Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Her eyes overflowed. “Okay.”
It was just one word.
It was everything.
His hips thrust rhythmically. Hers tilted in time, creating a delicious, wet slide. The bed thumped as he strove, their lips locked together in a passionate dance, their bodies synced erotically.
“Come with me,” he demanded. “Forever, Natasha. Come with me forever.”
She cried out, “Yes,” and he knew it was both the climaxing pleasure…and his answer. The wait was over. She was finally his. His mate. His everything. His promise of redemption.
24
Jessie
I walked down the hallway on the ground floor, two days after the conclave was officially over.
“Hello, miss.” Mable, one of the garhettes that had been helping us through the conclave, stopped in front of me in the hallway outside the kitchen. She wore her blonde hair piled on top of her head in a messy ponytail, and a purple muumuu with leggings underneath. She’d decided that was her uniform.
Given there were so many purple muumuus coming and going around here, it kinda made sense. I still wore mine from the morning’s training, even though we were sliding into midafternoon. I’d had to meet Sebastian at his house to try to convince him that Ivy House was sorry about trying to drag him out the other day (even though she wasn’t), and she’d agreed not to do it again (she hadn’t). Also that, yes, she would stop having the dolls follow him around, threatening to drag him out again (I’d have to intervene on this one—she thought that was a hilarious joke).
He warily agreed to meet me in the library soon to start poring over and cataloging all the books, but adamantly refused to go back to work in the crystal room. He’d moved his camping stove to his backyard.
Nessa and Aurora had gone back to that house, too, it having been vacated when the—widely believed to be very successful—conclave officially ended. We hadn’t brought in everyone, and we needed to extend invites to those who hadn’t attended, but we’d increased the convocation exponentially with both gargoyles and especially shifters.
We’d done it. We’d unified. More importantly, Austin had changed his stars. He’d gone from a troubled youth and the center of petty rumors in the alpha network to the king of the mountain. Now when he spoke, people listened, and it wasn’t just the generational alphas. It wasn’t just the original alphas, who’d basically claimed him as theirs despite his upbringing. He’d bridged the gap between shifter types, with Kingsley’s help. He’d unified his kind (mostly), and he’d done it with a good heart and well-intentioned plans.
As far as the basajaunak, the Elder had decided to stay for a while, praising Dave for following his stars so long ago. They’d move onto his mountain with open access to the Ivy House wood and Edgar’s flowers. Dave had imposed strict rules on how and when to scare hikers.
Edgar was thrilled. He was planning extensive improvements to his flower sections, as he called them, away from Mimi’s prying eyes. Basically, he’d probably plant way too many, and since it was in gnome country, no one really cared.
We still hadn’t gotten a hit on his and Nessa’s setup leading to those magical attack flowers. That was likely because of all the commotion and chaos within the territory. Edgar said to just be patient. Terrible things came to those who waited.
When dealing with Momar, that seemed like a universal truth.
“Hi, Mable,” I replied. “How are you?”
“I’m great, thanks!” She beamed at me, always in a good mood. “I wanted to ask you about our continuing to help you at Ivy House. Because, you know, Sue has decided to stay on, that poor dear.” She tsked at me, her eyes going sorrowful. “His family is here now. His people. There’s no point in him going home to an empty house.”
Even though his house had been occupied by enforcers and vacated before the conclave was officially over, he’d been slow to leave. The garhettes, being mind readers, had realized that he didn’t really want to. Given the garhettes were also the pushiest and most stubborn group of women alive, they’d taken it on themselves to convince him to stay. It hadn’t been hard.
“And, you know, Aljoe doesn’t plan to leave,” Mable went on. “And then there are his sisters, who will be visiting him often. We’ll have to put them up. Especially”—her eyes twinkled—“you know who…”
I frowned. “Who?”
She gave me a secret smile and leaned in a little. “Seems like there’s a mutual attraction between a certain alpha’s sister and a certain alpha-beta.”
Alpha-beta was the new term for actual alphas who took up a “beta” role in the convocation. A shifter had come up with it to describe Sue, because shifters could not let the power thing go within a hierarchy, and it had caught on. Well…not with the gargoyles, who didn’t much care.