Chapter 264

Almost one and a half years later…

“Are you ready?” Wendy bounced on her toes, her long hair shining in the curls that we painstakingly styled this morning. She looked gorgeous in her pale pink dress. The back of the graduation dress hung open around her shoulders as she finished her makeup. I looked around at everyone in my living room, and I couldn’t stop the smile.

“You guys look amazing.” And they did. Micca’s red hair was braided over her shoulder, her graduation dress a dark canvas to her stunning beauty. Hanna’s black, textured bob was such a drastic change since our first year. She had let it grow out these two years and then showed up this morning like this. “Hanna, your hair is stunning.”

“I liked the long hair, but this feels like me.” She smiled and ruffled her hair. She slipped her graduation dress over her white sundress. “Can you believe it’s been almost three years? They said they would fast track us, but I didn’t actually think they would.”

Toya came out of my room with her stunning gold dress clinging to her curves and her grad dress in her arms. “Why?” She smiled a little sadly. “With all the attacks that we have been dealing with, fast-tracking us back to our families is still the best thing to do.” I nodded as I walked over to her and grabbed the grad dress. Toya pouted before pulling her braids over her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have to graduate with this black, formless dress covering my body, not after you spent the last two years torturing me into shape.” I threw my head back and laughed as I helped her into the grad dress.

“Dramatic,” I shook my head as she turned.

“She isn’t lying.” Micca walked over to the long mirror I had propped up against my living room wall. “Before meeting you, my father called me ‘rolly polly’ because, no matter what I did, I was always fat in his eyes.”

I gasped. “You were never fat.”

Micca gave me a small smile. “You guys never made me feel like I was, but in my pack, they did. My dad actually sent me to school because my sister was getting married, and she didn’t want her new pack to know that she had a fat sister.”

“Micca…” Wendy walked over to her and hugged her. Micca tried to smile again, but she shook her head as a tear fell. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

“Because you never made me feel fat or bad about myself. At first, to be honest, I was terrified that if I pointed it out, you guys would look at me differently, but then I realized you would never do that. I put it past me, and I wasn’t that person anymore.” She unzipped her grad dress and twirled in a tight black dress that showcased her body perfectly.

“You have always been stunning. Your body had nothing to do with it.” She stopped spinning as I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her, and I stared into her eyes. “You have been gorgeous, inside and out, the day I met you. This body, if it makes you happy, then we are happy. But I need you to listen to me when I say this.” I waited until she nodded. “Your worth is not now, or ever, based on your weight or your looks. The worth of a person is based on their personality and their achievements. I need that to sink in before you go back to your pack and allow them to make you feel anything else.”

Micca nodded and cried in earnest. She hugged me. “It’s stupid, I know, but my father called me. They are traveling here for the graduation, and he told me not to embarrass him.”

Wendy snorted. “He knows you’re top of your class, right?”

Micca shook her head. “Today was the first time they talked to me since I started school.”

I pulled her back and kissed her forehead. “If you have any issues today, and I mean anything, you call me. I will handle your father and your pack.”

“You can’t do that, Amy.” Micca laughed and shook her head.

“Of course, I can.” I bumped my hip into hers, and then I turned to face everyone. “You are all from different packs, and your different ranks, but my wolves have claimed you. No matter where you go, how far you roam, you are our pack, our family.” I watched as those words sank in. “No matter how long we go in between seeing each other, or who you mate with, or which rank you settle into.” I looked at my unranked girls, who I knew for a fact held a rank now. Hanna and Wendy looked at each other and smiled. “You are now and forever ours. Ours to love and ours to protect, whether it is from asshole parents, angry pack embers, or— goddess forbid— abusive mates. I will show up, no questions asked.” As soon as I finished, everyone came over, and we hugged.

Family, whether blood, bond, or chosen, were what mattered.