“You read my mind.” Winking at him, I slipped through the door, padding toward the nursery next door.
Brock and I were going to get married! I indulged in a giddy smile while no one was looking, and then allowed my heart to melt all over again when I saw our son. A balanced mixture of Brock’s features and mine, though he’d inherited my violet eyes, he was beautiful.
When he noticed me, he stopped crying, smiling instead. He stretched his arms out to me and I rushed to pick him up, pressing him against my chest like the miracle that he was.
Who would’ve thought a one night stand with Brock the Cock could work out so well? I’d gotten everything I hadn’t realized I wanted...
* * *
Brock had built my father a cabin on the property, where he stayed with Cho, and Molly had settled into Gran’s cabin, along with Haru and Reo. Though the warrior brothers mentioned returning to Japan every once in a while, their mentions had become increasingly less frequent as time passed. Tianna had moved in with Cass at his downtown loft, and together he and I trained Molly to become a full-fledged supernatural bounty hunter. Since Molly couldn’t leave the area while she was our apprentice, Haru and Reo remained with her. Whatever arrangement the brothers and Molly had, they all seemed happy and in love. It was good enough for me.
The cantankerous old witch Willemena had traveled from her home in California for the wedding, and even Croft and the Blacks had accepted my invitation. I wasn’t exactly friends with my mother’s family, but after what we’d been through together, it was easier to accept them, though there was still no way in hell I was ever going to bring Caleb around to visit them. I’d been keeping my end of the bargain, visiting Johnny and Aunt Bertie every couple of weeks for a short while, but I’d left Caleb at home every time.
When we added in the hundred or so members of the pack, our wedding had quickly gone from small and intimate to raucous and wild. It suited me just fine.
Brock and I had written our own vows and we’d spoken them to each other beside the trickling creek that ran behind Gran’s cabin while Willemena officiated the ceremony. It had been my way of bringing the woman who’d raised me into one of the most important days of my life. There’d been a few times when a breeze had blown just right, delivering the scents of Gran to me, and I’d known that wherever she was, there was a part of her that was watching on.
“Hey, Evie!” Molly hollered across the clearing in the dusk of the balmy night. “Come dance with us!”
Hundreds of lanterns lit by Tianna’s magic adorned the forest clearing, and little sparkling lights hung from every tree within sight. The evening was magical, and that was before every person in the world I cared about had gathered to celebrate my union with Brock.
“Maybe in a little bit,” I called back to my apprentice, smiling at the way she danced like she owned the night. Haru and Reo trailed every one of her movements with appreciative gazes, taking turns dancing with her. Her purple hair had mostly fallen out of its up-do, but Molly didn’t care in the least. She’d make a fabulous bounty hunter, especially since even at the party she wore a handgun strapped to her thigh—just in case. She was taking to her new role as wolf just fine as well. Brock said she was a strong member of the pack.
“I think Molly’s had a bit too much to drink,” Brock said, leaning into me, sitting on the chair next to me, Caleb on his lap.
I chuckled. “I think everyone here has had too much to drink. They’re all happier than I’ve ever seen them.”
“And you?”
“And me what? Am I drunk?”
“No, are you happy?” he asked, amber eyes suddenly serious as they held mine.
I looked from him to our son and back. “I’m happier than I ever thought possible.”
His eyes misted and he squeezed one of my hands. “Good. Because so am I.”
He leaned over to kiss me, and the moment our lips met, the tinkling of wine goblets rose all around us. I laughed and yelled out, “You’re supposed to do thatbeforewe kiss, to get us to kiss, not after.”
“You guys don’t need help to kiss,” Tianna hollered.
“And neither do we,” Cass said, sidling up to his Amazonian fae-witch, wrapping an arm around one of her thighs beneath her short dress. Cass had ordered a special set of rhinestone booty shorts for the event; he wore them and a matching rhinestone-studded bow tie. He looked like a Chippendale dancer, if the male strippers were short and pot-bellied. Regardless, as usual, Cass rocked the look, and of everyone at the party he was smiling the most.
“My girl,” he crooned, claiming the chair next to mine and wrapping a short, stubby arm around the back of it. “I never thought I’d see the day you’d be married with a baby. But you’re rocking it like you’ve rocked everything else in your life. You’re a fine bride, and a finer mother. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”
“Shit, Cass. You can’t make me cry at my own wedding reception,” I whispered, swiping beneath my eyes to keep my mascara from running down my cheeks.
“You know me,” he said, “I gotta speak my heart with you. Always have.”
I nodded. “I love you too, Cass. Best friends forever.”
“Forever,” he echoed, and took in Brock and Caleb. “You take good care of my girl, Brock. I know where to find you if you don’t.”
Brock smirked. “That’s because you live five minutes away and have a telepathic connection with my wife.”
My wife.My breath hitched in my chest as emotion rushed through me, and I blinked furiously, trying to keep myself together.
“Still,” Cass pressed, “you know I’ll always have her back.”
