Page 8 of All My Hexes (Pine Gulch Ever After)

Dain

Everything’s ready. I glance at the picnic basket on my kitchen counter, running through my list of things to bring.

Pumpkin mead. Cheese. Crackers. A cutting from my Devil’s Backbone plant. It’s an unusual variety with purple leaves, and I think Shadow’ll love it. I’m showered and shaved and ready.

And praying I don’t get stood up for some reason.

Shadow and I had an easy connection, but I didn’t realize how much I liked her until I thought about her going home to Rainbow.

Seeing her at the coffee shop yesterday just cemented my feelings.

There’s something about her and I wanna know what it is before I never see her again.

My comm watch rings, her name hovering over the blue band.

I answer. “Hey, pretty girl. You stick around?” I’m almost expecting her to say that no, while it was fun, she’s at the train station with her friends.

“I’m a block away,” is what she says instead. She sounds slightly breathless, like she’s hurrying.

Something inside me clenches up tight, my focus pivoting to her.

“Coming,” I growl out. Throwing my front door open, I jog down the sidewalk and there she is, walking up it toward me. Today she’s wearing black jeans and a green v-neck tee that brings out the brilliant emerald shade of her irises.

Whatever locked up tight when she said she was on the way unfurls now and it’s hot, making its way through my body like molten lava. Without thinking, I spread my wings higher and wider. I want her to look at them, to admire them.

Her gaze drifts up, a smile tipping her lips upward. She halts in front of me, looking way up into my eyes.

“Well, well, Dain. Showing off, are we? And I don’t have beautiful wings to put on a show for you.”

I chuckle and curl my tail around her waist, hauling her close. The way her breasts smash against my upper stomach makes me want to toss her face down in my nest and ravage her again until she loses her mind.

“What’cha thinkin’ about, big boy?”

She tosses the nickname out there so casually, but I nearly choke on need.

I’m the biggest of my brothers by far. The strongest, too. I swear my folks pinned every protector hope and dream on me, and when it didn’t work out, I could taste their disappointment. But I don’t feel any of that old hurt with the way Shadow’s looking at me right now.

I stroke black hair away from her cheeks and up over delicate, rounded ears. They’re so tiny. “The girls get home okay?”

She nods. “They left about half an hour ago. Naima was still hammered. Amadala’s in love with a minotaur dude and Kingston bought cowboy boots from the Buxom Bodice on the way out of town.” She shrugs. “Don’t know what she’s gonna do with those in Rainbow, but whatever floats her boat.”

I slide my fingers into Shadow’s hair, memorizing every spot her body touches mine and just what it feels like. Her steady heartbeat thuds beneath her skin and it draws my focus like a moth to a flame.

“I’m obsessed with your heartbeat,” I admit. “It’s such a beautiful sound.”

She lifts her hand to my forearm, stroking along my muscle until goosebumps pop to the surface of my skin. “You really had it going last night, as I recall.”

I chuckle. “I’m aiming to repeat that tonight, but there’s something special I wanted to show you, so I’m glad you stuck around.” I gesture to my cottage. “Let me grab a few things and we can be on our way.”

She threads her fingers through mine, following me toward the cottage. Inside, I grab the picnic basket and one of my thicker sweaters. If we’re out late, it’ll get chilly and while I can protect her with my wings, she’ll still be cold. I don’t want my Shadow to get uncomfortable.

Mine.

The word flits through my mind, filtering through my consciousness as I look to where she’s standing in the doorway.

A soft smile tips her pretty bow lips upward as she looks at me.

Wrinkles at the edges of her eyes tell me she smiles a lot, and that doesn’t surprise me.

The first impression I got of her was quiet joy.

I love that.

Oh yes, little witch, I think to myself. I do believe you might be mine. Now I just need to prove it to you.