Chapter  341

 LUMINA "Promise," I said firmly. Footsteps on the stairs announced Ollie and Shawn's return. Shawn looked transformed----clean, dressed in borrowed clothes that were slightly too short but infinitely better than what he'd been wearing. His hair was still damp from the shower, and some of the haunted look had faded from his eyes. "Thanks," he said awkwardly. "For the clothes and the shower and... everything." "You're pack now," Ollie said matter--of--factly. "Or you will be once this mess is sorted out. Daddy said anyone who survives trauma with our family automatically gets adopted. It's like a rule." "Is that actually a rule?" Riley asked skeptically. "It should be," Ollie defended. "We've adopted like six people in the last year." "Three," Riley corrected. "Me, Lake, and Carol. That's not six." "Plus Lyn and Lynn and Zade if you count alliance families," Ollie argued. "That's not adoption, that's alliance formation." "Same difference." I listened to them bicker with fond amusement,