Page 85 of Of Magic and Murder

I understand why he might need me to approve of his wolfish side, especially after showing me how far he’s willing to go to protect me. We both know there was a time not that long ago when the sight of a wolf made every survival instinct I possessed scream at me to run. There was also a time when I looked at Riordan and saw a predator before I saw the male underneath.

Now? I only see my mate.

Dropping down, I throw my arms around his neck. His massive body shudders as I bury my face in his fur.

Like always, he’s so warm. He’s soft, too, and undeniably bloody, but the most important part is that he’s alive. I squeeze him and I kiss him by his ear, careful not to get any blood on me and failing miserably. He chuffs and leans into my embrace, and I can sense the last of his rage seeping out of him as his mate hugs him without a single trace of fear.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still afraid. After watching Delilah drop him to his knees, after seeing him robbed of his voice and his strength while he still tried to crawl between me and danger, I might be more afraid than I’ve ever been.

Just not of Riordan. Not really. Not like the first time I saw the big, black wolf in the kitchen of Dough You Believe in Magic and believed it was the witch killer come to get me.

Only the witch killer turned out to be a witch, and the big, bad wolf… he’s mine.

I tighten my arms around my wolf and refuse to let go.

I am afraid, and I can admit that even as my heart rate finally starts to return normal. Know why? Because the only thing about him that scares me anymore is how close I came to losing him.

He’s my mate. My forever mate.

And I’m not letting him get away from me ever again.

EPILOGUE

roadtrip!

maybe gus can sneak inside of a suitcase…

— gus

There are three things I learn in the first couple of weeks after I became Riordan Lobo’s bonded mate.

One: wolf shifters—when they’re not despicable ferals—are adorably clingy.

Two: wolf shifters who spent years believing they would never get to claim their mate and who arrived in time to save them from a psycho witch in pink are really clingy.

And three: if said wolf also happens to be the chief deputy of a supernatural town, he has enough authority to convince three other wolves that finishing up with re-shelving the last of the library is somehow a matter of public safety. So while I had every intention of going back to the Moonburrow Library after everything calmed down following the reveal that Delilah was murdering members of her own coven in order to ‘save’ the town, between Riordan’s nesting need to keep me close and my own anxieties surrounding his near-death, we’ve spent most of our time on pack land.

We did have dinner with Max and Honey (and Gus) last night. It was a reminder that I still have everything I brought with me from Salem—and everything I purchased in town before I moved in with Riordan—in the apartment over Dough You Believe in Magic. After we left their place, I told Riordan that I needed to take care of that. The library, too. Especially since I’m not sure how long I’m going to be gone…

Riordan is currently standing in the corner of my former bedroom, tapping away on his phone. Gus followed us upstairs rather than stay down in the bakery with Honey. She says he misses spending time with us after our latest investigation ended. Me? I get the feeling the opossum is acting like our chaperone as I pack up my belongings.

My mate offered to do the packing for me. Considering how anal Riordan is, he’d take five minutes to fold every skirt, every blouse, every single pair of cozy pajamas I own. They’d be completely wrinkle-free before he laid them neatly inside one of my two luggage cases because that’s just Riordan. He takes pride in his appearance and everything he does, and while I love that about him, I don’t have that much time. My flight is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and I thought I’d throw everything haphazardly inside of my suitcases, buy a sticky bun from Honey, then drag Riordan to the library so that I could do a little more shelving because I’ve been feeling guilty that I left the mess to Ash in the aftermath of everything that happened.

Especially now that I understand the spell… like most of them lately, it actually did kind of work. I used magic to help me find a book that would interest a witch, and I’m sure there’s something in each and every one of those tomes that I would find interesting. However, it wasn’t until we found Garnet’s journal among the piles and it basically bit me that I realized it was the exact book I needed to help solve the mystery of what was up with the latest murders in Moonburrow… and the twisted witch who was trying to eliminate the supernatural town before turning it into the witch settlement of legend.

Even after breaking the lodestone and turning off its power, I still wasn’t confident enough in trying to use a spell to put the remaining books back where they belong. However, when I mentioned to Riordan that I thought it was time for us to visit the library and put in a little time shelving, I discovered just what it means to have a dominant alpha wolf shifter with a badge as a mate.

I add another blouse to the open suitcase, murmuring more to myself than to him: “I still can’t believe you did that.”

Riordan glances up from his position on the other side of the room. His phone disappears as he asks, “Did what?”

I pause with a skirt in my hand so that I can stare at him. “You know what.”

He arches an eyebrow. I nearly swoon.

I stuff the skirt into the suitcase, then turn to grab another outfit from my dresser.

Technically, it’s Honey’s dresser. Or Grandma Jean’s. Honey’s witchy grandmother offered to come back to Moonburrow after Delilah was outed as a murderess, but she was having such a grand time in Europe with a small Irish coven that it was easy for Honey to convince her grandmother that she didn’t need to do that. So, for now, Honey still runs the bakery, and with me moving out of the apartment at last, she’s planning on keeping it as a spare apartment until she finds someone who needs it.