“That’s it. I’m officially in hell. I’m too wounded to even think about an erection and you drop this one me. Yeah, I already died. This is hell.”
She laughed and looked down at his face. The one she wanted to see until the stars burned to the nothing and the sun blinked out of existence. “Are you sure about that?”
“Actually,” he said, grabbing her hips. “It doesn’t matter. Anywhere that you are, I want to be.”
“Even if it meant going to the Asakku for a while? My father needs me. I know your family needs you—”
“You. You are my family. I am yours. You are mine. This pack is yours, and you belong to it, even though you also belong to another.”
“Really? You’d come with me? A dog among leeches?”
“Anywhere you go, I go.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Blake said from the doorway.
“We were getting nowhere fast,” Parker drawled.
She slid down on the covers next to him.
“I guess you’re going to Egypt?” Blake said.
“Isn’t it hot there?”
“The sun is amazing.”
“Listen, I’m not a cold blooded thing like you. I have fur. Goddess, this is going to suck,” he sighed.
But Belle knew he was only bellyaching to bellyache. He would go wherever she went. He’d hold her up when she fell. He’d let her stand on her own. He was her foundation.
And she was his.
“Can you spare me, Blake?”
“You brought us something much more valuable than the Nevada mineral rights. You brought us Tirigan and a victory in this war. We took some heavy losses, but nothing like the massacre we would’ve faced without Tirigan. I’d say you can do whatever you want. So will the board. Get some rest, brother.”
“How’s Randi?” he asked.
“Eating truffles, of course. Everyone’s fine. Just worry about getting better. I love you, brother.”
“I love you.”
Belle was touched by the emotion that passed between them, and she couldn’t resist adding her own brand of teasing.
“I love you, too, brother,” she grinned.
But to her surprise, Blake came over to the bed and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “You too, little sister.” He headed toward the door, but turned back to them. “We all know what needs to be done for a healing. So you should get started, but try to keep it down. Tirigan doesn’t need to hear all of that. He’s all jacked up on ancient werewolf blood and doesn’t need any encouragement.”
“Where is my father?”
“He and David are working in his laboratory.”
“They’ve been spending a lot of time together,” she said.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Parker said.
“I’m sure it is.”
Blake closed the door behind him.
“So you think maybe we should get started on that healing? I’m ready for the fairytale, Parker. You basically promised me happy ever after, and I want it. I’m calling in your chips.”
“True Vegas style, eh?”
“Yeah. And in true Vegas style, if you back out now…”
“You’ll break my legs?” he offered.
“Something.”
He flinched. “Can’t have that.”
She cupped his face and the energy began to flow freely between them. She could feel it now, the way her power filled him up. The way his essence did the same for her. “No, we definitely can’t.”
“But you know what we can have?”
“You better say an ending better than a fairytale. You better say it doesn’t have to end.”
“That’s the problem with being mated to such a beautiful, powerful, creature.”
“What’s that?”
“You take all my best lines.” He kissed her knuckles. “You take all my best everything, because that’s all I ever want to give you. Always. Forever.”
She bent her face down close to his, her lips barely touching his mouth.
“Wait, so every time I injure myself, I’ll get sex?”
Belle didn’t want to laugh, but she did anyway. “No. Maybe you shouldn’t get it now. I wouldn’t want to condition you to think dumbassery is a rewardable thing.”
“Um, excuse me. Bravery.”
“Dumbassery.” She said while kissing him.
He flipped her on her back and cringed as another version of himself appeared next to them. “Damn it, that hurts.”
“See, dumbassery.”
The second Parker moved in behind her. “We say we should get this reward no matter what.”
“Parker!”
“What?” they both answered. “You said you wanted—”
“Maybe it’ll be double the healing power. But look, this isn’t going to be an every night thing.”
“Just weekends,” second Parker said.
“Holidays,” she said. “Maybe just your birthday.”
“Maybe just your birthday,” Parker said.
He was getting stronger by the second as was her surety that this was everything she never knew she could have. Everything she’d fight to her last breath to keep.
Monsters could have happy ever afters, too.
About the Author
Saranna De Wylde has always been fascinated by things better left in the dark. She wrote her first story after watching The Exorcist at a slumber party. Since then, she's published horror, romance and narrative nonfiction. Like all writers, Saranna has held a variety of jobs, from operations supervisor for an airline, to an assistant for a call girl, to a corrections officer. But like Hemingway said, "Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it." So she traded in her cuffs for a full-time keyboard. She loves to hear from her readers.
@SarannaDeWylde
SarannaDeWylde
www.sarannadewylde.com
The Mate Mistake (The Woolven Secret Book 3) Page 16