“The winter solstice,” Hyland began, looking a tad miffed. “I was there with my father, Oleander Halmsdan. He was rewarded for his new invention, the extinguisher stones?”
“Ah,” I said, remembering exactly who his father was now. He’d infused regular stones with magic. Not just any magic, but a combination of water and wind magic, creating stones for extinguishing fires. They were highly sought after, now, and extremely effective. My father, Luka, had offered Oleander an invite to our royal winter solstice party, I had no memory of Hyland though. “You were there?” I asked, just to be certain that was what he meant.
He gasped, clearly offended. “We spoke!”
“We did?” I was pretty sure I would remember him. He was a good looking guy. Too bad his personality was so ugly.
“You told me I looked nice!” he spluttered.
“Hmm. Sorry, don’t remember you,” I shrugged, stealing a steamed carrot from Casey’s plate. Because of Hyland, I’d gone directly to the table and foregone the buffet. My stomach growled in annoyance.
Nym came to my rescue. “What makes you think that you should be worthy to be with Jamie? Is it simply because of your father’s invention?”
“Good question,” Myve agreed, squinting her eyes at Hyland. “Remember, your mate is here somewhere, likely seeing how thirsty you are for someone who isn’t meant for you.”
“Yeah,” Nazuss said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “You should probably focus on improving your personality before finding them, though.”
“And remember to ask for consent before kissing them,” Casey added with a glare.
Hyland seemed to have realized he stood by a table filled with people who didn’t like him much. He huffed and turned around, stomping back to his table where his friends looked at him with a mix of concern and confusion.
“What an ass,” Harpy commented, shaking his head.
“I think he truly wanted to be royalty,” Ryn said. “But you’re right, Myve, he should be thinking of how his behavior will affect his mate.”
“I for one, will just wait and see when mine pops up,” Nazuss said, sounding sure of himself.
“Ah-ha, did Ulysis tell you to just sit around and wait?” Myve questioned.
“Basically,” Nazuss shrugged. “I just know that he’ll be mine before the end of our two years here. I’m not about to rushthings, no matter how much I wish to annoy you with a mate of my own that I can be disgustingly cute with.”
“We aren’t disgusting,” I argued, holding Casey closer to my side.
Nazuss only smiled at that, shaking his head.
Casey poked my side. “Go grab some food before classes start. I need your full strength for later.”
Myve perked up at that. “Uuuh, now what fun things have you two got planned?” She waggled her brows. It seemed she wanted to live vicariously through us, and who was I to deny her?
“We’re shifting later,” Casey announced proudly. “With his arm now healed we can finally try out each other’s forms.”
“That’s so damn cute!” Myve groaned. “Why are you all so stinkingcute?!”
“We do our best,” I beamed, leaving my family to grab some food. Casey was right, I needed my strength. I would fly for the very first time later today and I couldn’t wait. I’d told Casey he could try out his new racoon form earlier, but he’d wanted us to share the experience together. So later today, we would shift into our racoon forms first and then do a fun flight around the academy. I wasn’t a fan of heights—if we talked higher than the trees I could climb—but I couldn’t wait to fly with my mate. Hopefully, I would find a new appreciation for heights.
My mate was grinning widely at me as we met outside the academy. He was wearing my favorite robe on him, the emerald green one with a gold clasp, his shirt underneath a lovely cream color. The pants he wore for our first official date were a darker shade of green than his robe. He was damn edible looking. I’d picked out my dark purple robe and wore matching pants with a light purple blouse underneath. I’d always favored tight pants with stretch in them, loving the freedom they offered, just as long as my blouses covered the crotch area. No one other than my mate would ever see just how tight my pants were around that part.
“How do you manage to look better and better each day?” Casey teased, placing a gentle kiss on my lips.
“Speak for yourself,” I smirked, kissing him again. “Emerald really is your color.”
“Your black hair and those gorgeous hazel eyes of yours seem to agree with whatever color you wear,” he whispered, nibbling at my ear playfully.
“Enough stalling,” I chuckled, taking his hand in mine, determined to nuzzle my mate in my racoon form as soon aspossible. “We’ll do this in the forest, mostly so you can feel the soothing effect it has on your racoon to climb trees.
“I want to climb the one you fell from,” the most important person in the world to me declared, straight faced and serious.
“Um, why?”
