The Luna and her Quadruplet Pups by Jane Above Story

Ethan

As I hang up the phone, I wonder if I’ve just made a terrible mistake. According to Devon, Jane was so out of it that she won’t remember any of our conversation, and I’m praying he’s right. It would complicate things far too much if Jane actually recalled my confession professing my undying love for her even after everything I’ve done. Still, I couldn’t help myself. My wolf wouldn’t allow me to listen to her suffering in this way and stay silent.

I also fear it was a mistake to promise I could be there with Paisley once she wakes. In the moment my thoughts were simply that getting Jane to sleep was more important than anything.

Hopefully when she wakes she’ll be lucid and the entire PTSD episode will be a blur, but I don’t want to frighten her more if she does remember and I break my promise. I suppose Devon can keep her asleep until I çan arrive, but we can’t keep that up forever.

I’m currently at the border of the NightFang territory, having every single car crossing into my pack’s lands searched. I’m praying that Paisley is indeed headed in my direction, and if we’re lucky then I might even be able to find her before the people with whom she’s stowed away even know she’s there.

My guards have already been at it for an hour however, and the more time that passes, the less optimistic I feel.

Depending on the drivers, Paisley could be anywhere on the continent, and after what happened in the Southern Isles, I’m not confident that would tell a stranger her identity if she’s found. This both comforts and frightens me at once. I want her to be cautious, but not to the point that she can’t find her way back home.

This is why we never should have sent her away.

We should have known she’d do something like this. My wolf growls in my head.

I was trying to do what’s best for her. I bite back, wondering if he’s right. She’s been pining for a mother her whole life, and we’ve seen the damage I do to she-wolves. She needs a father like Devon, not me.

Just like Jane needs a mate like Devon? My wolf grumbles, Who couldn’t calm her or comfort her despite his best efforts?

He’ll learn. No one figures these things out overnight. I reason stubbornly.

you never

Jane’s needs. He argues.

I failed to notice she felt like an unwanted slave

Eve and your mother were whispering poison in your ear. He

is that I wasn’t able to see what was happening right in front of my very eyes despite being her mate. I cut sharply, Now enough of this I’m not going to keep litigating this to death. I’ve

love that part of myself, it would just be so much easier if I didn’t have to feel all this. I wish I could turn off that part of my brain, even if it meant I would have to live as a shadow of myself for the rest of my life – better a shadow

when

and immediately detecting my daughter’s pure,

finding a very confused looking couple and one of my guards leaning into the backseat, I see Paisley sound asleep on the floor of the car, half- covered by a thick blanket. I have tears in my eyes as I lift her up into my arms, and the couple immediately starts exclaiming apologies, insisting they

injuries or signs of distress,

she doesn’t even notice being moved. I hug her close, looking over the top of her head to the panicked couple. “It’s alright. I promise. “She snuck into the backseat all on her own, I know it wasn’t

my guards then, Call off the search and get me a car. I need to get her

still waiting for a vehicle to appear when Paisley stirs, yawning widely and blinking up at me in confusion, then relief. “Daddy – you found me.” She smiles and stretches, snuggling into my chest. “I

everything you’ve been through, do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You know better than to go near strangers, and even if they were good people, they didn’t even know you were in the car. You could have gotten locked inside and been trapped – it’s the dead of winter,

me – I couldn’t leave you, and I knew you’d find me.

and took some very serious risks. You’re a big girl

out her lower lip, giving me huge puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I

very much, but you can’t get yourself out

furrows. “Why

growing up is taking responsibility for your actions when you’ve done wrong, and

I can see her working through all her different emotions: guilt, sadness, anger, indignance, confusion. Her little face is set in a deep frown, and then she looks up