Soon, the sun sets completely, and music begins pulsing through the room and ready for the final party of the year.Janet and Lola arrive first, followed soon after by Stassi who tries and fails to get Liz’s attention as she sits in the corner alone.
Before long, the room is full and buzzing with power.
Fae girls ooh and ahh at a few wolf shifters wrestling near the drinks.
Laithe leans against the wall next a girl with a pixie cut and dark eyeliner.
A mixture of species dance in the middle of the room.
I sit on Jarron’s lap surrounded by a group of our closest friends out on the balcony.
Stassi makes fart jokes that exactly no one laughs at.
This will be the last time we’re all together like this. Next year, many of us will go separate ways. It’s sad, but also exciting. We have entire lives to live and I can’t wait to see what we all accomplish.
Janet is going to a magical college in Brazil next year. Thompson is officially taking his role as Alpha during the next blue moon a little less than a year from now. Manuela is setting up camp with her parents and a few distant cousins in the forest near him.
Apparently, after the battle together, Manuela and Thompson got to talking more and eventually came to an agreement—Thompson’s pack would give back the dryad’s sacred lands—nearly half of their territory—and they would become allies.
There’s still a lot to achieve before those conflicts are settled but they’re on their way to peace. And since Jarron made his firm alliance with Thompson known with the rest of the Tennessee packs, their enemies have been suspiciously scarce.
Stassi and Lola and Tyrane have another year left at Shadow Hills. More and more Lola has become settled and accepted by the pixie community which is a relief because it means she’ll have a place to belong when me and Janet leave.
Two mollifying potions down, and I’m as relaxed as I can get. Jarron pulls me against the railing several feet away and kisses me deeply.
The warmth from his body mixed with the cool sensation of his mind caressing mine, is more amazing I could have ever imagined.
Someone whistles at us from the group a few feet away but we ignore them, taking our time to explore each other’s bodies, tauntingly slow.
Before things get too heated, I pull away and Jarron wordlessly follows suit. I turn to look out over the balcony and he casual rests his chin against my shoulder.
“Tell me,” I say, looking out at the mountains in the distance. “What would it have been like if I’d never come to Shadow Hills— Mr. Vandozer had never gotten involved in our lives?”
Jarron runs his fingers up my arm sending a shiver down my spine. “I would have waited for you” he answers.
“How long?”
He takes in a deep breath. “I would have followed you to whatever college you chose.”
My brow pinches. “A demon prince at Yale?” I joke. I don’t know what college I would have ended up at. I was definitely on the track for an Ivy League, but I don’t know for sure that’s what I would have chosen. Maybe Oxford, actually. Or some sports focused school on a whim.
“What, like it’s hard?” Jarron says.
I snort at the unexpected joke.
“Sure, I could have gone to Yale if that’s where you ended up,” he shrugs. “May have taken a few favors to get in, but Shadow Hills presents as a highly desirable school to the human world, so it’s very possible I’d be accepted.”
“Then what?” I ask. “What would you have done?”
It’s hard for me to imagine that life that was stolen from us. I would have pushed away even the thought of being his friend. I would have been angry that he was there, actually.
He breathes deeply. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a blueprint, exactly. I knew you were not my biggest fan so it would have taken some time to prove you could trust me. I would have found ways to be around you, to become something you found useful, and slowly we’d become friends again. I’m not sure if there could be another scenario that would lead us to fake-dating but that worked out quite well for me.”
His smile widens and my stomach flutters, remembering some of those charged memories. We’ve always had serious chemistry, and enough emotional history it was easy to fall in love with him—even when I was convinced I should hate him.
“I would have found a way to make you mine,” he growls. I nearly whimper at the sound. Heat floods my extremities.
“It wouldn’t have been easy.”
