
My stomach does a backflip at her words. I have wanted to mark her for so long, but I refuse to get my hopes up.
“Nora,” she introduces, looking at Zane, who looks like he is about to swoon. Or perhaps faint, one of the two.
“Oh, um, I’m Zane,” he announces his name, finally managing to get himself back together. The woman giggles at him.
I have never seen him so dumbfounded. Nora looks out at her siblings, and her brows furrow before she looks at Zane again. Zane looks at them now too, finally noticing them.
“Family?” Zane asks, and she nods, glancing at me.
“You don’t have to be rogue anymore.” Zane happily announces to her, but her eyes instantly dart back to Sage and me.
“You and your family have a home here,” I tell her, backing up my Beta’s statement. It’s for the best. Not to mention that I know this is what Sage wants.
“What about Jonah?” She asks, making me glance at the boy, sitting between a group of my men, rolling the apples back and forth with them. He seems completely oblivious to what is going on around him. Being rogue, they all smell the same to me.
“Jonah?” Sage asks, and I point to the boy playing with the apples.
Her eyes soften before she looks back at Nora. “Of course, your siblings can stay,” Sage insists.
“He isn’t our sibling. We found him in the mountains,” Nora confesses, and Sage’s eyes dart to mine.
“He stays too until we find his parents. Do you know them?” I ask her, and she shakes her head.
“No, we only found him three days ago. He doesn’t say much,” Nora admits, watching him worriedly.
This has to be the first time I have witnessed something like this. A group of extremely young rogues, literally adopting another rogue and protecting him as fiercely as she just did. It’s admirable, really.
“We’ll figure it out. But for now, you should go and see your brother and sister. They look a little freaked out,” I say, and she looks at Zane, who is staring at her with googly eyes like she is made of shining gold.
“I hope we didn’t look that stupid when we found our mates,” Donnie huffs, and I chuckle at him.
“Zane, your mate,” I tell him in a calm attempt to tell him to get his shit together.
“Yeah, I found her,” he agrees stupidly, and she laughs at him.
“No, you idiot.”
“Huh?” A few of my men overhear and laugh at him.
“You will have to take it real slow with him, sweets. He is not the sharpest tool in the shed,” Clay calls out.
Zane growls at him menacingly, and Clay sits down with a smirk on his face, but not willing to rise to the challenge. Clay isn’t stupid, Zane would chew him up and spit him out, but it seems to drag Zane back to his surroundings.
Zane leads her over to her siblings, and Sage looks up at me. I can tell she wants to go over to them too. “Go on,” I encourage, and she darts off in their direction.
I look over at the happy faces of everyone congratulating Zane and welcoming them.
I am not sure how I feel about all of this, but seeing Sage’s face light up, I know I did the right thing bringing them back. However, I keep my distance, and Sage keeps looking over at me, but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s mood. I decide to sit next to the fire farthest from them.
I zone out of the chatter, wishing to the Goddess that the storm in me will settle. I feel uncomfortable in my own skin, and with the feeling of rogues on my territory. It’s a swirling warning in my gut that intruders are about. I ignore it as best I can when something hits my foot.
My eyes open to see Jonah has rolled an apple and is sitting across from me, waiting for me to roll it back. He is shivering, his clothes dripping wet still the fire has not completely dried him.
“Come here,” I encourage, and he walks over.
I grab his shirt, tug it off and quickly remove mine to pull it over his head. It falls to his feet, but it’s not like we have children’s clothes here.
“Better?” I ask him, and he nods, pulling on it as he sits down again and takes off his wet trousers. I grab them and his shirt to drape them over a log near the fire to dry.
“Why do you sit alone? Don’t you want to play with the rest of them?” He asks.
I look over at Sage again, who is watching us. Her head is cocked to the side while she chews her fingernails.
“It’s quieter here,” I muse, and he nods.
“My dad liked the quiet too,” he agrees, and I glance at him.
“Where is your dad?” I ask, and he shrugs.
“Your mom?” And again, nothing but a slight shrug.
“They left me in the cave to see a man about joining his pack, he gave them money, but they didn’t return,” he explains.
“They left you on your own?”
He shakes his head and his eyes dart up at me. “No, they left me with uncle Lior. He went to find food but never came back,” he says.
My stomach sinks. I have heard that name before. I glance at Zane and open the mindlink between just the two of us.