I laugh, joy bubbling through me until I can’t stop smiling. “They’re really mated?”
“They really are, and Ireallydidn’t tell you. She wanted to surprise you girls when we all got back from break.”
I pull them on and then tug skate guards on over the blades. “Be my date to the mating bash I’m going to throw her?”
“It would be my absolute honor, princess.”
He helps me down from the pick-up and I make my careful way down the pebbled drive to the shore by the glow of his headlights, only wobbling a little. True to his word, the lake is frozen solid, and a green flag flies from a pole on the shore indicating it’s safe to skate. Probably not in the middle of the night, but I can think of no better time. Not when I’m with the alpha who casts a few small glowing orbs of light to follow us around and then takes to the frozen lake like he was born for it.
I remove my skate guards at the ice’s edge and then slide onto it, skating a few feet to find my balance in the new skates. They’re as stiff as Luca said they’d be, but I catch up with him in no time, looping around him in an elegant figure eight.
I slip my hand into his and we skate together in perfect sync. “Can we do this again when we get back to campus? There has to be some place on Deer Island where we can skate.”
“If omegas aren’t still locked down, I’ll take you up to the lake any time you want.”
“Oh! Big Meadow Lake! It was on your list.”
“You kept it?”
“I tore it to pieces,” I say. “And then immediately put it back together again in a panic.”
“I’m so sorry, Juniper. Truly. For everything. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness.”
“I want to do everything on your list,” I say, letting go of his hand and slowly skating backwards away from him, watching him watch me.
“We’ll do it all twice over,” he swears. “What else?”
“Be with me for my next heat, even if you can’t knot me yet?”
“You don’t even have to ask.”
“Endless supply of Luca-scented flannels?”
He laughs and skates in a loop around me, grabbing my hand back. “Done. You look better in them than I do anyway. Downright sinful. What else, beautiful?”
“Stay by my side during what’s to come? It’s… it’s going to be a lot.”
“Always. I’llalwaysbe by your side if you’ll let me.”
There are darker days to come. Affinities, dark plots, and treacherous alphas. Soldiers of Saint Aldous on campus, kidnappings and far, far worse. Secrets have festered within Fairhaven for far too long, but I don’t voice all of those worries now.
For now, I let Luca’s solemn promise warm my heart.
For now, I skate by his side under a starry sky, the glow of his magic lighting my smile and his.
* * *
We splitthe cocoa while watching meteors shoot across the sky in a make-shift nest in the bed of his pick-up, kept warm by magic, every blanket he could find, and each other. I don’t hesitate to crawl into his arms, though he still tenses when I do, but once I settle, once I nuzzle at his jaw and then rest my head on his shoulder, he purrs.
He holds me close, the rumble in his chest stronger than I’ve ever heard it before.
Saints, to hear this alpha purr for me again, to feel the reverberations through his body, it’s the sweetest ecstasy.
Slowly, he draws the rest of my worries from me, and I tell him about Rad, how the alpha cornered me before Peer Advising, how just tonight, he swore we’d be mated within the year. How I think he’s the one that’s been following me around campus. How he killed an omega years ago and I fear he could do the same to me.
Luca’s purr deepens, but he growls too, his whole body going tense. I curl closer, nuzzling into his skin, marking him with my scent just as he marked me with his when I raced into his arms. “No good alpha thinks the things I do, Juniper. I’m so fucking ashamed. The things I would do to that piece of shit…”
The smallest thrill goes through me at the protective promise in his voice, and for the first time in over a month, I perfume for my alpha.
