As someone who could protect herself pretty well with her magic, it was an interesting feeling having someone else make her feel safe and one that she wanted forever.
Waking slowly and a bit disoriented in the warm arms of her not-yet-mated mate, she stared at the ceiling of his bedroom and let the pieces of the last twenty-four hours puzzle together in her brain.
The waterfall, dangerously low magic, the portal that went awry.
Her rescue, the rescue of her sister, and the sweet peace that came from being with a male who already thought the world of her.And she thought the world of him, too.She’d never really felt like a dragon before, but right now she felt a bit like one, snuggled up to the greatest treasure in the world.
Sebastian stirred next to her, and she hummed in response, her body warm and tingling.She rolled over to snuggle even deeper into his embrace, cherishing the warmth he offered and the sweet scent of him.
He kissed her forehead with a murmuredgood morning.
“Is it still morning?”she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice tinged with humor.
She didn’t want to leave his arms, but now that she was awake enough and had pieced together everything that had happened, she not only needed to pee, but she wanted to know what time it was.
Wiggling out of his arms and perfectly toasty blankets, she grabbed her phone from the nightstand and saw it was almost two p.m.“Not morning anymore.”
“We definitely needed the rest.”He stretched and then sat up.“Are you hungry?We could have breakfast here or lunch in the dining hall.”
“Why would we have to go to the dining hall for lunch but can stay here for breakfast?”
“Because the only thing I can cook is eggs and toast, so that’s all I have here.”He gave her a sweet smile and she loved how his eyes danced.
“Breakfast works for me.”
She used the bathroom and then met him in the small kitchen, where they made scrambled eggs and toast.As coffee brewed, she located the milk in the fridge and the sugar on the table and helped him plate their food.
“We make a good team,” he said.
“Indeed.”Once the coffee was done, they sat at the small café-style table and ate.
“So I was thinking,” he said, looking deliciously rumpled from sleep with his hair going every which way and shirtless, “that we could go on a date tonight.We wouldn’t be able to leave Northernmost, but there are things to do here.”
“Like the dining hall?”
He chewed on his bite of toast and said, “Maybe.If you don’t mind, I’d like to plan something for our first date.And then after Christmas, I can take you anywhere you’d like to go.With your magic and the Portal, we could literally have a date anywhere in the world.”
“Good point,” she said.“I never really thought about it.Talia and I did open portals to go shopping occasionally, and we spent her twenty-first in New Orleans doing a bar crawl.Oh my gosh, we got so hammered!”
“Sounds like lots of fun.You and Talia are really close?”
“Yeah.You’re an only child though?”
“Yep.But Declan and Gabriel are like brothers to me.We’re all close in age and grew up as close as siblings.”
He told her about his family.His parents were truemates and had grown up in the same pack, knowing from a young age that they were destined to be together.His childhood was idyllic compared to hers, but she didn’t begrudge him the life he’d had because it made him the male he was.
When he prompted her to tell him about her history, she told him about losing her mom as a teenager and her dad taking off.
He growled, his eyes flashing to the amber of his wolf.“He just abandoned you and Talia?”
“Losing my mom was too much for him, or so he said.He was stoic at the funeral and even sat up with us while we mourned her loss, and then after a few days, he asked me if I was okay to take care of Talia.”She’d thought he was going to go to his family’s compound in the wilds of Canada for a while to grieve, but he’d stared at her intently and she’d seen it in his eyes.The disconnect, the almost emotionless cutting-off of his children from himself.“I hated him,” she said.“I hated that he wasn’t there for us, and that I didn’t feel like I got to grieve properly for my mom, because I had to be strong for Talia.Mother Nature stayed with us, along with the other Corners, and they spent days reminiscing with us after he left, protecting us and letting us cry or rail against the unfairness of it all.Dark magic took her from us, and I always swore I’d get back at Frost if I ever saw him, but that was the last battle that took place near our coven so I never saw him again.”
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he said.He turned off the water in the sink and dried his hands on a towel.“I wish that things had been different for you.”
She leaned against the counter and stared at the bubbles left over from cleaning the dishes.“I did for a long time.I resented my dad for taking the easy way out.Sticking around is hard, walking away is selfish.But I’m who I am today because of what happened, and I miss my mom so much, especially when I’m tapped into my healing magic, but I know she’s watching over me and Talia.And I know she’d like you.”
