I groan at how cringe it is, and she cracks up. “I think I want to start collecting them.”
“No, please. We already have Aleksei, that’s bad enough.”
“Don’t talk shit about me,” he growls, stepping over the top of us.
“Aleksei!” I cover my eyes, not needing to see any more of his junk. I hide in the crook of Quinny’s neck, kissing our claim until he drags her from me.
Santiago flicks the lights off, then gets into bed next to me.
“Let me up,” Quinny demands. Both Aleksei and I lift our hold on her immediately.
She sits up, billowing more of her scent into the space. The vanilla perfume that is uniquely Quinny is saturated and changed by her pack, but it’s still my favorite smell in the universe.
She stretches over and shuffles her blankets and her hoard of stolen things from us. Once she’s happy with how her nest hides us away from the world, she lies back down and grabs one of my hands, linking our fingers together before reaching over me for one of Santiago’s. She holds our hands up near her face, and Aleksei is already tucked behind her, his nose buried against her shoulder.
“You’re so goddamn incredible, Quinny.” I lean over and kiss the freckles dusting her nose until she surrenders completely and passes out.
Chapter Sixty
Weeks later
QUINN
Iwalk into his open arms, feeling completely overwhelmed. I don’t stop until I’m pressing my face against his throat and inhale his amber scent right from the source. “They’re so loud, Santiago.”
He laughs, and I feel the rumble of his laughter through his chest. He turns us away from the noise.
I don’t need to check where Aleksei is; his presence is as evident and real as Kade’s hand in mine.
I get swept into Santiago’s arms as he walks us through the crowd. He ignores the crush of people trying to stop and congratulate us. Aleksei threatens them with violence, forgetting that is basically the love language of the Cabal family.
“They idolize you, bebe, for saving Isabella and bringing the next generation home. It’s going to be like this for a long time.”
I’m not ungrateful. The Cabal family has been very welcoming, incredibly hospitable, and ridiculously generous. That’s just towards me, Kade, and Aleksei.
How they have been with Deena—Isabella—and Marco takes my breath away. It instills my faith in what family should be and benchmarks how they should act towards each other. The family business is another matter. I won’t let Marco be groomed for that, unless he truly wants that.
The press of people falls away, the noise of the celebration dimming as the crash of the ocean takes over. I stay snuggled up against Santiago, enjoying being in his arms, breathing in his amber scent until he sets me down on the water’s edge. The last tendrils of the setting sun taints the sky. It’s postcard romance, but my pack is pulling out all the stops when it comes to our future.
A champagne cork pops and goes sailing over my head into the ocean. Within moments, a champagne flute is passed over. Santiago catches my hand, twisting it, so the light catches on my new, and very beautiful, engagement-and-wedding-ring combo. The three yellow diamonds are the size diamonds should be, and the smaller baguette diamonds forming the band twinkle just as brightly. I love it. I love it more that the three of them designed it for me.
“To our beautiful wife and Pack Petrov,” Aleksei says, holding out his glass, waiting for the others to join.
With Kade and Santiago distracted, he grabs my face and licks his way into my mouth, chuckling against my lips. “They are still so slow, my wife for the second time, snoozers.”
“Excuse me?” Kade growls, passing me his champagne flute and the bottle.
Santiago just drops his glass into the ocean.
And all the stress and tension of the day dissolves as I watch Kade and Santiago trying to drown the other member of our pack.
Of course, Roshka leaps straight into the watery fray. I walk backward out of the waves, joining Isabella, Marco, and Nalla on the sand.
Marco is torn; he wants to stay, but he is also as besotted with my pack as I am.
I tap his shoulder. “Go.”
He doesn’t wait for a second invite. And I whistle to the guys, who are still trying to dunk Aleksei, letting them know they have a visitor.
