Wild and Free (The Three #3)(197)

“Then I’ll make you take it back.” Hook, at the head of the table, Delilah to one side, Aurora to his other, with Abel next to Delilah, shot out of his chair.

He then leaped over the table, arms extended, and as he did it, he took plates and platters filled with food, as well as much of the tablecloth, with him.

He hit Moose, who was sitting beside Yuri, the vampire next to Aurora, and Moose’s chair fell back.

They started grappling immediately on the floor, rolling around, grunting, and cursing.

Delilah leaned forward in her chair toward a wide-eyed Aurora and said, “Don’t worry. This happens a lot.”

She was speaking truth.

It was Thanksgiving at the Johnson compound and it was far from surprising that all hell broke loose.

Ursula, who had been sitting down the table between Moose and Jabber, leaped to the seat of her chair and shouted, “That’s it, my darling. Show him how it is!”

Abel looked down to the foot of the table to see Jian-Li watching the biker wrestling match with amusement settled firm on her features.

“Bummer, man, the hoisin sauce is all over the floor and I needed some,” Xun muttered.

Aurora started giggling.

Delilah burst out laughing.

Sonia and Leah grinned at each other.

Lucien raised a brow to Callum, who just shrugged.

Chen asked for the eggrolls, which were one of the only things left on the table.

Barb handed them to him.

Cain held Teona in his lap, where he’d pulled her five minutes ago, and he shoved the last of his pancake filled with crispy shredded duck in his mouth as his mate craned her neck to watch the action.

Wei took a sip from his beer bottle, doing it eyes to the floor behind him where the men were fighting, his lips grinning.

And Abel sat back in his chair, staring at one of what he’d discovered was his mate’s myriad brands of wild, and he did it with a smile, feeling free.

The wrestling match turned out to be a draw.

And then the table was cleared and Jian-Li and Delilah served four types of pie.

*

Abel lay on his back in their bed, eyes to the ceiling, his woman curled close, her finger moving in a whisper of touch, drawing patterns on his chest.

“Everyone leaves tomorrow,” Delilah said quietly.

“Yeah,” Abel replied.

“We’ll be back together for Yuri and Aurora’s Claiming Ceremony in December,” she told him something he knew.

“Yeah,” Abel repeated.

“That’ll be fun,” she muttered.

“Yeah,” Abel agreed yet again.

“Hope Dad and Moose behave,” she kept muttering. “Barb might spell them bald and impotent if they don’t.”

Abel’s body started shaking with laughter.

Delilah snuggled closer, resting her cheek to his chest and stopping her hand in order to wrap her arm around his stomach.

“You wanna ride out the next day?” she asked.

He did.

Absolutely.

For months, they’d rode.

They did it from place to place. To visit Lucien and Leah. Jian-Li and his brothers. Cain and Teona. Or just places one or the other of them wanted to see.

And in that time, Abel had stood at the back of a roadhouse outside Austin, sipping beer, watching his mate scream and shout and dance with abandon to live music.

They’d also stood on the top of a cliff in northern California, holding hands, jumping off together, and falling straight into the salty, warm waters of the sea.

And she’d sat on his lap while trying to break the record of eating forty Coney dogs (she lost, she only could hold down fifteen) at some place outside Philly.

They’d f*cked on the beach in the moonlight in South Carolina.

They’d sat in a speedboat Lucien drove fast on Dragon Lake next to the house he shared with Leah, Abel holding Delilah close, Delilah having both arms in the air most of the time, screaming in glee.

They’d sat at table after table with those they loved, eating, talking, sharing, laughing, dream after dream coming true as he’d seen his mate sitting back, chopsticks in her hand, boots on the table, teasing Jian-Li.

They were going to Scotland after Yuri and Aurora’s Claiming Ceremony to spend Christmas with Sonia and Callum and their family.

While doing all of this, they were often recognized practically everywhere they went.

But they’d found, surprisingly, and gratefully, that this was always respectful.

Always.

Someone might approach but only to say “thank you” or ask to shake Abel’s hand or give Delilah a hug.

Mostly, they just got nods or smiles.

The others reported they experienced the same.

So nothing marred their eternity of adventure.

Nothing marred their wild and free.

“Baby?” Delilah called into his contented thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Wolf traits won out.”

His brows drew together as he dipped his chin.

She slid her cheek on his chest to look up at him.

“What?”

“They’re prolific,” she whispered, and his entire frame strung taut.

“What?” This word came out on a sharp breath.

“I’m sure you want a girl you can spoil rotten. But I want a boy with two-colored eyes and—”