She was the only one brave enough to taste anything yet, and I knew more than one at this table was waiting for her opinion. Angel was the guinea pig in this experiment.

“Wow,” she finally said, her eyes meeting mine. She smiled broadly. “I can taste some of the undertones that I imagine most wouldn’t, but… it’s good. It’s really, really good.” She clapped her hands together. “I finally found my thing, thank you!”

Her hug was immediate and enthusiastic, and I wondered if maybe the chocolate was going to affect her in another way. It did have a calming, somewhat euphoric effect on humans… Maybe it would do the same for Angel.

Before I could run away with those thoughts, everyone went into action, reaching for plates of food. “Dig in,” Len said loudly, drawing attention as he grabbed some cookies.

Even Shadow chuckled as they started to experiment with the dishes. My heart was so damn full as I watched them laugh and screw up their noses when they found dishes they didn’t enjoy.

It was pure fun escapism. One last moment together.

Whatever happened tomorrow, this night meant everything to me.

I would never forget it.

41

It was later than expected when we finally made it back into the lair. If we weren’t literally going into battle in the next few hours, I had a feeling we’d have talked with our friends all night.

Was this what family and pack life were really like? If so, I’d seriously been missing out. Even before my father’s death, I’d never experienced anything like that, and that might be the first real truth I recalled from my childhood. It had always been cold.

“What are you thinking?” Shadow asked as we strolled toward his room after leaving Inky guarding the lair entrance.

“I had a lot of fun tonight,” I said honestly. “I’ve never sat around in a group like that. Usually, I avoided anything to do with gatherings because it was hazardous to my health.”

Shadow did not like it when I talked about my life in Torma, but I wasn’t one to bottle that shit up. I didn’t dwell, and I didn’t think of it a lot, but I also wasn’t about to pretend it had never happened. To me, that wasn’t healthy, and for my own mental health, I had to talk it out.

“I mean, I do remember the early years, before my father decided that I was a demon child who needed to be torn apart by the alpha, but even then, I was lonely.”

Shadow’s expression grew darker. “I know you told me about your father briefly,” he said, “but I’m going to need you to elaborate again. Now that I’m in my right mind.”

“You want to know why he attacked the alpha?”