Josy I am looking up at two worried little faces when I wake up, and I can tell they have been crying. I remember being in Mylana's arms and then my world turned black; I am not sure why I passed out. I just hope Ivan and Malik weren't too scared when they saw that I was unconscious. "I am sorry for scaring the two of you." I whisper as I wrap my arms around them. I turn my head to the left to see Conan and Kanoa sleeping against the wall, and I giggle as I see the two bulky males sitting on the floor; it doesn't look comfortable to me to sleep like that. "They have been here all night, Aunt Josy." Ivan says, and I look at him for calling me Aunt Josy instead of just Josy. He points at my mark, and even though I want to cry, I don't; I can't cry in front of the boys. "Uncle Mano left after dinner with Alpha Lakota; he said it will be at least a week before he gets back." Malik says, and I see a sad look in his eyes. I pull him closer to whisper in his ear, and he quickly pulls Ivan with him into the bathroom. The boys are giggling in the bathroom, and I get my phone ready as the boys both walk back into my room, quietly making their way over to Conan and Kanoa. I give them a thumbs up when I start recording, and both of them empty a glass of water onto Conan and Kanoa, both of them screaming like little girls. I quickly send the video to Mylana, because I know they will try to erase it from my phone. I am laughing my ass off as they get off the floor, and Ivan and Malik are standing on the other side of my bed, as if that will save them from Conan and Kanoa. "It is good to see you awake, Josy. You had us all scared for a moment." Alice says as she walks into my room. Conan and Kanoa immediately forget what Ivan and Malik did to them as they look down at me. "I am not sure what happened, but I doubt it will happen again anytime soon." I say with a smile on my face; it is a fake one, but it will have to do. I have no intention of telling anyone why I might have passed out. Alice checks my vitals and asks a few questions before she tells me I will be fine, but I have to take it easy the rest of the day. Yeah, just what I need. More time to think about Mano, to think about what happened, and all I want to do is scream at the top of my lungs. "Can we have breakfast downstairs, Aunt Josy?" Malik asks, and I tell them to get dressed. I walk into my bathroom to get ready myself. I put on high-waist, flared jeans with a bright floral shirt, and I grab my sneakers from the floor to take them with me into the living room. As I put my sneakers on, Ivan walks in with a button-up shirt in his hands, and he asks me to help him put it on. He asked me to get it for him because it reminded him of his Dad. I ordered a few of them for both boys, and they both enjoy wearing them. * Every morning I wake up with Ivan and Malik next to me; I don't even bother putting them in their own beds anymore, and I doubt any of us would be able to sleep without the others present. The day after Mano left, Peter started building my cottage. Alpha Chris had sent over a few builders to help out, and besides my cottage, they finished four more cottages. Yesterday, Conan and Kanoa painted the inside and outside of my cottage, and after they were done, Peter put varnish on the hardwood floors in my cottage while I had been outside with the boys ordering furniture as they were planting flowers with Mylana. She chose to use Lantana with Purple Daydream Dwarf Loropetalum and a few other plants I forgot to remember the names of, but it is looking gorgeous. Peter just told me I can move the furniture inside when it arrives in the morning, but that I can already put up the curtains, and I am excited to see the look on Ivan and Malik's faces when they see their rooms. When Mano was still unconscious, we had talked about what they would want in their rooms, and sometimes we had fun looking at furniture for their rooms, but most of the time it had ended in tears when they saw something that reminded them of home. I got to know their family a little during those moments, and I think it helped them to talk about their family. They know what happened to my parents and why Alpha Lakota had asked me to join her Pack. Malik had growled angrily when he heard my story, while Ivan had crawled onto my lap to hug me, and I had held them both when they had cried for their family. The next morning, I watch as Pack-members move my furniture into my cottage; they are putting everything in front of the cottage, and Conan and Kanoa are going to help me place it where I want it to go. Two Warriors carry the parts of my bed up the stairs; Peter is there to show them where to put it, and he will assemble it for me. When it is almost lunch time, everything is moved inside, and I walk to the dining room with Conan and Kanoa; Ivan and Malik are already waiting for us. After lunch, they head back to the library, and I go back to my cottage after I have packed up everything in my Quarters; I will unpack everything in the next few days. Right now, I just want to make sure we can live there, and I have a few more things to take care of. I make our beds with the linen I ordered; I unpack the toys I got for the boys and place them in bins in their rooms. Their rooms have a connecting door; they can keep it open if they want to or close and lock it when they get older. I place pictures in both their rooms: one of the three of us and one of the two of them. I hang a painting above their beds, similar to my necklace, and my hand automatically goes up to the pendant. I caress the tiny cub as I think of my Mate, and I pray to the Goddess to keep him safe; I need him to come back to me and the boys. He hurt me before he left, but last night I remembered something my Mom always said, "Always talk with your Mate, especially when he has hurt you. They don't always realize they did something to hurt you, and we need to make sure they know what they said or did wrong." Mano is my Mate, and I am not willing to give up on us just yet, but he better understand I will have someone kick his ass next time. I walk into our bedroom and start making our bed. I am exhausted by the time I am done with our room, but everything is as I had imagined. Pictures of the boys are scattered throughout the cottage; a picture of the boys sleeping on Mano's chest is on the nightstand on my side of the bed and a picture of the three of us on Mano's nightstand. Tomorrow I will move everything from my Quarters to our cottage, and then I will return to work; I need to do something until Mano gets back or I will drive myself nuts.