Page 39

THIRTY-NINE

Fiona

S aying our farewells to Leigh, Gael, and Elodie was bittersweet. We had come together, so it felt weird to be leaving them behind only two days later once Elodie was finally stable, even though a small part of me was excited to get a little more one-on-one time with Reed. We’d already slept together and been permanently marked with mate signs, but we still hadn’t even been out on a real date or had the awkward conversations about our families and past. It was a lot of cart before the horse, even though it somehow worked.

When we walked into her room, Elodie was still pale as a sheet, propped up in the bed with so many pillows, she looked like they would swallow her up, but she was smiling, and her grip on my neck was strong when I hugged her goodbye.

“I hate that I can’t come with you guys. You could pick Galyna up from the enclave on your way, but with you not pregnant… it would draw unwanted attention to have a warrior maiden along. Unfortunately. Don’t go getting knocked up, though.” She fake scowled, wagging a finger when she released me.

“I’m definitely not pregnant, I’ve got that covered.” I rubbed the spot in my arm where I had my long-term birth control rod implanted.

“That’s probably for the best. Times are tricky right now to be pregnant, isn’t that right, Petal?” Leigh groused even as she smiled down at her belly and rubbed the side.

“I bet. I’m definitely not ready for a kid any time soon.” I glanced at my own palm, then quickly tucked it into my pocket. Out of sight, out of mind. I wouldn’t be stopping my birth control until this entire omega mess had been taken care of. The alternative was too awful to consider.

But when I looked over at Reed to see if he was thinking the same thing, his expression was troubled, his stare fixated on my arm.

I hadn’t mentioned the birth control before, but surely he didn’t expect me to have jumped in bed with him completely unprotected, right? Did wolves really do that?

A question for later.

After our goodbyes, things moved quickly. A few gold coins slipped to the mining carts out front of the medical center, and we were zipping at breakneck speed out of Neftheim, through the chaotic outer boroughs, and back up to the long, endless exit tunnel.

But before we could disembark from our mining cart on the loading platform, the dwarf manning the platform waved us to stay still, then pushed up his sleeve, revealing a control pad I hadn’t noticed when we’d been coming into the city. He pressed a button, and our cart zipped out to the side, a little track that didn’t seem to get much use, and continued zipping along, this time through a side tunnel with a steep upward tilt.

What had felt like hours coming down was over in less than ten minutes by cart. Clearly the king wasn’t joking when he said he wanted us gone . I wasn’t offended, though, because I hadn’t liked him or his stuffy attitude either.

Reed pasted on a smile for the dwarves at the smaller platform near the surface who helped us out of the cart and past the magical curtain that blocked the tunnel mouth.

Just like that, we were alone on the surface. When he turned toward me, the fake smile was gone. “I knew Cysernaphus was angry that we didn’t take him up on his sauna offer, but making us walk the whole tunnel with our bags was a special touch.”

I snorted. “A special gift from a special monarch.”

He reached for my hand, and together, we started picking our way back down the mountain, out of the foothills of the Dolomites.

* * *

There was a sleek black sedan waiting for us at the bottom of the trail, our luggage from the hotel already packed neatly in the trunk, with room for our overnight bags.

The driver took care of the bags, then held open the back door for me to slide in, while Reed opened his own door on the other side.

“Fiona, this is Lee, my head of security for travel abroad. He’ll be escorting us on the jet until we meet up with my stateside security.”

I blinked, looking between Lee, who drove along without anything more than a nod at me in the rearview mirror, and Reed, who said this like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“You have separate security teams for home and abroad?”

“I do. They help out with events at the restaurants locally, when I’m not in need of security.”

“That makes sense, I guess.”

I stared out the window as we drove back to the airport, where a bigger jet was waiting. This one was painted in the same colors—a logo on the back tail fin I hadn’t paid any interest to on our first flight, that I now realized was his company’s logo. Monstru Fine Dining was in the center in fine script, surrounded by fancy curlicues.

Some part of me had already known Reed was rich; filthy rich, some might have said after seeing the first private jet. But it was starting to sink in that Reed’s money was on a whole different level than I’d maybe realized. There was money, and then there was… billionaire. And I was starting to realize he had to be the latter.

I did well for myself as a photographer, and one day, I would publish my book of wildlife photography to add another feather to my cap. My independence was something I was damn proud of because I’d built it from nothing despite all the odds stacked against me. But as I buckled myself into the plush seat of his second jet, I couldn’t help but feel wholly out of place.

Not something I expected to feel at his side this far along in the relationship.

A lot more things made sense, looking back through this new lens. The way he was entrusted with negotiating with a king, while Gael happily stood to the side and let him. The way the king knew who he was and treated him with grudging respect. The way Reed was the obvious choice to go and handle a dangerous vampire with a business empire. How the high alpha was always pulling him away to join him on calls for pack business.

Yep, the chips were falling into place, and I felt pretty stupid for not putting it all together beforehand.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Reed’s voice was soothing, even as I started questioning how he’d feel to know he’d saddled himself with a working-class woman.

“A penny seems awfully low for a man of your means. Should I hold out for a more competitive offer?”

I’d hoped to come off as teasing, but his sharp eyes saw right through my insecurities. The flight attendant was approaching with a tray, but Reed waved her off, turning to face me fully in the seat. The sunset light framed his face beautifully. It made me wish I had my camera instead of it being packed away in my luggage.

“What is it? You can tell me anything, no judgment.”

“It’s stupid.” I picked at the seam in the seat, unable to spot a single fray despite my studious avoidance of Reed’s attention.

“It’s not stupid if it’s bothering you, no matter how small.” He lifted my chin with gentle fingertips, but rather than lecture, he pressed a kiss to my forehead, his favorite little gesture.

Mine too, actually. It was grounding, a small intimacy.

“You could have any woman in the whole world, with money like yours. Bombshells, models—anyone. But fate saddled you with my mixed-up magic of unknown origins, topped off with a seizure disorder and a working-class job.” I winced at the bare truth, tempted to pull away but knowing he’d just follow me. So, I forged ahead despite the way it all made me want to cringe. “Won’t you start to regret that over time? Surely there’s someone out there more suited to be your partner than I am.”

He smiled softly, already shaking his head. “Oh, Stormy. You don’t think I know about the many, many blondes out there?”

“Did you just quote Gilmore Girls to me?”

“Not important. What’s important is that no , there’s no one more perfect for me than you. You’re the one. The Moon Goddess made us exactly for each other, and if I lived to be ten thousand, I’d never find a female more intriguing than you. Besides, you don’t think I started out with all this, do you?”

I paused, considering. “Well, kind of yes?”

He laughed, not at all offended. “Not even close. I started out in the kitchens of a place owned by one of the women in my pack. Her name was Soreena.” The smile he wore was one of fond, long-ago memories.

“The kitchen was rough around the edges, but I became obsessed with cooking, food, and the entire dining experience. After two years working for her, Soreena fired me, only to press an acceptance letter to the best culinary school in France into my hands.”

“Wow, you must have really impressed her.”

He squeezed my fingers, nodding. “She saw something in me that nobody else did back then.”

“So, culinary school, and then…”

“And then, I worked my way up to executive chef at my first restaurant, got fired, and decided to start my own. The rest is history, and the fact that compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”

I sat with that, rolling it over in my mind. I liked that he was self-made, even if he had the longevity advantage over his human competition. But it didn’t change the fact that I felt inadequate in comparison. Out of place.

As if he could read the turn of my thoughts, he pressed a kiss to my lips. “I can always get more money, Stormy. But you? You’re one of a kind. A mystery, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life figuring you out.” He kissed my temple too, and pulled me close against his side.

The men of this pack truly didn’t care about the wealth they had. Maybe that meant I didn’t have to either. It was a freeing thought.

I decided to take him at face value and focus on learning more about his culture. The more I knew, the better, right? And it gave me something to focus on besides the huge chasm of differences between us. “So, the Moon Goddess?”

“Our deity. She created many creatures, or so the legends say. But wolves were always her favorites. She prized our loyalty, our deep desire for family. And so she blessed us with one perfect fated mate, the one who holds the other half of our soul, if you believe the old stories.”

It sounded too fantastic to believe, but a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed that wolf shifters were real, so who was I to question their beliefs? It wasn’t any stranger than going to mass with a priest like I had my entire childhood, I supposed.

“Do you? Believe the old stories?” I asked, finally looking up.

The warmth of his smile filled me from the inside out. “I do now.”