by Leia Stone
“Come on, I want to show you the pool.” My mom stood and rubbed her belly. For as long as I could remember it had been this way. Mom cooked, dad cleaned. I was raised in an equal household and I was happy to see doing a dish or two wouldn’t kill Sawyer. He’d probably never done dishes in his life.
I linked arms with my mom as she pulled me through the hallway.
“Is Raven safe?” I asked suddenly. I hadn’t gotten around to getting a new phone, but I wanted to check in with her.
My mom nodded. “She’s safer at Delphi. The witches are having their own civil war right now, so Sawyer had her taken back to Spokane where she can lay low.”
I sighed. Poor Raven. What must it have been like for her to be in the Witch Lands finally and be waiting for me with my mom, when she was pulled back out again?
My mom opened the large glass double doors and my mouth popped open at the lush backyard. It wasn’t huge, but it was a well-done space. To the right were empty cedar beds for gardening, and to the left was a stunning rectangular swimming pool. In the center was a small, trimmed strip of grass with various trees and bushes all around it.
“Honey, Sawyer told us what you are…” my mother whispered, catching me off guard. “A split shifter.”
I froze, unable to say anything, and she carried on.
“I mean, he had to. I threatened to kill him multiple times.” She laughed nervously.
Wow, I would have paid to see that. I wished I had been the one to tell them, but I understood that with my disappearance they would have been asking a lot of questions, namely why the heck the vampires wanted me in the first place.
“That’s a good man there.” My mom gestured to the house. “He was so patient with your father and me and he fought so hard looking for you.”
My throat squeezed. “He’s pretty perfect… now if only he would actually propose to me…”
My mom grinned. “Oh, honey, I’m not even sure this house has solar panels.”
I frowned, taken off guard by her random comment about the house after I’d just confessed I was waiting to be proposed to. “Wait, what?”
My mom spun me around and tipped my chin up to the roof, sans solar panels. “I don’t think Sawyer wants to take your dad into the garage to talk about solar panels.”
Oh.
Ohhhh.
A huge grin swept across my face. “You think… he’s asking dad for permission?”
She nodded.
I did a totally lame involuntary squeal and my mom laughed, looking younger and less worn-out than she did in the human world. Coming back to Werewolf City had brightened her. The bad days were behind her and my father. All because of Sawyer.
“Honey, back to the split shifter thing…” My mom smoothed the top of my hair and forced me to face her. I was hoping she didn’t want to get into it; it would probably turn into a big crying fest. I mean, my soul split in half because I was raped; it wasn’t a pretty topic.
“Only Paladins can transform into split shifters. Run grew up with one. A woman who was trapped in a house fire. Her wolf split and dragged her human out half dead. He talked about her to me often.”
Oh lord. Chills ran up my arms at the news that there might be another like me. “You think she’s still there? With the Paladins?”
My mom shrugged. “I mean, I don’t see why not. She would be a bit older than me by now. Anyway, I just wanted you to know… in case you needed to find someone else to talk to.”
Something brightened in my chest. If this other split shifter had lived this entire time without the vampires or anyone coming for her, then maybe I would be okay too. Maybe she had a secret to keeping her smell under wraps or something.
I leaned forward and took my mom into a big hug. “Thanks, Mom.”
She sighed, her chest shaking as she held me. “Your entire job as a parent is to keep your children safe at the very least.” Her voice broke. “First when you were fifteen and now… your father and I went crazy when Sawyer told us the vampires had taken you.”
She pulled back and there was a fierceness in her eyes, a warrior I’d never seen before. “If it happens again, your father and I will go to the ends of the Magic City looking for you and we will leave a trail of bodies in our wake, you understand me?”
My eyes widened. “Mom!”
She nodded. “That’s right. I’m not some weak schoolteacher nice old lady. Those blood suckers better watch out.”
I burst into crying laughter, the manic kind where you didn’t really know whether you wanted to cry or laugh and so you did both. “I love you,” I told her. It was sweet, but with her cuffs she couldn’t even shift—
My mouth opened in shock as my gaze went to her wrists.
“MOM! They took off your cuffs!” My voice was colored with shock, but not near as much shock as I felt. How had I just sat through an entire dinner without realizing she was cuffless? Free!
She grinned like a schoolgirl, nodding as tears shone in her eyes. “Just this morning. Sawyer had a hard time finding a witch powerful enough to work on it, one that hasn’t gone against us.”
I chewed my bottom lip. Was the entirety of Magic City against us now, over me? Because that was awkward as hell.
“Your father and I took a run in wolf form together this morning.” She grinned. “Happy to report I’m still faster than him.”
“I tripped!” my father called from the open doorway and I spun to see he and Sawyer making their way out into the garden. My gaze flashed to Sawyer’s pockets, checking for the bulge of a ring box.
Nothing.
“Get the solar worked out?” my mom asked, her tone completely light and nonchalant, but we both watched Sawyer’s face for a reaction.
My dad nodded. “It’s such a fancy system, you can’t even see the panels.” He pointed to the roof. “They’re built into the roof shingles!”
My face fell and my mom shot me a gaze that said, I’m sorry.
Damn.
“Ready to head back now, Demi, or would you like to spend some more time with your parents? I can come get you later, but I’ve got a few meetings to attend to,” Sawyer said.
“I’ll head back. I want to get settled in for classes tomorrow and catch up on what I missed.” I gave my mom and dad big hugs, and was surprised when my mom pulled Sawyer into a hug too. After shaking hands with my dad, Sawyer led us outside, where Walsh was leaning against the front of his car. Sage was standing in front of ours looking down the street like she expected an attack at any moment.
As we approached, she gave me a small smile and then looked at her cousin. “Did you get the text about the small breach in the south wall?”
Sawyer nodded. “It’s been taken care of. Group of dark fey.”
The dark fey were trying to break into the south wall of Werewolf City? I gulped.
Maybe getting engaged wasn’t the biggest priority right now…
It was back to classes as usual, and being normal felt great. After the first few days, people stopped staring and whispering about my “time away.” Upside: no attacks in the past eight days. Downside: was Sawyer ever going to fucking propose to me? Or was it like, assumed I was going to marry him? I mean we were living together. He was even turning his guest bedroom into a photography studio for me while we met with an architect to build us a house on ten acres of prime Wolf City land. It felt a little surreal to be honest.
I stepped out of my final class for the day and Eugene was waiting for me. Every day after school we had driving lessons. They were normal at first, and I had totally gotten the hang of it, but then they turned into psycho “defensive driving” lessons. Sometimes that meant that Sage sped up beside me on the highway and jerked into me while Eugene told me how to respond.
It was hell on my nerves, but apparently what I needed to learn to be the alpha’s wife.
“What are we doing today? Driving eighty while defusing a bomb?”
Eugene’s upper lip curled. “No. You’re going to do
a sliding parallel park without stopping.”
I frowned. “A what?”
Eugene sighed as we walked across the quad. “You’ll be going forty and then jerk the wheel to pull into a spot, then get out and run into a police station or whatever safety lies beyond. All within seconds.”
My eyes bugged. “The hell I will.”
Eugene stopped and looked at me. “When Sawyer was taken, when he was little, he was with his mother. They think the woman is the weaker link when they try to kidnap.”
I growled, throaty and raw. “Eugene, I can catch bullets and go invisible. I dare them to come after my future children.”
He grinned, a slow and sly full white toothed smile. Was that pride in his gaze? I’d always liked him.
Before he could respond, music blared into the quad over the loudspeaker. It was soft and romantic and totally weird to be played out of the school speakers. People murmured behind me and I spun to take in the scene.
My heart stopped, literally stopped in my chest when I saw Sawyer walking toward me holding a microphone. It wasn’t him, or the mic, or the music that made me stop dead, it was the custom t-shirt he wore.
“Future Mr. Calloway-Hudson,” it read.
I burst into giggles, but then grew serious as I realized what was happening. Was he… proposing? Was this it? Eugene stepped back with a grin as the crowd opened up.
Sawyer placed the microphone to his lips. “I am of sound mind and body, with not a single love spell in my system,” he declared, and the entire student body erupted into laughter, including myself. “And I choose you, Demi Calloway. I choose you.” My laughter died in my throat as he dropped to one knee and pulled a giant shiny diamond ring out of the tiny pocket in his jeans. Sans box. “I publicly humiliated you in front of everyone, and so I think it’s only fair that I do the same to myself, wearing this ridiculous t-shirt.”
The crowd cheered and I grinned. I loved the shirt, I loved him, I loved it all.
Sawyer looked up at me from on his knee and I peered into those bright blue eyes. “I choose you, Demi. Now, if only you will choose me back, I would be the happiest man alive. Marry me?”
Tears leaked from my eyes. He was reversing the public shame he’d caused me, and it meant everything. Sawyer wasn’t afraid to look like a fool for those he loved, and it made him more perfect than ever before.
I tapped my chin, eyeing the diamond. “I’ll have to think about it.”
A few students snickered, and Sawyer responded with a growl before I burst into laughter, crying. I felt insane right now, going through so many emotions. “YES! It’s a huge yes from me, Mr. Calloway-Hudson.”
He dropped the mic on the ground as the students erupted into applause, and then he tackle-hugged me, his mouth on mine in an instant. We kissed each other hungrily before pulling away so that he could put the ring on my finger.
It was the size of a toaster.
“I know you don’t care about expensive shit, but I want everyone who meets you to know how much I love you and will take care of you.”
Fucking swoon.
“I love it. It’s like a little extra murder weapon.” I made a slashing motion through the air and he grinned. Reaching out, I tapped his shirt. “This is adorable, but you know the guy doesn’t hyphenate as well, right?”
His face fell. “They don’t?”
I burst into laughter, shaking my head. “Were you prepared to change your name?”
He nodded. “I was about to have the hospital renamed and everything.”
Lightness flooded through my body and I just wanted to stay in this moment forever. I grinned and he reached out and fireman lifted me, throwing me over his shoulder. “She said yes!” he screamed, and the entire school erupted into more cheers and applause.
I hated attention like this, but Sawyer thrived in this type of environment, so I was going to let him have his moment. I wanted to freeze time and stay in this perfect love bubble that Sawyer and I had created.
It wouldn’t last forever, not with war brewing… but I wanted it to. I wanted marrying Sawyer to be the only thing on anyone’s mind for a long time.
Sawyer carried me through campus over his shoulder the entire way, raising his fist to anyone who passed and screaming, “She said yes!”
It was adorable. Like baby kitten adorable. And I wouldn’t take this from him no matter how much his shoulder bone was digging into my ribcage. When we reached the doorway to our shared apartment, he set me down, sliding me along the length of his body.
Reaching out, he cradled my neck in his hands.
I stared at the ring, still in shock. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to propose.”
“The custom t-shirt got delayed or I would have sooner.”
“Seriously?”
That was the freaking hold up!
He nodded. “Seriously. Once your dad said yes, I was good to go.”
I furrowed my brow. “The solar panel chat?”
He grinned. “There are no solar panels on that house.”
I punched his shoulder and he laughed. “I knew it! You liars.”
He unlocked the door and pulled me inside. “Your mom and you were clearly digging for information, so we had to throw you off the trail.”
I shook my head incredulously, staring at his tight nipples as they cut through the custom shirt. Reaching out, I ran my fingers down his abs, passing over the t-shirt fabric. “This is incredibly sexy and you should wear it every Saturday when you make me pancakes in bed.”
When my fingers reached the waistband of his jeans, I let them keep going, slipping inside his pants.
He grinned. “I’m burning it tomorrow, it was a one-time thing.”
I yanked my hand from his pants and pouted.
“Yes dear, whatever you say,” he amended and I laughed, pouncing on him.
I leapt up into the air and he caught me, hands around my ass as his back slammed into the wall. With a growl he threw his head back. “Woman, you’ll be the death of me.”
“Hope not.” I licked a line down his neck. “I like you alive.”
He moaned, walking forward a few steps and setting my ass down onto the kitchen counter. I reached down and yanked my shirt off in one quick move and then he leaned forward to suck my nipple through my mesh bra. You know that fake, quick, rough sex they always have in movies that you know isn’t real?
It’s real. Oh man it’s real.
Sawyer slipped his hand up my denim skirt, tucking my panties aside, and plunged a finger inside of me, causing me to gasp out in pleasure. With the same quick movements, I reached for him, unbuttoning and yanking his pants down before grasping his hard length in my hands.
He growled in my ear, pulling a condom out of thin air. “I need you.”
Of all the things he could have said, that’s what I wanted to hear. I wanted to be needed. I liked that so much of Sawyer was wrapped up in so much of me. Without even taking off my skirt, I scooted forward on the counter and he kept my panties pulled to the side as he plunged inside of me in one quick thrust.
“Fuck,” I gasped, threading my fingers through his hair and pulling hard. He leaned forward, taking my bottom lip into his mouth as I propped myself up on the kitchen counter and moved in rhythm with his thrusts. Delicious pleasure radiated through my entire body, making heat and wetness throb between my legs.
“Sawyer,” I moaned.
His tongue trailed down my neck as he pumped harder and my body tightened just before the explosion.
“Don’t ever leave me again,” he gasped desperately against my neck.
“Never again,” I promised as an orgasm ripped through my body and I cried out, Sawyer’s mouth on mine swallowing my sound.
I loved him with every fiber of my being. Nothing would ever break us apart again.
I was in a deep sleep when a hand clamped around my mouth. I tried to scream. My eyelids flicked open and I came face to face with a familiar set of searing blue-teal eyes.
Arrow.
He put his finger to his lips and the scream died in my throat. Then he peeled his hand away from my mouth and nodded toward the living room.
What. The. Fuck?
My heart pounded in my throat at the sight of him. Arrow. A Paladin wolf. Here. In my room. Where I slept next to the future alpha werewolf! If Sawyer or Eugene found him, they would kill him first and ask questions later.
With one glance at Sawyer to make sure he was still deep asleep, I slipped out of bed, grateful I was clothed, and hugged my arms around my chest, shaking the last vestiges of sleep from my mind. I closed the door behind me and pulled Arrow into my photography studio.
“You didn’t tell me you were the future alpha’s wife,” he said, looking around my studio. I swallowed hard, about to answer when he spoke again. “Or a Paladin.”
I froze and he spun to face me, a fierceness in his gaze that frightened me. “I can smell it on you now. Why wasn’t it there before? You smell like Run, and alpha, and home.” There was desire in his voice but not of a sexual nature. It was… something else. Something that was hard to explain. Like with Astra, like pack, like family.
“I was still figuring it all out for myself,” I told him honestly. “And you held a gun to the back of my head.”
His cheeks reddened and I wondered if he didn’t smell the Paladin on me because when I met him I was wearing the cuffs. When I met Astra, who could smell it on me, I wasn’t.
“My mom—”
He nodded. “The white girl Run loved. We all know the story. She got him killed.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he was right. If my mom hadn’t been with Run that day in the barn… he would still be alive, but that didn’t mean it was her fault.
“Why are you here? In my home.”
He tapped the blade at his waist. “Sometimes I run errands for the vampires, do what I have to in order to keep our people fed.” Guilt layered thickly over me at that, especially when he said our people. “They gave me a bounty. For you.”
The breath caught in my throat as my wolf surged to the surface, going semitransparent, and leapt in front of me immediately, before solidifying and giving Arrow a low, warning growl.
