The Alpha felt his she-wolf's arms close around his neck as he kissed her cheek. He had finished taking in the last of the mad wolves—who were no longer mad, thank the gods. All except the one who was wounded, but it seemed that very soon he might make his decision as well.

“I don't even know how to thank you for doing this,” Rhia said, touching his chest.

“It's strange,” Aidan acknowledged, pulling up a chair to sit and having the girl sit on his lap. “I was never affectionate with my blood family, I remember that well. I loved my parents because they were my parents, like I was genetically designed to love them, but the connection was...”

“Justified,” Rhia helped him.

“Exactly. They were my parents. I loved them. Period. After what happened with my mother and what Maddox taught me about my father... all of that slowly broke inside me. For days, all I could feel was a huge emptiness, and now... Now I finally feel like I have a family that needs no justification. I have a family in yo