“Look, all I’m trying to say is if you want a pack, you have one. Right?” he asked Park, who finally seemed to shake himself out of a daze.

“Yes. Yes, of course,” Park said, voice moving quickly from stunned to excited. “Accept him, Eli. I would—I would love to share pack with you again. Please.”

Eli looked down, hiding his face, and was quiet for a long moment. When he looked up, his eyes were just a tad shiny, but he had his usual sardonic expression in place and tilted his chin challengingly. “I suppose given the fact that I have no other prospects whatsoever, it’s either your little gang of misfits or a miserably lonely and dangerous existence on my own never feeling safe enough to settle down again.” He tipped his head back and forth, making a huge show of thinking about it. “All right. I accept my alpha.”

Cooper blinked, feeling...odd for some reason. As if something deep inside him had blazed hot and fast like a flare at Eli’s words and quickly settled into a distracting buzz beneath his skin. Probably just sleep deprivation and a bad case of secondhand embarrassment because that was the most awkward phrasing he’d ever heard.

Still, it was all worth it for the expression on Park’s face. He was beaming, there was no other word for it. Overjoyed to have this connection he craved as a wolf. This growing family.

So the wolf world would be watching? Let them. Let them see this love. If anything made Cooper powerful enough to be feared, it was knowing he’d do anything to protect this.

“Great,” he said. “Welcome aboard, I guess. Now what to do I do?”

“How quickly can you learn a short piece of choreography and three lines of Latin?” Eli asked.

“It’s already done,” Park said. “You asked and he answered. We’re pack now.”

With everything he had needed to get done—timelines to double-check and people to talk to—it was midafternoon when Cooper finally stood beside Cola, observing Freeman through the double mirror.

“And you’re sure about this?” Cola asked.

“Pretty sure.”

“You always know just what to say to set my mind at ease,” Cola said wryly, but nodded him on.

Cooper walked into the interrogation room, and any doubt disappeared the moment he saw the surprise flicker over Freeman’s face.

“Good afternoon,” Cooper said. “I was told you chose not to call your lawyer. Are you still sure you don’t want him here?”

Freeman rolled her shoulders. “I don’t see any reason why I should.”

“All right. Just let me know any time if you change your mind,” he said easily. “I’m here to follow up on our conversation yesterday.”

“Oh?” she asked politely. “Has something changed?”