“Yes, but I had no idea that one of your wolves and my wolf were related. Unless you knew…”
Aiden quickly shook his head. “I thought you might be sympathetic. I did not suspect that you had a wolf.”
“A mate,” she corrected. Her smile softened into something so much sweeter and loving when she looked up at David. “My heart. But also, my greatest secret until now.”
David released Wyatt and moved back over to Sofia’s side, sending his brother one last reassuring smile.
“Aiden, I would like you to formally meet my mate, David Montgomery. A werewolf and member of the Montgomery clan,” Sofia introduced formally.
Aiden took David’s hand and shook it. He turned and introduced Marcus and his mate, Ethan. He moved to Winter, then Rafe and Philippe. When he reached Bel, Aiden paused and smiled down at the man who’d become his son.
“This is Beltran Varik, our resident scientist. These are his mates, Wyatt Varik and River Varik.”
They shook Sofia’s hand, but David surprised him by pulling Bel in for a tight hug. “Thank you so much for loving my brother and his mate River,” he whispered into Bel’s ear, his voice thick with emotion.
“I am the one who is honored to have been blessed with such gifts,” Bel said as he stepped out of David’s embrace.
“Take notes, Rafe. That’s charming without being sappy,” Ethan called across the room.
A tense silence fell on the room only to be broken by melodious laughter drifting up from Sofia. She waved a hand at Aiden. “Don’t worry, Aiden. My clan is the same when they are all together. Not a serious one in the bunch.”
Aiden smirked and offered her his arm. “Your clan seemed much better at being serious when I met them,” Aiden teased.
“Only because I didn’t introduce you to my troublemakers.” She graciously placed her hand on his arm and quickly introduced the three other vampires who had accompanied her to the Varik clan.
When the introductions were complete, she turned and looked at the gathering. “As you can see, I don’t have any concerns about you having a werewolf within your clan. You can probably guess that I would very much like to have the current truce…reworded if possible.”
“Something that is not going to happen under the current Ministry,” Aiden replied.
Sofia’s smile turned a little bit wicked, and she extended her hand, tipped with bright red nails, to Aiden. “Then let’s go start a war.”
Epilogue
The shades descended on Marcus’s house, and the doors locked. The guests had left a few hours earlier, and the occupants of the massive structure had slipped off to their own quarters.
Bel lay stretched out in the center of the king-sized bed, sweat cooling on his body and the most delicious stretch in all of his muscles. On either side of him, he could hear the heavy pants of his lovers.
He had enjoyed meeting the Montgomery clan and the sense that the scales had finally tipped in their favor when it came to defeating Damon and his minions, but in truth, his mind had been on only one thing—getting his wolves somewhere private.
The second Sofia and her clan were pleasantly escorted to the front door, Wyatt tossed Bel over his shoulder and carried him to his bedroom while his brothers laughed and teased him.
Bel didn’t care one bit.
But now that their passion was cooling and his heart was happy, his brain was churning over all the minutiae of what it meant to have Wyatt and River in his life again.
River groaned. “Bel!”
“What?”
“You realize we can feel you thinking,” Wyatt murmured into the pillow.
“That’s impossible,” Bel grumbled. He flopped onto his back.
Wyatt placed a hand on his hip and pushed him to his side, facing River while he spooned against Bel. He reached across Bel and smacked River’s ass. The wolf’s head popped up, and he gave Wyatt a playful little grin as he scooted closer to Bel, legs entwining and skin touching everywhere.
“You can feel our emotions,” Wyatt said as soon as they were all settled. “We can feel when you’re thinking too hard.”
Bel snorted, but there wasn’t much force behind it. His entire body was feeling too sated, too happy to do much more than just lie there.
“What were you thinking about?” Wyatt whispered into his ear before pressing a kiss to the tender lobe.
“You and River.”
“I’m assuming you weren’t planning something martyr-ish.”
Bel huffed a laugh and wrapped an arm around River, pulling him in tighter. “That’s not even a word.”
“And yet you still understood what I was saying.”
A smile teased at Bel’s lips. “I wasn’t thinking of martyring myself to protect you both.”
“Because we’re your family,” River countered.
“And we’re Variks now,” Wyatt added.
Some of the tension settled in Bel’s chest, and he smiled a little more easily. It was true. They were his own little family. Tomorrow night, they were going to pull up the plans for the house and start discussing changes. Later in the week, they’d meet with the architect to get plans drawn up. With any luck, they’d have a start on the house within a month.