Threading my fingers through her hair, I take control of the kiss, imbuing it with every emotion that threatens to overwhelm me. Years of yearning, of dreaming that I was born as any other kind of myst so I’d be free to chase after her.How I nearly missed my chance because I wasted so much time being afraid to take the leap. And how fuckingthrilledI am that she’s really mine. Every roll of my tongue and hard press of my lips against hers seals a silent promise.
No one will ever take her for granted again. Not when she has the four of us as mates.
“You guys outdid yourselves,” she says, voice rough.
“We wanted you to know what it was like to finally have a real home.”
“A life that would absolutely wreck you to leave behind,” Ledger adds with a soft smile.
“I almost made it without crying, you jerk,” she jokes, swiping at her eyes with a watery chuckle.
As she collects herself, I grab the remote. I bought her a year’s subscription to that anime streaming channel she mentioned, and figure it’s as good a time as any to download the app and sign in so it’ll be ready whenever she wants to watch. But no matter how many times I hit the power button, nothing happens.
I pop off the back of the remote. “Does anybody have a couple of AA batteries?”
Running her finger over the spines of the new games I slipped onto her shelf, Ever distractedly calls over her shoulder, “Just take them out of the smoke detector.”
Ledger beats me to it, gaping at the back of our mate’s head with a horrified expression. “Excuse me.Do you do that often?”
She shrugs. “I mean, notoften.But if my wireless mouse dies mid game, you can’t expect me to run out at midnight for batteries; that’d be dangerous.”
Well, it was nice knowing the guy. If the heart attack doesn’t take him out, living with our mate just might.
Ledger’s eye twitches. “Be right back.” His footsteps thunder down the hallway, front door closing behind him as he runs next door to his house.
Myles is pinching the bridge of his nose, shaking his head in defeat, but doesn’t look exactly surprised at the revelation. At least she isn’t leaving the house in the middle of the night without us, I suppose? All things considered, that’s far more dangerous than taking the smoke detectors out of commission when she has a shifter mate that would wake up from a dead sleep at the scent of anything out of the ordinary in the house, and a shadow demon that spends most of his time watching her sleep.
Speaking of…
I glance over at Arson leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He’s usually worse than a toddler trying to getEver’s attention over every little thing. Not to mention, I haven’t seen anything in the house besides Myles’, Ledger’s, and my surprises.
Son of a bitch.
Once it hits me, I feel like an oblivious asshole. While we were busy running around town buying things and renovating the house, he’s been her guard dog, keeping her out of the house so wecouldsurprise her. We didn’t leave him any time to arrange his own surprise.
“It’s from both of us,” I blurt. Ever stops what she’s doing to tilt her head at me in confusion. “The gaming den. It’s from Arson and me.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh!” Closing the distance between them, she jumps, and his shadows spring out of his body to catch her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize or mean to ignore you. Here I am, molesting Bell’s face while you watch. I'm a dick.” She palms his face and kisses the hell out of him.
Arson gives me a confused look over her shoulder, but doesn’t contradict my claim. “I got you,” he searches my face with a frown before slowly saying, “anothergift, too.”
Well… shit. Now I feel stupid.
Arson reaches behind his head and strips off his shirt. Among the hundreds of scars littering his torso is a splash of color on his chest, right above his heart. Ever’s name is scrawled out in bold script, intertwined with some popular gaming characters hanging off of the letters or jumping off of them, a cord wrapping around the letters and ending with a chibi figure rendition of Ever herself holding the controller. It’s… absolutely perfect, the son of a bitch. A mismatch of all of our mate’s favorite fandoms emblazoned on his skin to commemorate his dedication.
“We wanted to give you a home filled with things you couldn’t live without,” he explains. “But the only thing I don’t want you to leave behind is me.”
Kiss ass. Why didn’t I think of that?
Obviously, she melts for him; that type of romantic shit is better than foreplay, and the two of them are damn near dry humping by the time Ledger comes back into the room with a toolbox and grocery bag filled with supplies, grumbling under his breath as he heads straight for the smoke detector and rips open a new package of batteries.
“Oh, I almost forgot the last surprise!” Arson suddenly gasps before sprinting from the room, leaving a breathless and confused Ever behind.
Aaaaaaaaaand he’s back. All that silent brooding shit today was just the hyperactive demon trying to keep a secret and not ruin the surprise.
He returns a few minutes later, wheeling in Adam’s cage. With a flourish, he whips off the blackout cover, and we’re treated to a tiny scream. “I added a couple of mice. But it quickly got out of hand, so I dropped in a snake to take care of them. Turns out, he’s deathly afraid of snakes. Isn’t it nice when these things work out?”
Ever busts out laughing, crouching to get a closer look, while Myles lectures Arson on reptile habitats and the upgrades they’ll need to do if he truly intends to keep it. Ledger simply sighs wearily in acceptance and slides a package of batteries into Ever’s desk so she’ll quit stealing them out of the smoke detectors.
