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Chad falls over, broken vase, flowers, and water going everywhere. I raise the skirt of my boring dress and kick him in the ribs, effectively shoving him off of Auggie.

I drop to Auggie’s side and pull him to me, still in shock that he’s really here.

Officers, whose arrival I must have missed, gather Chad up while Eric kneels beside me and begins applying pressure to Auggie's wound.

“You found me,” I cry as hot tears spill down my face.

I look down to see blood coating the floor.

Looking to Eric, I ask, “Why is he bleeding so much?”

“He’s weak from not being able to consume blood.”

“Drink from me.”

“What?” Auggie sputters. “Cordelya, you don’t know what that means.”

“I know what a mate means, Augustus, and you just called me yours. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if⁠—”

“You love me?” he asks weakly, cutting me off.

“I love you. More than anything. Now sit up and drink from me right now, so you can take me home and get me out of this nightmare.”

With Eric's help, Auggie sits up, wrapping an arm around me. He presses a searing kiss to my lips before pulling back to give me a smile that’s all fang.

“I love you too, Moonlight.”

Then he tilts my head to the side and sinks his fangs into my neck.

Chapter 22

Beginning of Something New

AUGUSTUS

Pear. Caramel. Cordelya. Home.

With each pull, I feel my strength returning.

Warmth spreads from the center of my chest, the loneliness that was once there now chased away, the empty spot filling with the bond forming between us.

And love.

She loves me, just as I love her.

When my free hand slides into her hair, I feel the slightest tremble as my fingers graze over a welt. I release my fangs immediately, quickly licking the wound so it closes.

“Why did you stop?” She asks, in a slightly slurred voice.

I run my fingers softly through her hair until I find the welt again.

“I need you to turn around for me,” I instruct, shifting into paramedic mode and dropping my hands.

As she turns, I can feel her body sway, and terror rockets through me that I may have taken too much. I pull her into my lap so her back is to my front. Cordelya tries to lean back into me, and though I’d like nothing more than her body pressed to mine, I need to assess.

Pressing a gentle kiss to her temple, I softly whisper, “Sit up for me, Moonlight.”

She does what I ask, nearly falling onto her face before my arm wraps around her.