I narrowed my eyes. “You hijacked their menu, didn’t you?”
A wicked grin. “I did.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you love that about me.”
The hostess showed us back to the very same table, with more chairs along with the cushioned alcove, the cool evening breeze sweeping in off the water. The gilded menu sat on my plate, and it was filled with all my favorites. Pasta, noodles, pizza, even a salad with chicken. All of it had a fancy spin, but there was nothing I didn’twantto eat. The only thing on the menu that hadn’t changed was the desserts.
“Thank you,” I said to him, and flowing it out to the rest of them through our bonds. “This is incredible.”
“About time all of us took you out on a date,” Brooks said. “We kind of did it all backwards.”
“It happened the way it needed to happen. I wouldn’t change it.”
Bastian leaned over from where he sat next to me and caught my lips with his. “Me either.”
Logan pushed back in his chair. “Before we order, we have something for you. A bonding gift.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Brooks, both of us thinking about the same moment. “I don’t need gifts for me to stay with you, you know.”
Theo laughed. “Considering we’re bonded for life, you’re already stuck with us, sweetheart. And we know. We also like giving you things, so might as well accept it.”
Rolling my eyes dramatically, I placed the back of my hand against my forehead. “Oh,no. Five super hot Alphas who love me and want to give me gifts? How awful. Whatever shall I do?”
Logan placed a rectangular velvet box down in front of me and kissed my hair. “You’ll be ours forever, wildfire. That’s what.”
“Open it now?”
“Now,” Bastian confirmed.
I lifted the cover on the box to find twobeautifulhand chains. No, twosets. One was a net that draped over the back of the hand, every point of the web sparkling with a violet jewel. The other was a version of my favorites, with a string of marquise-shaped gems in the same purple.
Beneath them, nestled in the velvet, were matching locks which also sparkled with the stone. They were gorgeous. I reached out and drifted my fingers over them.
I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came. There was too much I wanted to say and not enough words to make it clear how much I loved them. How much better my life was now that they were mine, and I was theirs.
Logan laughed softly. “Having trouble speaking, wildfire?”
I shook my head. My throat wasn’t closing, and the words weren’tstuck, they just weren’t there. “I think I’m speechless.”
Bastian placed his hand palm up on the table. I took it. We both knew it wasn’t what I meant, but he kissed the back of my hand. “You never have to be again.”
I blinked back tears because there wasn’t a moment of this that I wanted to miss. “Thank you.”
We all rested in that breath of silence.
My father was pressing charges against Val, Matt, and Paige for a whole bunch of things, and with my pack’s encouragement, so was I. It would take a long time, but I felt good about the steps we were making.
Edgar had been right. Already there were job offers in my inbox from publications I never imagined would know my name.
Things were finally settling down, and I couldn’t wait to have some time where we lived life with nothing else in the way.
I looked back down at the jewelry in front of me. “I should have known this was your plan when you made me leave the house without them. Which set should I put on?”
