by Selena Scott
***
The doors to the ambulance closed before Diana could tell Orion everything that was echoing through her heart. But that was all right. He had to focus on his sister right then.
But it wouldn’t keep forever.
She turned back to wade through the sea of cops at the scene. She needed answers.
Ideally, she’d be able to rush off to the hospital and be at Orion’s side right now. But she knew him. She knew that more than anything, he needed to know what the hell had just happened. He needed to know that his siblings were truly safe.
So, instead of heading straight for the hospital to sit vigil at his side, she did what she did best. She kicked ass and took some names.
“Ida!” she called. “Get Phoenix. We need to get to the precinct where they’re taking all these people for interviews. I want answers and I want them now. Where’d the polar bear go? Ah, there you are —hold on. What’s your name?”
“Um. Uh. Jesse?” he said in a shockingly deep voice as he towered over everyone who scuttled around him.
She put one hand on her hip. “Are you asking or telling me.”
“Telling you?”
She laughed and dragged a hand over her face. “All right, Jesse, we’re gonna have to avail you of your kindness one more time and get a ride back into town on your jeep. Also,” she paused, appraising him, “You’re a hell of a guy for jumping into action like that. You didn’t have to bring us out here and you definitely didn’t have to shift.”
He seemed distinctly uncomfortable with the praise. “Yes,” he said, fairly awkwardly, turning pink and looking at the sky above Diana’s head. “I don’t mind giving you a ride.”
“Great. Let’s roll.”
***
It was almost ten hours later when Diana dragged her sorry, exhausted hide up the steps of Orion’s front porch. She’d long since sent Phoenix, Ida, and Jesse home. She’d been the last person from their group at the precinct where she’d belligerently badgered every cop in her sight for any information they could glean from the soldiers they’d arrested at the scene.
Her adrenaline had given out about six hours ago, and for a while, the coffee had done its thing. But now, as weighted down as she was with the information she’d acquired, she felt like she could sleep for a week.
But first, Orion.
As had happened the other night, right as she was raising her hand to knock on his door, Orion swung it open. They both blinked in surprise before sort of folding toward one another, their embrace as comforting as it was passionate.
“I was just coming to find you,” he said into her hair.
“I know,” she whispered back. “You’ll always come find me. Just like I’ll always come find you.”
Unlike the other night, this time, Diana was the one dragging Orion through the house by his hand. He didn’t object. As they passed the second landing on the stairs, Diana nodded toward the doors in the hallway, closed and dark.
“Dawn?” she asked him.
“All tucked up into bed,” he confirmed. “She woke up an hour or so after we got to the hospital and they monitored her for a while. They gave her the option to stay the night there but she wanted to come home. Phoenix and Ida are sleeping too.” He scratched at his hair. “I’m glad you’re here. It feels better having everyone under one roof.”
Something leapt in her stomach and she tugged on his hand, pulling him up the stairs to the third floor, where his bedroom was.
She closed the door behind them, flicked on his lamp and turned to him, a fire burning in her gut. “I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
“Good news.”
She took him by the shoulders and sat him on his bed. Taking a deep breath, Diana fell to her feet in front of him and took off one of his shoes and then the other, tossing them over her shoulders. She stood and surveyed him, deciding she wanted him even more comfortable.
He laughed as she skinned off his clothes. He sat back on the bed and she was half a second away from tucking him in, she felt so tender.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “The good news is that you’re part of my everyone, too.”
“Huh?”
She smiled and took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain it. “You said that you were glad I was here because it felt good to have everyone under one roof. Well, I’ve never really been included in anyone’s “everyone” before. And I just want you to know that you’re in my everyone too. It wouldn’t feel right not being with you. You and your family are my group. My people. I’ll fight for you guys. Protect you as best as I possibly can. Your world is my world. You’re my everyone.”
Apparently speechless, Orion reached forward and looped an arm around her waist, dragging her between his legs. His arms banded around her so tightly that she could feel every emotion that was coursing through him. All the panic and fear and rage and determination from the day. The confusion and the anger and the bravery. And now, with his forehead pressing into her sternum, she felt just how grateful he was to have her there.
“It’s so great,” he said, speaking into her stomach where his face was pressed, “that you’re so in love with me.” He tilted his head back and gave her a playful, self-satisfied grin. “What a relief.”
She gave a monumental eye roll and pushed him back onto the bed, straddling his hips and pinning his hands down. “You joke…” She let it linger in the air, let him suffer a little. “But it’s true. I am. In love with you, that is. I love you. I figured that out right around the time I was bashing my way out of a locked closet to get to you.”
“Wait. What? You were locked in a closet? Hold on. One thing at a time. You love me? Oh, thank god. Because I really love you. I love you so much, I can’t believe it. I’ve loved you for months. A year. From the moment I first saw you. You’re my person. My one person. Holy shit, I can’t believe you love me back.”
Tears gathered in his eyes and they matched her own. She immediately added it to the list of reasons that she loved him so much. Because she knew, for certain, that she was the only person on this earth that he would cry in front of. And vice versa. They were a little bit of a mess right now. Crying and kissing and supporting one another and being supported. But that was the way she liked it. That was the good stuff.
She got to have his tender-sweet parts, just like he got to have hers.
“Okay,” he said, after pulling back from a long, deep kiss. “Tell me why you had to break out of a closet. And tell me how you knew that the whole thing was a trap. And tell me—“
She pressed two fingers over his lips to still his questions. She thought of everything she’d learned from the cops today. About the Director, his plan to recruit unwitting shifters and turn them into government weapons. She thought about Quill’s allegiance to the Director. How he’d betrayed them all. And then, most confusingly, how he’d shown up at the last second and protected them all. How he was gone now, disappeared into the forest. She thought of what might come next for them all. The vigilance. The bravery.
She thought of everything that would come tomorrow. But for now, she was safe and warm in the arms of the man she loved. And amazingly, in spite of it all, her life seemed steady, constant. She didn’t know what would happen next, but for her, it almost didn’t matter. Because Orion would be at her side. And she would be at his.
“Is there any chance,” she asked, snuggling closer to him. “That I could convince you to talk about it tomorrow?”
He looked down at her.
“Your family is safe,” she promised him. “And the rest is a mess. But maybe you and me, we just go to sleep.”
He raised his eyebrows and eyed her for a long minute. Then, in a beautiful show of trust and love, he simply scooted them back and slid the blankets over top of them.
“Sure,” he said simply, trusting her implicitly.
Diana let herself relax onto his chest, holding him close and reveling in his heat. This was what it fe
lt like to love and be loved. Life would march on and, sure, Diana would march with it. But with Orion she could finally relax. She could hold the hand of an equal and know that if she danced under the light of the full moon, she’d finally have a partner.
The End
Other books by Selena Scott
If you have enjoyed this book please see below for links to all of the books in this series and to my other books available on Amazon. These are also available in the full box sets.
The Dragon Realm Series
Book 1 - Chosen by the Dragon
Book 2 – The Dragon’s Touch
Book 3 – The Dragon’s Desire
Book 4 – The Dragon’s Passion
Secret Shifters of Spokane Series
Book 1 – Danil’s Mate
Book 2 – Emin’s Mate
Book 3 – Maxim’s Mate
Book 4 – Anton’s Mate
Shifter Fever Series
Book 1 – Ansel’s Game
Book 2 – Alec’s Game
Book 3 – Matt’s Game
Book 4 – Kains’ Game
Book 5 – Griff’s Game
Shifters of the Seventh Moon Series
Book 1 – The Shifter’s Shadow
Book 2 - The Shifter’s Embrace
Book 3 – The Shifter’s Seduction
Book 4 – The Shifter’s Desire
Forbidden Shifters
Book 1 - A Mate for Seth
Book 2 – A Mate for Raphael
Book 3 – A Mate for Jackson
Book 4 – A Mate for Phoenix
Book 5 – A Mate for Orion
If you would rather read each complete series just click on the box set covers below
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