“I like this color better!” Emory piped, lifting the bright blue marker shoved towards Sawyer.

The blond man glanced down at the coloring page he was working on with the eight year old. He had already been coloring the background when Emory brought up his better color preference.

Sawyer lowered a brow as he stared at Emory. “But I’ve already been coloring with this color…”

He lifted the marker he was using, only for Emory to glance at it before the younger tightened his mouth and shook his head with a “Mm-mm!” and lifted the marker in his hand again.

“This one!” Emory ordered.

My brother-in-law blinked a few times, his brows slowly dipping. His eyes settled on the coloring page in front of him. Then he switched back to Emory.

“But it’s blue…”

Emory raised his brows, almost as a silent way to acknowledge that he knew this.

Sawyer scrunched his nose and kept looking at the page. He pointed to the color he’d been using. “So is this one.”

The eight year old scrunched his face back at Sawyer and shook his head while shoving the marker forward again. “But I like this blue!”

Sawyer groaned, large shoulders slumping as he raised a hand to take the marker from the boy and tossed the one he was using aside. He grumbled that the picture was going to look weird now.

“But it’s blue,” Emory reminded him, tilting his head.

“I know!” Sawyer let out an exasperated sigh, throwing his hands up in the air. “That’s why I don’t understand why you want this blue when the blue I was using was just fine!”

Emory blinked, looking down at the page they were coloring and then back up at the tall man.

“Well… I don’t understand why you won’t just use my blue one. It’s like you said…“ Emory gave a nod. “It’s blue.”

I hid my grin behind my hand from where I was sitting across the table.

Sawyer slumped in defeat. He huffed, turning in his chair and began recoloring the background of the coloring page with the blue marker Emory wanted.

Emory looked satisfied winning the argument and reached for the yellow marker to uncap it and color in the petals of a flower on the edge of the page. The smile I was hiding turned into a laugh once Emory piped up to Sawyer, without looking up, “You color messy…”

Sawyer’s head snapped up, his blue eyes wide in a plea. I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. The man looked upward before shaking his head and informing me that he may not be cut out for having children in the future.

“Your sister is counting on three,” he grumbled, eyeballing Emory’s coloring.

My brows shot up, lifting the glass of orange juice I poured earlier. “Three? Cece?”

“To start,” he pointed out, raising a brow at me.

Sawyer sat back and grinned, shrugging a shoulder that he actually wouldn’t mind giving my sister the children she wanted. He said he’d do anything for her, as long as it made Cece happy. I smiled back, replying that he was so sweet to her. Course… Sawyer had to ruin it when he took a deep breath and sighed as he grinned, “Yup! Making ‘em is going to be the best part!”

I rolled my eyes, sipping my juice before glancing at Emory who looked up long enough to ask, “Why is it the best part?”

The blond man’s eyes widened, switching back and forth between the two of us. He seemed to have backed himself into a corner.

I sat back in my chair with my arms crossed. My brows rose, patiently waiting to find out what exactly he’d tell the eight year old who was still looking up at Sawyer.

“Er… Uh… Well…” Sawyer’s voice went up an octave, then glanced at the entrance to the kitchen when my sister came through with my mom. “Oh thank God!” Sawyer sighed in relief.

His mate walked around the table to stand next to him. He looked up at her and grinned sheepishly if Cece would kindly help him with Emory’s question.

“What question?”

Emory smiled, “Why is Mister Sawyer going to have fun making kids?”

Cece and my mom’s brows shot up. I was still sitting back with a wide grin. They both blinked and seemed to be thinking over something. It was my sister, however, who suddenly smacked the back of her hand on her mate’s shoulder.

“Shit, Cece! That hurt!” Sawyer frowned, rubbing his arm.

My sister paid no mind to him, and instead pointed at Emory—still watching them—while reminding Sawyer how old he was.

“You can’t just say stuff like that around him, Sawyer! We don’t know when he is supposed to learn about stuff like that!”

Sawyer grinned sheepishly, raising his shoulders. He looked to Emory switching gazes to meet his. “Sorry, kiddo. Looks like that’s something you’ll have to learn a little later.”

The boy blinked, brows furrowed as he tilted his head. “Like… after dinner ‘later’?”

I could see the discomfort on Sawyer’s face so I decided to save him. I leaned forward and explained to Emory that there were certain things he was going to learn about in life, but that he needed to be a certain age.

“Right now, you really don’t need to know about those kinds of things. Not until you get a bit older and start paying attention to girls.”

Emory blinked, lowering a brow and shrugged, “Well, you’re a girl…” His dark eyes peered up at me shyly, and I smiled, nodding in agreement that I was a girl.

“And I pay attention to you,” he pointed out.

Nodding again, I agreed.

“But I meant that you’ll look at a girl—or boy,” I added because of Cody’s situation. “And you’ll start to feel a certain way that you didn’t feel before. And when you do… you will learn about why you feel that way and what happens when you do.”

Emory’s brows furrowed and he looked at the table. “Oh…”

I sat back in my chair, lifting the cup of juice and raised it up to sip but stopped halfway when feeling my mother staring at me. Along with Sawyer and Cece.

Scrunching my nose, I frowned, “What?” a little forcefully.

My mom smiled, tilting her head and praised me on how mature I handled this with Emory. She emphasized that Emory was a child with many questions, and that I had this natural way to talking to children.

I sipped from my glass, lowering it while my cheeks were still puffed with juice before swallowing hard.

“It’s not a big deal,” I assured her.

But Mom shook her head, crossing her arms that interacting with children didn’t come naturally to everybody. She said that it had to do a lot with the type of person; that children could sense the good in people and develop a connection.

Glancing at Emory, I frowned. He had his tongue sticking out of the side, brows furrowed in deep concentration on his coloring page that he’d taken away from Sawyer.

Turning back to my mom, I shook my head and said again that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“It’s just the Quail bond, Mom.”

“Doubt it,” Cece chimed in. She grinned, crossing her arms and looked identical to our mom at the moment. “You forget, little sister, that even if you weren’t a Quail Wolf, you’d still be a natural because of the kind of person you are. You have always been the kindest little bean to everything and everyone.”

Mom nodded, smiling, “She’s right, Gigi. You have a child-like heart being the person you are.”

I chuckled, shrugging since I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean, I get what they are saying, it’s just hard to believe when this was all I’ve known how to be.

“Gianna?”

Emory had this small pout and tilted his head as he asked if it was okay to see Iota today.

It was Day Two of my “sentence” and my family had been trying to keep Emory as busy as possible so Iota could get her full rest. All day yesterday she was asleep.

Only every few hours, Mom would go into the spare bedroom to bring Iota something light to eat with some sort of refreshment. Vicky took it upon herself to be there with my mom when it came to having to carry her sister into the bathroom to relieve herself or for a bath.

We wouldn’t see a lot of Wade as he was in Iota’s room sitting in a chair Dad had brought in there for him. So my brother sat there beside his sleeping mate’s bed and patiently waited for her to wake. He had a basket beside him filled with snacks and a book bookmarked for the next reading. On the spare moments Iota would wake, she would lay there, staring at my brother as he read to her.

Sometimes, I had passed the room a few times and the door was never completely shut. A small opening allowed me to see inside, and Wade would be leaned over his knees to look at Iota. Wade was softly speaking to her; telling her about how long he’s waited for her and that he hoped Iota wasn’t too disappointed when she got to know him a little more.

“Please?” Emory asked, raising his shoulders and giving me his best puppy look.

I lowered a brow when he batted his eyes at me and I slowly shook my head that he was too cute for his own good. The eight year old giggled behind his hands.

Standing, I sighed that if he finished all his broccoli at dinner, then yes, he could visit Iota for a while. Emory sat up and nodded that he promised, but that he’d only eat them if he could have them in that ‘lemony dip’. I smiled, looking at Mom and questioned if Dad wouldn’t mind going the extra mile for dinner.

Mom scoffed a grin, waving a hand in the air. “Please! Your father will not mind at all! He loves Emory! In fact…”

She held up her pointer finger before disappearing into the kitchen where Dad was in the middle of cooking. I could hear his deep voice asking her why she was back in the kitchen when he kicked her out of it a moment ago. Dad scolded that she and Cece had sneaked one too many pieces of chicken for the dinner he was making.

Facing forward, I stared at the pair in a whispered conversation. Cece kept giggling as Sawyer held her hands and was tugging her closer to him. He kissed the back of her hands and looked up at her while back to talking. My sister narrowed her eyes, taking a hand from his to tap his nose gently.

“Gianna…?”

I blinked, looking at Emory who had vacated his seat and was now beside me. Waiting for him to say something, I took in the timid steps he was taking towards me. He looked a little worried.

Emory leaned his head forward and whispered behind a cupped hand, “Why are you so sad?”

I tilted my head, asking, “What do you mean?”

He nodded then stretched his little hand to rest on the middle of my chest. “Right here… You’re sad. I feel it.”

Odd. That’s what I think every single time Emory has questioned me about my feelings. He always seemed to know what I was feeling, and I kept coming to the conclusion that it had to do with us being Quail Wolves. That had to be it. Perhaps with how much time we spent together, it was starting to strengthen the bond between us.

Placing my hand over little one on my chest, I smiled, “I’m okay, Em. Really.”

Emory didn’t believe me from the frown he was giving me, and then he softly told me that I was lying.

Sighing in defeat, I nodded that I was a little sad, but that I’d be okay eventually.

Emory bit his lip, asking if I was sad because of the man that talked to him a few days ago. I swallowed thinking about Ridge before I pushed him to the back of my mind and softly smiled as I nodded, “Yes, I am.”

“Oh…” The boy raised his shoulders a little and asked coyly, “Do you love him?”

I pursed my mouth to the side, nodding before replying that I do love Ridge, but that he didn’t know that. That Ridge didn’t remember me because of something bad that happened to his head that made him forget.

“It hurts a little, Em, that he doesn’t love me… but that’s okay because I’ve been in this situation before and I made it out of that okay, too.”

Grinning, I nodded, “So don’t you worry about it… okay?”

Emory hesitated for a moment and then leaped over to wrap his arms around my neck. I was startled, sitting up to hug him back. His hold on me tightened.

“Em…?” I frowned, trying to catch his eyes.

The boy sighed, turning to rest his head on my shoulder. He softly mumbled, “You don’t have to make it out all by yourself. I can love you, Gianna.”

My gaze flicked over to Sawyer and Cece who were listening to our conversation. There was this look in my sister’s eyes I couldn’t read but she had a sad smile. I could tell Cece was hearing something I wasn’t.

“What do you mean, Em?” I asked, still letting him hold me tightly.

Emory nodded, not lifting his head from my shoulder. His big brown eyes looking my face over.

“Yeah… I can love you like you love him! That way you won’t feel so sad anymore. I love you a lot!”

I didn’t say anything at first. I just looked over at my sister who had that pitied grin on her face. I took a hold of Emory’s face and smiled that I loved him too, but that our love was a little different. That it was not possible for me to love Emory how I loved Ridge because of how much older I was.

“But—” Emory blinked a few times, frowning between us then looked up at me. “But you’d be like Iota!”

It was my understanding from Vicky that she and her sister did explain to Emory what a mate was, however, he didn’t seem to understand the concept fully yet.

“That’s different though, Em. Yes, Iota is older than her mate, but she never met him until now.”

“So then I can love you! I can, Gianna! I can! I feel it!”

His little hand touched the middle of his chest and then the other rested against the middle of mine. His dark hued eyes slowly seeped into the electric blue and I could only sit there, frowning back at him. I didn’t know what to tell him.

Scrunching my nose and biting my lip, I thought of a way to explain to Emory that there couldn’t be any way I was his because Ridge and I had already met and recognized one another. It was a lot harder to do when remembering that Emory was eight, and things had to be simplified for him.

So much for me being a natural with kids…

Emory’s desperate look for my answer confused me. He was giving me this longing look and it was a little disturbing. Everyone had one True Mate. That was it. So why did Emory think I was his?

I sighed heavily when those Quail eyes of his were tearing up. The corners of my lips curled upward as I could see that it was really no point in arguing with him. I think once Iota was better she’d have more success in explaining things to Emory.

“Okay, Em…”

I could feel Sawyer’s and Cece’s eyes on me as I took hold of Emory’s hands in mine and leaned close to him. I mustered up a smile and nodded that if he really felt like he loved me that way then he could. That I wasn’t going to take that away from him.

Emory’s eyes brightened, the blue disappearing back to brown as he leaned close to rest his forehead against mine. He scrunched his nose enough that it grazed mine and I sputtered out a laugh.

When he whispered, “I’m gonna love you always, Gianna!” I felt a twinge in my chest and my thoughts went straight to Ridge.

It was similar to what Ridge said once to me, and now I’ll never hear it again. It was painful and disappointing, and yet, I think my wolf and I were in agreement that fighting for our mate was no longer an option.

I’d come to this decision the night Iota showed up.

The last time I’d fought for Ridge—well, I wouldn’t really call it fighting for—but when I dealt with the Molly issue, Ridge was my sole focus. It was an obsession because I wanted to have the man that was meant for me.

My family claims that I wasn’t selfish, but I honestly think I was. I was willing to give up my life for Ridge, yet… I side-swept my family.

Just remembering when Dad was accused of treason, and then thinking about how they must have been treated around the pack during my absence, it made me realize that I could not put love before others. Romantically, I mean.

Ridge was one person. A man who didn’t love me anymore.

Vicky’s words that day in the woods, when we first met, started to hit me hard. And I hated to agree but it might be a good thing if Quail Wolves never meet their mates. They are believed to not have one because a mate was a distraction. A mate was lethal. And it was true.

My stupid decisions were all based on the possessiveness of my mate; with Madilynn at Ridge’s wedding, against Alpha Hannibal when I challenged him, and then with Molly when she egged me on the day of my banishing.

The wolf inside me may be powerful, she may be this rare species of wolf, but she was probably thinking like any other Quail: she didn’t have a mate.

So when I found Ridge… it sparked something new inside her. It unlocked something that should have been non-existent like the other Quails before me.

I was determined to find out more from Iota, but I think she’d agree with me—or at least Vicky would—when I tell her my decision of my staying away from Ridge being what was best for everyone… especially myself.

Because it came down to one hardcore truth: Ridge Beaumont was going to be my downfall.