"Ariel!" Mark shouts, bounding across the room like the big puppy that he is and grabbing me in a hug.

"Baby!" I shout, dropping Luca's arm and laughing as I hug my brother back, my eyes pressing shut with the pleasure of it. Mark - he's not even the baby of the family, he's nearly two years older than Juniper, but he'll always be my baby, and he lets me fuss and cluck over him like a mother hen.

"I've missed you," my Markie murmurs, hugging me close and tucking his head down against my hair. "June's been so mean to me and there's no one to stop her -"

I laugh, pushing back a little so I can look up into my little brother's sweet face. Mark favors Rafe and my dad, of course, but he's more of a mix than Rafe and I are. While Rafe and I are our parents' twins, Mark has some of mom's softness in the curve of his cheeks, in the lighter highlights in his hair.

when did baby get so tall? Has it always been like this, or

second he steps through the door. "No, no!" Jesse sounds, deliberately dramatic as they leap all over him. "Not the piranhas! They've got me! I'm being eaten alive! No, NO! They're taking me down!" All of Jesse's siblings grab onto him, shrieking and laughing, pulling him to the ground despite his mock protests, piling on top of

fight them off Jesse starts to grab each of his siblings by turn, giving them each what they need to feel loved and seen - a big kiss, a hug, a ruffle of the hair, a brotherly punch on the arm. "Whoa," Luca

scene, as I am. "It's been murder on me and

and I bend down quickly to give him a kiss on the cheek, murmuring how good it is to see him. Grandpa laughs and tells me that he feels just

in me, and I can't help it - I grin, and leap for her. "Junie Junie!" I sing, dancing around Grandpa Henry's chair and reaching for her, taking two handfuls of her long now-black hair in my hands and holding it up

me with her hands and trying to back away, though I keep up with her, laughing and still playing with her hair. "Stop

ass off and dropping her hair before snatching her into a big hug. She struggles against me, but Junie's even smaller than my mom and me, and I've spent a whole semester training at Alpha Academy, so she's got no

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