When Dad let go, Xavier swooped in, hooking an arm around my waist and bringing me to a large chair where he sat down and put me on his lap. I blushed, because my parents were in the room and he was obviously staking his claim.

"Xavier!" I hissed, but he merely shrugged. I sighed, but there was no way I was going to be able to stand back up on my own. So I stayed, embarrassed, as my parents picked up the conversation.

"Well," my mother started, her tears dry and gone now, "I can't tell you enough how happy I am you found Xavier."

Oh, so we weren't going to talk about the last six months. Okay. I was relieved, but also terrified of the way it meant talking about my mate and I instead.

Xavier nodded his thanks, and a hint of a smirk he was trying so hard to hide traced his lips.

"Thank-" I started to say but she had more.

"Though, I can't figure out for the life of me why you couldn't bother to tell us about him!"

Hot anger flashed through my cheeks, but it quickly turned into embarrassment, shame even. "I'm sorry." I wasn't sure what could've been worse: talking about my kidnapping or meeting my mate.

Dad put a hand on my mother's, "Hailey, let's not get into this please."

She sighed, debating. "I know, I'm sorry. I just was hoping that because a huge reason you came out her was for a mate that you would call us in excitement over meeting him."

In my peripheral, Xavier's face scrunched in confusion, asking so many questions with his eyes.

"Mom, I was scared." Suddenly I knew what she was doing. She was making a deal out of nothing to distract herself from what happened to me. She couldn't bear to talk about it as much as I could. Grateful, I relaxed a little.

"Scared?" Dad asked, his hand still on Mom's.

"You said to keep myself a secret," now I understand why. . . "So I did. From everyone. And it cost me so much that I fell into probably the worst version of myself I have ever seen."

Emerald ducked her head, remembering, and Xavier's confusion washed away as he squeezed my hand. Mom stilled as she thought my words over.

"I almost lost Xavier because of what I am; so, I was afraid to tell you about him in case you said it was too fast to tell him everything." I felt shameful, for thinking of it this way, but she had to know: "you grew up as a human, introduced to this world, to your mate in a different way. I didn't want you to tell me to go slow like that because I was so happy to have found my mate that I couldn't wait to be with him."

Xavier's grip got stronger, and I realized that was the first time he was learning some of this too.

"I understand that," Mom whispered, and that shocked me. Saying those words terrified me that it would turn into a big argument or something. She even chuckled a little, "it was just quite the surprise when we arrived to find Xavier running the plans and searches for you. And when I asked, it turned out he was your mate."

I ducked my head, "I should've told you about him. I'm sorry."

So, then I told them. Everything. I started with how I met him, and pretended to be human. Xavier added to it when necessary, describing his side of things when he thought I was human. It was the first time I'd heard his side of the story.

He laughed, "when you first grabbed my hand and felt the sparks, a million emotions crossed over your face in a split second; I wasn't sure what you even thought of them!"

"I think I was terrified," I laughed, too, "because suddenly it became so much more complicated."

I described how I conflicted over telling him and how my guilt got so bad I missed an entire month of time without realizing. My parents were pleased to have gotten the story, and I think it helped them connect with Xavier more, which warmed my soul entirely.

We had switched to talking about school, in which I fretted about how much I missed, and were in the middle of the conversation when the front door swung open.

"April, April, April, April!" A voice that instantly welled my eyes up shouted.

"May!" I cried as she rounded the doorway and ran straight for me.

The second her eyes fully locked on me, though, she skidded to a halt and nearly tripped over her own feet across the carpet. Her eyes went round with horror a ten year old wouldn't be able to hide fast enough. Water coated her silvery eyes, spilling over and dropping on her shirt.

"April?" She whispered.

I reached a hand out for her, but she hesitated. I didn't blame her, though, I didn't look anything like myself. My hair was pooled on Xavier and my laps, the ends frayed and unhealthy and several several inches longer than it had been last summer. The state my face and body were in definitely had potential to give a child nightmares, and for May to see her sister like that. . . I felt like crying over it with her.

Strong hands grabbed my hips, startling me as they lifted me up to my feet. Xavier made sure I was stable before he let go, but I knew his eyes were on me like a hawk watches the world from above.

I took a step towards my kid sister, but I didn't want to scare her anymore than she already was. She hesitated a second more, and then embraced me softly, as if she were afraid I'd crumble between her arms.

We melted to the floor, initiated by me so that I didn't have to worry about holding both of us up, and she curled deeper into my embrace, her head ducking against my collarbone.

"I'm here," I whispered.

"Please don't ever do that again," she cried, her hands had a vice-like grip on my shirt. "Every day I thought anyone that talked to me was going to tell me you were dead."

I kissed her head, "I didn't die, I'm here."

"I wouldn't know what to do if you died." Her cries became whimpers, but she still didn't let go, or even lift her head up. She just clung to me, letting her breathing and tears slow while I held her tight.

Glancing to the doorway, I saw August standing there patiently and I reached a hand up to invite him in. He kneeled beside us and put an arm around each of his sisters.

"I'm glad you didn't die." He said and I couldn't help by crack up.

"Thanks, Auggie," I said, "me too."

"I'm never leaving you." May announced after a moment of silence, finally lifting her head from my chest. "You're not allowed to go anywhere again."

Humored, my eyes found my parents first, and then Xavier's, who looked overjoyed seeing me reunite with my siblings. I jerked my head at him and he instantly knew what I was saying, sliding off the chair and taking a seat on the floor next to our huddle.

"May?" He asked.

She wiped the snot from under her nose and the tears from her eyes before focusing on him. "Yeah?"

I eyed him, not sure where he was going with this. It wasn't like she could stay here — she most definitely needed to go home to Utah, to the Glowing Moon Pack — and I couldn't go with them either, my duty was to the Rising Moon Pack with Xavier.

"Do you know who I am? To your sister, to you?"

Her face clouded in concentration, "you're her mate. I guess that kinda makes you my brother?"

He smiled, "sure. And what does that mean?"

"That you're going to keep her here." I stroked a hand over her hair, knowing this wasn't going to be easy for her to cope with.

"Yes, but family is important to me. And you're family now. So, this won't be the end, okay?"

She finally offered him a smile. "Okay."

He patted her cheek, which forced her to giggle, before standing up. Then he helped May off me before lifting me to my feet and kissing my temple.

"Thank you." I said, referring to both what he said to May and helping us up. I looked back down at my sister, stroking her cheeks and pulling her blonde hair to the front of her shoulders. "You okay?"

She nodded, her eyes flickered to my face and then my arms and legs. "Are you?"

"I will be," I smiled weakly. "My body is healing, I promise."

"Okay." She gave me another hug before going to sit with my parents.

August replaced her to finally give me a proper hug, and I was shocked by how much taller he had gotten in the past nine months. "You haven't shifted yet, right?" I questioned, my heart afraid that he had, and that he wasn't a wolf because he was early.

"Not yet. Still hoping for my birthday."

"Me too," I whispered. "More than you know, I hope so too." I patted his shoulder and let him go sit on the couch.

Emerald stood up, opening her mouth to say something when a nurse entered the room unexpectedly. She switched whatever she was going to say to "can we help you?"

The nurse looked right at me as she spoke. "I just thought you'd like to know that she is awake. And she is asking for April."