Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Didn’t enjoy me feeding you, huh?” I asked, handing over the fork.
“Greatly enjoyed it. I’m in agony from that enjoyment. I’m going to eat this, we’re going to socialize for a little bit longer, and then I will be taking you home and getting to later.”
I leaned down to kiss him before peeling away with a groan of frustration. I knew exactly how he felt.
A scan of magic revealed a dozen basajaunak loitering in the trees. I made my way to the closest—the first basandere who’d moved to my wood. She only revealed herself when I was standing right in front of her.
“Hello, miss,” she said. I probably needed to assign them names just to keep them straight in my head.
“Hi. What are you guys doing here?”
“We heard you’d be all the way out here without any protection from your house crew. Given there’ve been shifter packs testing the territory limits lately, we decided we’d better keep watch over you.”
“You walked all the way here?”
She looked around in confusion. “Of course. It’s not far.”
It was like ten miles from the house. Then again, Dave’s mountain was much farther than that—and they were constantly coming and going from there.
“Got it. Well, this was supposed to just be a shifter party, and I don’t want you to make a habit of crashing these types of things, but since you’re here, please help yourself to the BBQ. We have plenty.”
Her smile stretched wide. “Thank you, miss! It smells fantastic.”
I held up a finger. “No fighting, though. No challenges. No getting drunk and rolling anyone through the fire.”
“I’ll make sure everyone knows, but there’s no need for concern. We didn’t bring any of our special brew. I doubt there is enough alcohol in those coolers to warrant any shenanigans, as Niamh would say.”
Probably not, but you could never be too careful. It was important to set boundaries.
When I returned, Austin had just come back from disposing of his empty plate and soda can. He grabbed me around the waist and hauled me closer, bending to run his lips up the side of my neck before giving me a peck on the lips.
“And the gargoyles?” he asked, looking at the sky.
“Dang it,” I grumbled, following his gaze.
He laughed softly, rocking us as he hugged me. “Just kidding,” he said.
I continued looking skyward, though, and lo and behold, a large shape periodically deadened patches of stars. Checking in with my various gargoyle bonds, so many now they were hard to manage—I needed to work on that—I felt Tristan making lazy circles above us along with a handful of his people.
“I can’t win,” I murmured.
“It’s fine. Mr. Tom was hiding in the trees on the date I took you on. This is a step up from that.”
We stayed and chatted with everyone for a while. The basajaunak made a surprisingly great addition—hanging out with the guys cooking the meat, lounging near the fire, and infiltrating the little clusters of chatting shifters. Their sense of tranquility outdoors relaxed the overall vibe of the BBQ, and soon a few of the shifters were actually smiling.
Broken Sue kept pace with us as we made our rounds, becoming my shadow and helping me with names. It didn’t seem like he was interested in branching off, so I didn’t shoo him away. Austin was polite and accommodating to everyone, rarely smiling and not laughing unless in response to something I said to him privately, but in obvious good spirits and happy to be amongst people he’d known most of his life.
After an hour or so of socializing, though, he couldn’t keep his hands off me anymore. If he wasn’t kissing me, he was holding me tightly, never letting me get too far away without reeling me back in. I let him call the shots, smiling as he excused us from a conversation and then told Kace and Broken Sue that we were going to take off. I said goodbye to the basajaunak and barely stopped myself from thanking everyone for coming.
“Thank you, Jess,” Austin said as we reached the car. “That was exactly what I needed. I was feeling anxious about returning home, and tonight has made me excited instead.”
“Good, I’m glad.”
We got into the car, and after he started the engine, I said, “If it’s okay, the night cap is at your house.”
He paused, looking over at me. “Our house, Jess. Yours and mine. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about this, nor have I had a chance to get the paperwork drawn up, but mating is sharing a life. It’s like marriage in the Jane world but more permanent. This bond between us—the way we feel each other—that’s forever. It might seem like things haven’t changed much because of my negligence, but when we mated—when your gargoyle finally accepted me—it changed everything. I want the house I built to be your home away from Ivy House, Jess. Our home away from Ivy House. And I want to make a more conscious effort to figure out how I fit into Ivy House. It helps now that Mimi is redecorating, but it needs to be my home as well. It’s time for us to merge these two halves to create one whole, you and me. We’ll sit on it for now, since we leave for Kingsley’s territory in a couple of weeks, but when we get back, we’ll sit down and hammer this out, okay? I promise.”