The One He Claimed

Chapter 190: Saying Goodbye

Hunter

Last night was bittersweet. I’m truly happy for my friends and what they’ve accomplished, but **n it hurts to know that I won’t have Lucas by my side every day any longer.

I convinced Lucas to join me for one more training session. I get up early, letting Sophie sleep. I know today is going to be a difficult day for her too. She and Kinsley have gotten very close, but hopefully, the bonds we created here will continue. And while we’ll see them less, the times we do see them will be that much more special.

When I walk out onto the training field, Jaime is already at the front of the group, Lucas standing beside him.

“Get used to Hunter being late to training,” Lucas says good naturedly to Jaime, making the warriors chuckle.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. In the last two days since you’ve been gone, he’s beat me to training,” Jaime says, giving it right back.

“Spoken like my new Beta!” I say. “Come on, Lucas. You’re with me today.” I say as my warriors grumble that they don’t get a last chance to spar with him.

It’s a great sparring match and I know that Lucas is ready to take his place as an Alpha. When we’re done, he rubs his side and smirks at me. “D**n, you really are upset that I’m taking a handful of your pack members, aren’t you?”

“You could have given me some warning,” I grumble.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he says, chuckling as we walk inside. I refocus my attention on Sophie, and I feel her overwhelmed with her emotions.

“I need to go find my mate,” I say, all joking gone.

“So do I. Today will be…”

“Tough. Yeah, it will,” I say before jogging upstairs to find Sophie in the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, crying.

When I walk in, she looks up at me with tears streaming down her face. “I’m going to miss them so much.”

I scoop her up, and gently carry her into the room, sitting on our loveseat and snuggling my mate against me.

“Sorry, I’m sweaty. I was sparring with Lucas this morning,” I say, kissing the top of her head.

She nods. “How did he do?”

“He sparred like he was made to be an Alpha,” I say, not sure if Sophie’s emotions are getting to me, or if I’m struggling on my own with saying goodbye to my friend.

“I know we’ll see them again soon. It’s just…’

“I know. We won’t be having breakfast with them every day, they won’t be walking into our offices asking to speak with us, we won’t run into them at the pack hospital as we’re having our pups checked. It won’t be the same, but we will see them and once the community area is together, it’ll be even easier for us to schedule play dates or community training sessions. We even talked about having the warrior competitions to give our warriors something to strive for and work hard to achieve.

Sophie tucks her nose under my throat, breathing in my scent as I hold her in my lap, rubbing my hands over her stomach.

Once she’s settled, I carry her into the bathroom, and we shower together. I wash her hair and feel her relax as I massage the shampoo into her hair.

When we’re done, we head downstairs to have breakfast, seeing Lucas and Kinsley surrounded by pack members all wanting to speak with them before they leave. I can tell that Kinsley is struggling just as much as Sophie is, maybe more since she’ll be leaving most of these people behind to start their new pack.

When she sees Sophie, she extends her hand, and Sophie goes to sit beside her. I get my mate some breakfast and hand her the plate while she and Kinsley talk to the pack members. I can feel Sophie struggling not to cry, mingled with laughter as the pack continues to reminisce about funny things that have happened over the years.

I grab some food to go, knowing that Lucas needs help loading their things. It’s late morning before their truck is packed with everything they own.

“It doesn’t look like much, does it?” he asks.

I look at it and smile. “It looks like the start of a new life,” I say to him.

He turns and looks at me, and I see the same emotion in his eyes that I feel in mine.

“I’m going to miss you brother,” he says, and I pull him into a hug.

“I’m going to miss you too.”

We go back inside and get our mates, Sophie and I standing aside while they say goodbye to everyone. Sophie and Kinsley aren’t the only ones crying.

I walk over to Brutus and shake his hand. “I know you’ll be a great Beta for Lucas but get your a**back to this pack when you’re done,” I tell him.

“Yes, Alpha. I didn’t…I didn’t realize it would be so hard to leave.

It helps that Brooklyn will be there soon for Luna Kinsley’s delivery, but…I’ll miss everyone here.”

“You can always come visit,” I tell him. “You too, Leah,” I say as she walks up, having said goodbye to her friends.

“Thank you, Alpha. I’m sure I’ll want to come back a lot to see my friends.”

“You’re always welcome.”

Next, I move to Beth and Chloe. “This is a whole new opportunity for you Beth. Are you ready for it?”

“I don’t know, Alpha, I’m terrified. What if I screw up?” she asks.

“I’ll tell you a secret. You will screw up and you’ll do it more than once. Just make sure your screw ups don’t cost anyone their life or put the pack at risk. Then when you make a mistake, own up to it and learn from it. That’s what good leaders do.”

“Thank you, Alpha!

The pack walks the others outside, Sophie and Kinsley taking the longest to say their goodbyes, both still crying. Lucas and I walk up to them, wrapping our arms around our mates much like we did when they arrived yesterday.

“I expect to get an invitation to my son’s best friend’s birth,” Kinsley says.

“And our son expects to get an invitation to his best friend’s birth, soon thereafter,” Sophie says.

They squeeze hands again, unable to hug and then Lucas packs Kinsley into the truck and their convoy of three vehicles, including Brutus, Leah, Beth and Chloe, all make their way down the drive as we wave our goodbyes.

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I watch my old pack waving goodbye as we drive off, Kinsley’s tears coming even harder now.

I reach over and wipe the tears from the cheek closest to me. “It’s going to be okay baby.”

“I know. It was just…it was so much harder than I was expecting. It’s like leaving family, you know?”

“I do know. And I know that we have our work cut out for us Kinsley. Alaric’s people are nothing like Hunter’s. We have a struggle ahead, but I think we’re up to the challenge.”

“Stealing Brutus was a good idea,” she says and I’m glad to see her smiling.

“That was a brilliant idea of yours. And Leah will great as a Beta. We need that kitchen and the packhouse whipped into shape and I know she’ll be able to get that going right away.”

We’re quiet a moment, and I take her hand and pull it to my lips.

“Hunter was right. This is the start of a new life for us, Kinsley. A new life that I never dreamed of, but now that it’s here and it’s ours, I can’t wait to live it.”

My mate turns and looks at me. “There’s no one in the world that I’d rather start a new life with than you, Lucas.”

I smile at my mate and something deep inside me settles. Everything is going to okay. I have my mate at my side and on my side and that’s all I ever need