Maud hugs me tight. “I’m so very happy you found your way in the world, Cordelia. I knew you would once you left Frostclaw. Thank you for proving me right.”
I can’t stop the tears so I don’t even try. I hug her tight. “Thank you for loving me when no one else did.”
“Oh sweet girl, you were always loved by more than me. You were always loved by this pack. The only difference is now you know it.”
She’s right, just like she always is.
Ronan arrangesfor there to be a clean up effort and a free remodel to the police station due to what Piper is callingBrawlapalooza. I don’t get where she came up with the name but I like it. She and Piper spend the night with me in my cottage that night. I’m not surprised when Clover looks out the window and taps the glass. I felt Thorne coming for a while now.
“I was wondering when he’d show up,” she says and waves at Thorne. “Should we invite him in? She asks.
“I don’t know…let me check.” I go to the door and out to Thorne. He’s sitting on the porch leaning back on his hands and looking up at the stars. I sit down beside him and nudge his shoulder with mine.
“They want to know if you want to come in,” I tell him.
He smiles and looks down at me. The moonlight bathes him and like it always does, shows me just how beautiful my mate is. “I’m fine out here, sweetling. You go in and enjoy yourself tonight because you’re mine after this. Tomorrow night especially.” He drops his head quickly and kisses my forehead.
My breath catches. I didn’t expect the kiss or what he said but I’m happy with both. He drops his head and presses his nose to my hair, inhaling deeply.
I frown. I hope I don’t smell like Keiran anymore. I took three showers to scrub every last trace of him off of me.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, sweetling. Go inside for me?”
I wrap my arms around him and kiss him back. “Deal. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
I go back inside with Clover and Piper, secure and surrounded by the love always meant for me in more ways than I can count.
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
CORDELIA
The day started normally enough. I wake up with Piper and Clover and the three of us have breakfast in the mess hall. The only difference is that the pack makes a point to come by my table to check on me and make sure I’m feeling good.
“They all showed up when Ronan put out the call. I thought the humans in Oak Fast would hold a grudge with the way we showed up but they’ve smoothed it over after Ronan explained you're like a daughter to him.”
That bit of knowledge almost brought me over the edge I was teetering on after seeing the bruises and scrapes the pack sported at large. They’d been in a scrap to get me back all right. Moonshadow and Frostclaw wouldn’t be bothering us for a very long while, if at all. I wondered about the other orphans still in Frostclaw and if they knew what was happening. I hoped they’d find their way home one day.
It’s when I’m at work that I realize the day isn’t going to end like it usually does when the last patient leaves and a note is delivered.
Sweetlingis scrawled across the front of it. My heart rate spikes when I see that. I know it’s from Thorne. No one elsewould call me sweetling and if they did he’d take their head off. I smile and open the letter.
Meet me in the Meadows.
I don’t even bother locking up the Healing Rooms before I’m out the door and hurrying down the hallway. What is he planning? I reach for the bond and take hold of it. With Maud and Jazzy’s help I’ve learned how to get a decent read on Thorne’s emotions without getting knocked down by them. I don’t know how Thorne handled it on his own for so long. I wouldn’t have been able to be as calm as he was with my emotions coming at him full force.
He feels excited. Whatever it is that he has planned is good, very good and gods, I hope it’s something that finally satisfies the ache I’ve had in me from the second I met Thorne. My wolf howls in agreement. She’s tired of being interrupted.
Need to claim him.
“I know, I know,” I tell her and speed up my walk to a jog. I get a few curious looks as I get through the courtyard and out of the Keep but I don’t pay them much mind. When I’m on the switchbacks, I pick up my pace into an all out run. The pent up sexual frustration that’s boiled up in me over the days and weeks of being in the pack is good fuel for my fast pace down the mountain. When I’m close, I catch Thorne’s scent on the wind. I take a deep breath and push on. Gods, he smells delicious.
When I arrive in the Meadows, I stop. Thorne stands in the middle of the late summer blooms. All around him the grass ripples, the flowers sway in the wind until it’s like he’s in the middle of a living ocean. I smile at the sight of my beautiful mate and walk towards him. When I’m close enough I see that he’s holding something behind his back. When I’m in front of him, I tilt my head back to look up at him and point to his back.
