Free Web NovelChapter 59: Home Visit
The car winds through familiar streets, and I can barely sit still in the passenger seat. My knee bounces against the door panel, my fingers drum against my thigh, and every few seconds I shift my weight like I’m trying to physically propel us forward faster.
Corrian glances over at me from the driver’s seat, his mouth twitching with barely suppressed amusement, but he doesn’t say anything. He just reaches over and rests his hand on my bouncing knee, his palm warm and grounding, and even though the touch settles me for approximately three seconds, the restless energy comes flooding back the moment I see the turn onto our drive approaching.
Our drive. When did I start thinking of it that way? When did this place stop being theirs and start being ours? Maybe it was somewhere between Vaela teaching me to feel the wolf sleeping inside my bones and River showing me how souls can speak without words. Maybe it’s been during one of those brutal training sessions where Valentine pushed me until my muscles screamed and my lungs burned and I discovered I was capable of so much more than I ever imagined.
Or maybe it happened in quieter moments. Corrian feeding me triangles of sandwich under the stars, Leo’s heartbeat steady beneath my palm, the way all five of them look at me like I’m something precious and powerful and entirely theirs.
Whatever the catalyst, the shift has happened. This isn’t just where they live any more. This is home. This is where I belong. This is where my pack waits for me.
The thought sends a thrill through me that has nothing to do with sexy men and everything to do with belonging. Three weeks. Three entire weeks away from them, living at the lodge, training from dawn until my body gave out, learning about pack dynamics and wolf hierarchy and the thousand tiny details that make up this world I’m stepping into.
Vaela had been relentless but fair, pushing me harder than I thought possible while also knowing exactly when I needed rest. She’d taught me about strength, not just physical strength, though my body has changed in ways I’m still getting used to, but the kind of strength that comes from understanding yourself. From accepting what you are and what you’re becoming.
From standing in your power even when everything inside you wants to run and hide.
I’m different now. Can feel it in the way I move, breathe, the way I take up space in the world. My senses are sharper, my reflexes faster, my awareness of my own body more acute. I’m not fully wolf yet, that’s been... a struggle. But I’m not entirely human any more either. I exist somewhere in between, and instead of feeling lost in that liminal space, I feel powerful. Ready. Like I’ve been preparing my whole life for this moment without knowing it.
Corrian turns into the driveway, and the house comes into view. It’s a beautiful place, all natural wood and stone and huge windows that let in floods of natural light, nestled into the forest like it grew there organically. The front yard is meticulously maintained, the garden beds full of late-season flowers that add splashes of colour against the evergreens surrounding the property.
But I’m not looking at the house or the landscaping or any of the details that usually catch my attention. I’m looking at the three figures standing on the front porch, and my heart does something that feels like joy and relief and coming home all tangled together.
Jax, River, and Leo. They’re waiting for me. They must have heard the car coming up the drive, must have dropped whatever they were doing to come outside and greet me.
Jax is leaning against the porch railing with his characteristic easy grace, blonde hair falling into his eyes, a grin already spread across his face. River stands with his hands in his pockets, his expression calm but eyes bright with anticipation. And Leo’s practically vibrating with barely contained energy, his whole body taut like he’s seconds away from launching himself off the porch and meeting me halfway.
The car hasn’t even fully stopped before I’m unbuckling my seatbelt, my hands fumbling with the latch in my eagerness. Corrian chuckles beside me, the sound warm and indulgent, and I turn to him just long enough to press a quick kiss to his lips. It’s meant to be brief, just a thank you for driving me and a promise of more later, but he catches the back of my neck and holds me there for an extra heartbeat, deepening the kiss just enough to remind me that he’s mine too. That they’re all mine. That I’m coming home to all of them.
Then I’m out of the car and running, my feet hitting the driveway with more force than I intend, my body moving faster than it used to be capable of. The training has done more than just strengthen my muscles, it’s changed the way I move through space, given me a grace and power I’m still learning to control.
I barrel into the three of them with enough momentum that we all stagger backward, and for a second I think we might actually go down in a tangle of limbs on the porch. But they catch me, their arms coming around me from all sides, their bodies solid and warm and exactly what I’ve been missing for three endless weeks.
"Jesus Christ, Frankie," Jax laughs, his arms tight around my waist as he steadies us. "No need to show off your new sexy muscles. You nearly took us all out."
"Sorry," I say, but I’m not sorry at all. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
I’m grinning like an idiot, my face pressed against River’s chest while Leo nuzzles into my neck from behind, his breath warm against my skin. They smell like home, wild and masculine that makes my wolf stir inside me with recognition. I didn’t realise how much I missed their scent’s together until this moment, until I’m surrounded by it again, drowning in it.
River’s hand comes up to cup the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair, and he tilts my face up to look at him. His eyes are soft and when he kisses me it’s slow and thorough and perfect. Not rushed or desperate, just a welcome home. A reminder that I belong here, with them, exactly like this.
Then Leo is turning me in his arms, his hands gripping my hips as he pulls me against him, and his kiss is different, hungrier, more demanding, he’s been starving and I’m the only thing that can satisfy him. I melt into it, my hands fisting in his shirt, and I feel the rumble of satisfaction that moves through his chest. Behind me, Jax presses close, his lips finding the curve of my shoulder, and I’m surrounded by them, passed between them, each of them taking their turn to touch and taste and claim.
It should feel overwhelming, being the centre of this much attention, this much need. But it doesn’t. It feels right. This is exactly where I’m supposed to be, exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. My wolf rises inside me, pleased and content, recognising her mates even though the bond isn’t complete yet. She knows them. She’s known them all along.
"Alright, alright," Corrian’s voice cuts through the moment, warm with amusement. He’s leaning against the car, arms crossed over his chest, watching us with that indulgent expression he gets when he’s pretending to be exasperated but is actually completely charmed. "Let’s get some food into her before you all maul her to death on the front porch."
The comment breaks the tension, and we all laugh, the sound bright and easy. But as we start to disentangle, as hands reluctantly release and bodies step back to give me space to breathe, something cold settles in my stomach. Because there should be five of them here. Five alphas waiting to welcome me home. But there are only four.
Ezra isn’t here.
