Grown (Book 2 of the Athens Wolves Series)

4

I had focused on Heidi for the next couple days in the pack house, Jack coming in the check in, shooting me glances, probably wondering if I had thought about his birthday request. And I have. It's all I thought about when I wasn't having a conversation with someone. It was what kept me awake after Heidi's bedtime. I didn't even bother to watch TV.

And then the first night in the new house, things were set up so Heidi was in her own room and I had the energy to stay awake until the very early morning. Unpacking, and organizing, things that Reese promised to help me with in the morning and I was going to help her in the afternoon.

Oh well, too late. We could just go to breakfast. I laid down, and sleep still hadn't come. Jack's persistence on the bond showed me that he hadn't been sleeping either. And knowing how protective he was it might be because of how far away I was. Because we were no longer under the same roof, a few doors away from his.

I laid down and relaxed everything but my mind and it felt like as soon as I was asleep I heard knocking on my front door. I got up and peaked out seeing my dad. I opened the door with a slight glare.

"Did you have to knock?" I asked and he smiled.

"Hearing someone in your new house would have put you on edge baby girl, you know that. Go back to bed, you need your sleep. I will get her up and ready quietly." He kissed my forehead and I sighed and leaned my head on the door before going to close it. But a hand stopped me.

"Jack." I nodded before rubbing my eyes.

"You didn't sleep a wink last night Gene." He noticed and I rolled my eyes.

"I was busy." I mumbled turning away right away.

"Go on back into your room then." He said pushing me along like I was some child. I turned around, shoved his hands away from me and then gave him my best glare.

"I might not be an adult in your eyes Jack, I am not 20, yet. But I am a mother, someone who grew up a long time ago. You might not have been around for that, but at least my own parents don't think of me that way. I don't need you parental guidance. I have done fine on my own." I spat, the sleep deprived wolf inside me coming out for a challenge. I turned my back on him and went right into my room, closed the door and locked it for now.

I growled, so angry that I knew I couldn't get back into bed to sleep. So I changed direction and took a quick shower. I dressed in sweats, a long sleeve t shirt and simple socks before venturing out into the now empty house.

I went into Heidi's room and started unpacking and setting her things up how they used to be in her old room, and just thought back to when I was huge setting up her nursery.

I had painted the walls a soft purple, gotten Ian and my dad to put together all the things like the crib, and rocking chair, and bouncer. It was all very organized. I had a huge shelf of all the baby clothes from the baby shower. All the diapers were set up on the side of the changing table my mom had onced used on us. I had everything clean to perfection, the clothes all pressed with a crease that made my pregnant mind find them all perfect.

I smiled knowing I still loved some of those things. The organization was still very needed because if it wasn't she and I wouldn't know what was clean and what wasn't.

I thought back to what I told Jack earlier. I had grown up in his absence whether he has noticed or not. I didn't have a slim waist and hips anymore. I was way more curvy now than I was before and when I asked my mom about it, about why I didn't bounce back to my size 3 pants she said it was because I was only 16 when I had Heidi, that meant my body would have grown like this over time anyways.

I stood, walked to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't see one thing besides the obvious that looked the same. My eyes were showing my age now, like a middle aged mother wolf. I could see the worry lines around my eyes that weren't there now, I could see the smile wrinkles that I have seen in pictures of me and Heidi though they were there now either.

I gulped down my changes as if I had to adapt to survive again. I had adapted to being pregnant, and then a mother, and then for a moment, mated. But now, even if he was trying, all I wanted to do was adapt to be solo, alone, mateless... stag if I recall the right words Jack used to use all the time in his high school and college years.

But no matter what I would still be a mother, even when she finds her mate, and has her own kids. I will be Heidi's mother, and a grandmother to her children.

Looking forward I saw her in a nice house, a loving husband s***h mate, keeping a protective eye on her while she walked around with her tea as hot as ever in her hands and her protruding belly rubbing against the counters.

That thought made me think about when I was about 8 months pregnant and trying to get the chips from the top shelf and pressing my belly into the side. Ian had rounded the corner, unbeknowing to me and screamed and pulled me away.

He had been so nervous about me hurting the baby he shouted at me for pressing against the counter like I had been, woke up half the house our parents included who joined me in laughing at him.

I didn't have a mate to worry with my pregnant body, nope, I just scared my brother and some other males like Dean Harper. He had been the one to find me in the woods when my water broke. His face had been so scared I had to laugh at it to distract from what was really going on.

I had just been out of my morning stroll and then my water broke and the first real contraction hit a couple steps later when I tried to get back to the house. I had braced myself on a log and he found me.

I told him how ironic it was for him to be there when the baby happened, which he didn't like, and then again when she was getting ready to come out. He had carried me to the closest car, driving me to the pack hospital while I called my mom, Reese, and Twyla.

He stayed with me until they were there and then came to check in on me the night I was finally awake after Heidi made her appearance. He gave me a couple flowers, said they were from Sabine, and then it was like a moth to a flame. He held Heidi for about 10 minutes before he had to go.

He had been back now and again before I was released and held her, all the time when the others were gone.

I had a bunch of laughs with him... though I don't think many actually knew about that. He helped Ian set up a swing and slide, helped potty train, and walk, and run.

Then when Sabine was killed by hunters he became closed off... he didn't come around the pack as much, and whenever Heidi saw him in town he would give her a real smile none of us could achieve anymore.

He would carry her around for the rest of our errands, or his. He was a small part of her life, yet also so big. I knew by the smile he always gave her that she was his little ray of sunshine in his rainy life.

I couldn't wait until he found his second chance mate. It was well known that if your mate dies before their time you find a new one, to be there for someone who needs you just as much as them.

He had stood with us, the Alpha family and begged for an audience with The Great Luna 2 days after losing Sabine and asked her to bring her back. The Luna came down, as beautiful as ever, and told him softly that he had another mate, another purpose on this earth, and The Fates would bring her to him as soon as they could. She ordered him to stay strong and wait for her... but I could tell he was losing his strength.

I jumped out of my thoughts when a knock sounded from the front door. I got up from the floor and walked there seeing Reese with two coffees and a bag standing there. "Hey, I sort of finished already." I said giving her an apologetic smile.

"Already? What did you do get no sleep?" She asked and I just nodded. "I thought you were just woken up, sorry." She laughed and I rolled my eyes.

"I was going to suggest a real breakfast." I said taking the bag and seeing muffins.

"Okay then, you want to go into town?" She asked and I nodded taking the caffeine though. I went in and grabbed my phone shooting my dad a text that I would pick Heidi up from the pack house when Reese and I are done with breakfast.

We went, she talked me how she was excited to start her new job, and how she had a lunch date to get to know Aaron more. To be all relaxed so the students don't pick up on any tension on the alpha female and the teacher in the classroom.

They had about three weeks before Aaron went on a retreat or something like that with some kids of a younger generation that will be in her class in about 4 years. I thought it was a good thing to do, and while Reese can't really do that she definitely said how she wanted to.

We talked more about what Jack was doing when it came to me and Heidi and she told me all about how I should give him a chance and I was sort of put off because no matter what she knows, she didn't actually live through the pain I did. Ian was by her side everyday since they met except when we were both taken. I had known Jack my entire life, but since I was 16, I never saw him in any romantic way.

When he said the word mate 2 days after my birthday my wolf, who I was still getting to understand, had basically made me think of how hot he looked, how his muscles flexed in the slightest ways when he laughed, everything I had tried to never think about, came to the forefront of my mind.

Then I had this impulse to please him, to show him I could be any kind of woman he wanted, even at the mere age of 16. Enter Reese, and I started thinking like my old self, when he came around, I still thought about the rough edge in his voice, or the way his laugh almost made me melt.

And thankfully, when Reese showed up, and then Twyla it distracted me. Then when Greyson showed up, and the way Jack treated him, made me crack out of my wolfs hold. If that was how he treated the only family he had left, then what kind of family would we have.

But then everything else happened.

I was taken, and raped, and impregnated, and I couldn't talk to anyone about it. It was all anyone could focus on, and it irritated me and embarrassed me all at the same time. It took me about two weeks to get out of my funk, and then when I did...Jack was leaving, I was pregnant and everyone but my wanted me to get rid of the baby.

Then he was gone, and I had no contact, even when I wished for it. The only thing that kept me from breaking down and being out of control and closed off, was Heidi Giselle growing in me. She was the future for me, even if she was it.

But when Jack came back, and showed me all the love and attention that I had craved with my hormones out of whack. I let him mark me and I marked him back, and then he was there, all night, keeping me up with everything and anything. Then that went down the toilet when he left that morning.

And now, he was back forever and what? Trying to get a family? Or make that best of his mate and her kid because he didn't want to be alone forever?

I didn't know, and while those thoughts swirled through my head, I made my way to the pack house, ready to take Heidi to her favorite place in the city.

I got to the house, took a deep breath before opening my door. I walked up the gravel, hearing tires crunch behind me. I didn't look back to who was pulling up because honestly, it was probably someone that didn't even talk to me.

"Heidi!" I shouted opening the door up and walking in looking around before hearing her small giggle. I jogged up the stairs seeing Jack twirling her around and touched his shoulder making him stop, stumble and then smile at me. "C'mon, we have to go." I said not giving him anything in return.

She giggled and reached out for me, sort of sloppily since she was dizzy as well. "I had fun mommy." She declared as I turned right around and went down the stairs.

"Did you, tell me what you did." I said and she started telling me before gasping.

"Uncle Dean!" She squealed seeing him. He had his keys still in his hand and looked surprised, though I could tell he wasn't. I set her down with a soft smile and let her run to him.