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  Taylor said, “When she gave him to me, Sarah told me that his mom had wanted him, but that she couldn’t keep him, because of the way he looked. He’d never be able to hide among humans.”

  “Yeah, but that was half a year ago,” Beka protested. “She doesn’t get to waltz in here now and take him back.”

  Taylor let out another sob. “There’s got to be a way around this. Some sort of compromise…”

  “There’s nothing to compromise on. He’s ours. He doesn’t belong to her.”

  “But he does, Beka. He’s her son. She wanted him. She still wants him.”

  She looked back down at the crumpled note, and then squeezed it in her palm.

  Was she to blame for this? If she’d never contacted Sarah, would Sarah have reached out to her? In her note, Sarah had expressed how excited she was, as she was still in frequent contact with Carly, Henry’s mother. Apparently, Carly hadn’t been doing well since having to give up her baby, and she was desperate to be with him. Far from being put off by Taylor’s suggestion of finding Silas a mate, Sarah saw it as the perfect opportunity to reunite mother and pup. She’d even gone so far as to say how perfect it would be, because Henry would still be close to Halcyon and Taylor could see him frequently.

  Was Sarah being optimistic, or naive? Did she truly believe that Taylor would find the situation to be anything except devastating? Not only for her, but also for his siblings, and for him, too. He and Belle had practically been raised as twins, and he adored Shadow. How could they possibly separate the pups?

  It was that thought that finally had Taylor standing to vomit over the side of the porch.

  “I can’t think,” she said, once her wrenching had subsided.

  “There’s nothing to think about,” Beka said. “He’s ours. If she wants to come here and be Silas’s mate, then fine. But there’s no way she’s taking that pup back.”

  Taylor was inclined to agree. Surely, they would understand that Henry was better off with her, and with his siblings. Carly could visit with Henry, but it would be insane for her, a complete stranger to him, to take him to live with her at Whiteriver.

  Even as she thought this, though, Taylor remembered seeing Belle and Kalla together. Kalla had been with Belle for only the first two days of her life, yet the pair had somehow formed a deep bond. Would it be the same for Henry and Carly? Would he see her, smell her, and instinctively know that she was his mother? That all this time, the woman who had nursed him, had cared for him, had cuddled and kissed him, was nothing but a shallow impostor?

  Summer

  When Henry’s mother arrives in Halcyon Valley, Taylor finds herself struggling to keep her family together. She has to contend not only with losing Henry, but also Shadow as he continues to surge towards adulthood.

  Coming July 2018

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