I nearly fucking swoon. She was all vengeful for me?
Gods, I am one lucky dragon.
“All things considered, it’s actually a really flattering picture,” Everett muses.
Crypt agrees with a smile. “I’ll hunt down the uncensored original so we can frame it right next to any other pictures we can get of our girl. How’s that going, Decimus?”
“Saycheese, Mayflower,” I say, pulling out my phone to snap a selfie with her.
She’s rolling her eyes and fighting a grin in it, which makes me smile wider.
Quinn skips up and points at the screen, looking at Maven with wide blue eyes.
“Hey! That’s you in all the blood!”
Maven’s attention flicks to the rest of my family dishing up breakfast like she thinks they might dislike what’s on the screen. My lion-shifter brother, Aiden, glances over and grins.
“Hey, I’m just happy I finally got a badass sister-in-law.”
“What do you mean,finally?” one of Declan’s mates scoffs. She throws a tater tot at him and gives us an apologetic look. “We’re running out of bacon. Dig in before Cace eats it all.”
Cace protests that he would never as he tries to scoot the last pile of bacon onto his plate. My caster father, Ivan, slaps his hand away while my mom warns my brothers that she’ll make them run laps if they don’t sit their asses down and behave in front of their new sister-in-law.
Home sweet home.
We all dish up—except Crypt, who vanishes—and sit at the ridiculously oversized dining table that is still somehow crowded. Cace is chatting with one of his quintet members, Quinn is showing off how she can balance her fork on her nose, and one of Aidan’s mates, Megan, is trying to keep Bran from dumping out his orange juice.
Oscar notices Maven’s plate. “Uh oh, did we run out of sausage and bacon? We probably have some ham leftover from Starfall Eve?—”
“Nah, she’s vegetarian,” I say, sliding eggs off my plate onto hers since she’s sitting to my left. I like to make sure she’s eating enough, and all she grabbed was a muffin and sliced fruit.
Cace opens his mouth across the table. I’m positive he’s about to make some smart-ass comment about Maven’s food choices, so I throw a hard-boiled egg at him. He catches it and throws it at Declan, who swats it aside.
“That’s enough with everyone throwing food at the table,” Nico sighs. “You’re not children.”
My mom is sitting to my right, at the head of the dining table, and she grins at me, leaning over to whisper, “Butwe’re about to have some more children joining our family very soon.”
Oh, fuck. Is she hinting about my quintet?
Maven must have the same thought. She’s surprised enough that she drops her fork, which bounces off the table. Crypt appears, catches the fork before it can touch the ground, and hands it back to her. Quinn claps and cheers like that was thegreatest show, and Crypt bows dramatically at the giggling girl before vanishing again.
Everett is sitting on the other side of Maven and gives my mother a meaningful look. “Look, that’s really not your bus?—”
“Are you over there spoiling the news?” Aidan calls from the other end of the table, giving our mom an exasperated look.
She laughs. “Well, Baelfire’s been out of the loop! He should know he’ll be an uncle to three now.”
“We’re expecting again,” Megan announces, smiling at my quintet.
A grin breaks over my face at the good news. “Holy shit!”
“Congratulations,” Silas offers, offering Maven a sip of what I’m pretty sure has become fae wine.
Someone needs to tell the fucker he’s going to get high blood pressure or some shit from drinking so much. That someone is Maven because she gives her day drinker match a dry look as she swaps her water for his wine. It just makes him smirk. I’m pretty sure they’re having another one of their telepathic conversations.
Godsdamn, I want to be able to talk to my mate like that. Just thinking of all the shameless innuendos and cheesy pickup lines I’m missing out on showering her with makes me sigh.
“I’m gonna be an uncle, too,” Quinn announces excitedly.
