Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Rylan comes to stand before me. “How are you doing?”
“I’m shaky and exhausted and overwhelmed.” I try for a smile. “But we’re all alive, so I’m good. Really good.” I hesitate. “Lizzie?”
“Gone. I’m sure she’ll be circling back at some point for that favor, but the Radu family will be doing what the rest of the clans are now that you’ve taken over.” At my questioning look, he gives a wry smile. “Watching. Evaluating. Traditionally, there’s a year grace period when someone ascends to head of clan, so we have that long to bolster our defenses and alliances and ensure we’re too strong to reckon with.”
“Oh,” I say faintly. I’ve never heard of a grace period, but my father has ruled for a very, very long time. He was also tight-fisted with information as a way of controlling people—something I intend to change. I drag in a breath. “I guess we need to get started on that soon.
“Tomorrow,” Malachi says firmly. “Everything can wait until tomorrow. Right now, we’re going to hold you and we’re going to celebrate the fact that we’re alive and we won.”
I find myself smiling slowly as he leads me to the bed. “I kind of like that plan.”
“I thought you might.” He smiles down at me and, for the first time since I met him, it’s completely joyful and free of reserve. “I love you, little dhampir.”
“I love you, too.”
“Forever.”
I go up onto my toes and kiss him. “Forever.”
19
Four years later
I smell smoke as I turn down the hall toward the nursery. “Not again.” I pick up my pace, sprinting the last few steps and throwing open the door, power at my fingertips and ready to quell the fire. The sight that greets me stops me short.
Rylan is sleeping in the rocking chair, the twins in his arms. They’re still little, only three months, and they seem to have taken it as a personal challenge to see how ragged they can run the four of us. I’m more tired than I could have thought possible, but it’s a good kind of tired. They’re sleeping for once, so they aren’t the source of the smoke.
No, the source is Wolf and Asher sitting on the floor across from each other, shooting little fireballs at each other. I start to yell a warning when Wolf sends one spiraling at our three-year-old, but he sends a little burst of power to fizzle it out well before it makes contact.
Then he turns and gives me an unrepentant grin. “He’s even better at fire than you are.”
“Mama!” Asher jumps to his feet and sprints to me, moving so quickly I barely get my arms out before he throws himself into them.
I spin him around twice and cuddle him close. “Hello, Trouble.” I press a kiss to the top of his head, covered in dark curls. “Let’s move this to the living room so the twins can sleep.” I eye them. “Do you think it’s wise to move them?”
“Rylan won’t let them fall.” Wolf hefts himself to his feet. “And you know what happened last time we tried to move them when they were sleeping.”
I wince. Hours of sobbing and a particularly sleepless night. “We leave them then.” Hopefully all three of them take a nice long nap. I turn and carry Asher out of the bedroom and down the hall to the living room. In the years since I took over the compound, everything’s changed. Gone is my father’s overbearing style, replaced by grounded, cozy furniture in pleasing colors. This house feels like a home for the first time in my life, and it’s not solely because of the redecorating.
Malachi walks through the front door as we settle on the couch. He’s dressed in a pair of jeans and a gray T-shirt and he’s never looked better. He grins at the sight of us. “Someone said they smelled smoke, and I figured it was Asher getting up to no good.”
“Wolf was supervising.”
He glances at Wolf. “I bet he was.”
We fully expected Asher to develop only one power, courtesy of whoever was his biological father, but in the last six months he’s shown evidence of all four bloodline powers that flow through his veins. We still don’t know if it’s courtesy of the bond I share with my men or because of some seraph quirk, but I’m already attempting to prepare myself for the chaos that will come when the twins start manifesting their powers. I hope we survive it.
Malachi crosses to press a kiss to my lips, then Wolf’s, while he ruffles Asher’s hair. “The twins?”
“They’re taking a nap with Rylan.”
His grin widens. “He does have the magic touch with them.” It’s true. They sleep better for Rylan than for any of us, though even that isn’t saying much.
Next to me, Wolf clears his throat. “I heard from Lizzie.”