Page 23 of The Jorogumo (The Sanctuary #2)

Haruto

It'd been a month since Liam moved in with me, and I couldn't be happier. We'd settled into a routine quite easily, and I loved our days together.

We woke up with Liam's alarm—except on his days off, when we got to sleep in—and shared a few lazy kisses before he got ready for work.

I walked him to the Sanctuary exit, and gave him a goodbye kiss. Then I had breakfast, did my daily chores, and spent some time reading before taking our lunch to the shop so we could eat together.

After lunch, sometimes I'd stay at the shop with Liam—now that I had a steady supply of power from his desire, I didn't need the wheelchair—and other times I'd return to the Sanctuary and spend time with our friends.

Liam would come home after work, and then we'd have dinner with everyone before retreating home, where we'd curl up on the hammock and watch a movie or show together, or just chat about our day.

More often than not, things would lead to kissing, and then I'd drive Liam wild and tire him out with an orgasm, after which he'd curl up around me and fall asleep. Some days, I followed him into sleep, and other times I'd read for a while before sleeping.

The next day, we'd wake up and do it all over again.

I'd never imagined I would get to live like this, to have a life so full of joy and contentment.

Liam was an amazing partner. A kind, generous, sweet man who was happy as long as the people he loved were happy. I'd learned quite a few things since I met him, including how to be a better friend to the residents of the Sanctuary.

I'd spent a lot of time cooped up in my house before I met Liam, but these days, I was rarely home on my own.

It wouldn't be right to say that Liam had changed me, but he had helped me become a better version of myself. Watching him be so open and friendly toward complete strangers had shown me that it didn't have to be a scary thing. It'd helped me open up to the people who'd already considered me a friend.

"What are you thinking about?" Liam asked, and I glanced over at him with a smile. We were in his shop, seated behind the counter as we read and just enjoyed each other's company. He must've noticed I'd been staring at the same page for a while.

"You. Me. Us. How happy I am," I said with a shrug, making him grin.

"I'm happy too. I love our life," he said, then rapped his knuckles on the wooden counter.

"What was that for?"

"I didn't want to jinx myself," he said with a shrug, making me chuckle. "Hey! I've seen way too many things in the past few months to think there's not at least a chance that it'll work."

"I understand, trust me. Honestly, you've dealt with all of this very well. I was afraid you'd freak out when I first revealed myself to you."

Liam snickered, a fond look on his face as he remembered the day I'd saved him from falling. "Ah, I very nearly did. I think I was just too surprised. And once you explained things, well." He shrugged, then smiled sheepishly. "I did have a mini-meltdown later, and almost convinced myself I must've fallen asleep and made up the whole thing."

My eyes widened in surprise, and Liam nodded with a laugh.

"Exactly. But I'm still glad I found out the way I did. If the way you asked me to move in is anything to go by, you'd have just made me freak out for a different reason if you tried telling me after we'd started dating."

I flushed, still a little sad about making Liam panic. "I am sorry about that, you know. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I know, babe, you don't have to keep apologizing," he said with a sweet smile, and then got a look on his face that was pure mischief. "Just make sure to do better when you ask me to marry you."

Did Liam want to get married? As if he'd just realized what he'd said, Liam shot to his feet, comic book in hand.

"Uh, I should—I gotta check something."

Liam escaped into the shelves, and I watched him go, still too surprised to react .

I'd never given much thought to marriage. It was a human concept, at its core. For supernaturals, nothing was stronger than a mate bond, and a marriage was just a piece of paper.

But if Liam wanted to get married, then we'd get married.

I would need Dustin and Touya's help to organize things, but I wasn't going to repeat my mistake.

After the moving-in thing, I'd realized my mate had a tendency to get anxious when he thought something was wrong, or when he thought—for some reason only he could see the logic in—I might change my mind about our relationship.

If I could've gotten away with it, I'd have told him a mate bond was unbreakable simply so he'd stop being afraid of something that would never happen, but that was a big thing to lie about.

Maybe being married would give him the assurance he needed to know that I would never, ever leave him.

I found him hiding between some of the back shelves, staring unseeingly at the comics in front of him.

"Liam?"

He jumped, turning to look at me with flushed cheeks. "Hey."

Walking closer, I wrapped my arms around him until we were eye to eye. Peering into his deep brown eyes, I waited until I had all his attention before speaking. "I will propose to you, sometime soon. I need to make a plan, and do something special before I ask. But I will ask, Liam, and I hope that when I do, you'll say yes."

Liam blinked at me, though why he was surprised by my claim, I didn't know. Maybe I needed to be better about showing him how much I loved him.

He opened his mouth, and I covered it with my palm before he could speak. "Don't tell me yet. Tell me when I ask you. "

Liam

Haruto had this way of saying the most unexpected things at the most unexpected times, and I couldn't figure out how I'd ended up from knocking on wood to practically agreeing to say yes when he asked to marry me.

I spent the few hours until closing time in something of a brain fog, and when we got back to the Sanctuary, Haruto pressed a kiss to my cheek and told me he'd be back in a bit because he 'wanted to discuss something important with Dustin.'

Needing some help of my own, I hunted down my own confidant, Silas. The two of us had grown closer since I moved to the Sanctuary because we could relate to each other. People found us both intimidating at first glance, and it'd built a camaraderie of sorts between us. We also had mates who were on the introvert side, which was another thing that bonded us.

Silas was where I usually found him, taking a nap under a tree. When Touya was off working and he was free, this was usually what he did.

He peeked one eye open when I approached, and his lips curved as he sat up, the small tusks on either side twitching with his smile.

"Hey, Liam. Come sit." He waved me over with his tail, the fluffy end looking extra pet-able today, and I chuckled as I settled on the grassy ground.

"What's on your mind?"

I blew out a breath, then told him everything. Silas's brows shot up as I spoke, a grin lighting up his face.

When I'd finished speaking, he was silent for a moment before he shook his head with a snort .

"You know, I've never seen Haruto the way you describe him. I mean, he was here when I first arrived, and he's always sort of melted into the background, willingly at that. But he's changed since you met. He's become more open, more friendly."

I blinked, surprised to hear that. I knew meeting Haruto had changed me , but I'd never thought it could've changed him too.

"Really?"

Silas nodded quickly, his smile softening. "He's eaten dinner with us every time you visited, and now he rarely spends time hiding away in his house. It's like whatever was holding him back from socializing, you helped him get over it."

"But I didn't do anything. I didn't even know he was different before."

"Maybe that's exactly what he needed," Silas said with a shrug, and I hummed. "As for the marriage thing, yes, it's not a big deal for us supes. For us, the mate bond supersedes everything. It's stronger than any marriage could ever be."

"So technically, we're already married?" I asked, brows furrowing at the thought.

"Sort of, yes. But that doesn't mean you can't still get married. I know you can't feel your mate bond the way Haruto can, and you might like having a different type of proof of your commitment."

I glanced down at my hand, imagining a ring on my finger. Something simple and beautiful, something that showed Haruto's claim on me. Something permanent.

"Yeah," I said, my voice choked. Clearing my throat, I continued, "That would be nice. "

Silas grinned, then patted my shoulder with his tail. "There you go. And don't worry—we'll plan an amazing wedding for you." His eyes were already lighting up with excitement.

"He hasn't even proposed yet," I said with a laugh, and he raised a thick brow at me, his dark eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Are you planning to say no?"

"Of course not!"

Silas gave me a deadpan look, then rolled his eyes. "So let us plan the wedding. Do you wanna do it here or the human side? You probably have people you'd wanna invite, huh?"

I blinked, my smile falling.

There was no way I would invite my parents, not after that phone call with Mom. She hadn't called back since, and that was all the answer I needed. Other than them, there was only one person.

"I, uh, I only have one friend I'd like to invite. But I would love to do it here, so maybe not."

Silas frowned, a thoughtful look on his face. "Tell me about your friend. Maybe we can figure something out."

"His name's Diego. We met a few years ago. He's blind, and I'd help him with his online purchases. Then we got to talking and..." I shrugged.

"Would you be an awful friend if you lied to him about where we are? If he can't see..."

I thought about that, and while I would feel a bit shitty about lying, I knew this was a necessary kind of lie.

"Yeah, maybe. We can think about this later," I said, mentally rolling my eyes at the fact that I'd started planning my wedding before Haruto had even popped the question.

Silas chuckled, then patted me again. "Whatever you want, man. But Touya and I will take the lead in the wedding planning, okay? I'm telling you now. No take-backs. "

Grinning, I held my hand out for a shake. "Deal."

Smiling, he shook my hand, his bigger one practically dwarfing mine, and I wasn't a small man in any way. "Deal."

When I found Haruto again, he was practically buzzing with excitement. I assumed his talk with Dustin had gone well, and butterflies fluttered in my belly as I thought about when he'd pop the question.

God, was I going to feel like this the whole time I waited?

Dinner was a boisterous affair as usual, and I laughed with our friends as Keoni told us about the trouble he'd gotten in earlier today when he accidentally fell into one of the lakes.

Luckily for him, he'd fallen in the kelpie Alaric's lake, so he'd been rescued quickly.

"It took hours for my cart to dry out, and I had to stay in one place so the dirt and grit wouldn't get stuck to the wheels. I almost died of boredom."

Shaking my head, I imagined doing this every single day for the rest of my—very, very long—life, and realized there was no other way I'd prefer to spend it.