Demi, loving you is easy.
From the first day I met you, I saw your strength, your fire, and a little bit of your pain.
Tears streamed down my face and onto the paper.
And I knew that day that I had met my equal, my better half.
Where I am hard and unyielding, you are soft and forgiving. Where my mind thinks in straights lines and squares, yours thinks in swirls and arcs.
Demi, we are not exact copies of each other, but we are perfect for one another. You are the one I choose to love, the one I choose to place all my bets on, my future wife.
You love your family and friends with a loyal fierceness that gives me pride to watch, and I am lucky enough to be one of those people.
Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for saying yes.
I burst into tears then, my vision blurry as I read the last line.
(Now kiss her).
I fell back onto the pillow, clutching the letter in my hands, and sobbed into the blanket as my emotions overwhelmed me. I just wanted to marry him and be normal.
But there was no normal here, no going back now. We were at war, and if I was honest, my time running for my life through the Magic Lands had changed me. I was a fighter, a survivor, a Paladin alpha. I couldn’t just ignore that and sit back in a glass castle with Sawyer and be his wife.
Ididwant to be his wife, I wanted a life with him, but I had my own path to walk too, and the agony of not knowing an immediate solution for Sawyer and my relationship tore at me until I finally dozed off.
Sage wokeme while it was still dark out. I’d had to pull myself from the comfortable bed and brush my teeth quickly before rushing outside. Murmured low voices came from the church across the street. Sage and I crossed the brick walkway and I balked at the sight of nearly a thousand warriors. They were all bare chested despite the chilly air breezing through the town, and they held a variety of deadly looking weapons. The bright blue streaks of paint across their faces and chests gave me chills. These men were true warriors. You could see it in their eyes, the way they not only looked like they weren’t afraid of death, they welcomed it. Most of the warriors were men, but I spied a few women, just as deadly and fierce looking.
Arrow and Rab were talking animatedly to each other, while Astra had her hands on a man’s shoulders as she seemingly prayed for him. Being in such a different culture was fascinating. I wanted to know everything about the Paladins and their customs, but now was not the time to learn. Footsteps sounded behind me and I turned to see a large pack of wolves coming down the street, a hundred of them or more.
These wolves were large, larger than our city wolves, and all black, with bits of rust fur at the tips.
“Paladin wolves,” Sage whispered.
Oh.
“What if someone attacks us while you’re gone? You’re taking our best warriors!” Rab shouted, and I turned my attention back to the front of the church.
“They want to show the new alpha that they will fight for her cause,” Arrow stated passionately. “They have faith that she will heal our lands and people and not leave us.”
Guilt shot through me. These people that I didn’t even know were willing to fight for me so that I would help them. It just reaffirmed that I couldn’t go back to Sawyer until I had given my all here and helped them.
“I don’t trust her. She’ll leave when it gets hard,” Rab growled. As if sensing me, he glared behind him and met my cold gaze.
I shouldn’t have stayed and eavesdropped, but dammit that comment made me mad, and they were talking loud enough for the whole damn group to hear.
“The hell I will!” I shouted, and bounded over to them in long, angry strides, earning the gaze of over a hundred warriors who stood the closest. “You don’t knowanythingabout me. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” I felt my wolf come to the surface then, and Rab spun fully, looking me straight in the eyes.
“Well,little wolf,” he sneered. “Half of our warriors are leaving, and if we get attacked by the Ithaki while they are gone, I willpersonallyhold you responsible for every death.”
Moving warriors from one place to another and leaving the Paladins vulnerable was not ideal, but I had to choose the lesser of two evils. Right now, the city wolves were stuck in a bomb shelter. Clearly that situation was more dire.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Now, how can I help here?”
“Demi,” Sage called from behind me, voice thick with concern. “Aren’t you going to even help me lead the warriors back to Wolf City?”
Fuck. I should have told her this morning.
I turned and faced her, tears welling in my eyes. “I … I need to stay here for the time being,” I told my redheaded bestie.
