Misty
Spring
Crescent Falls has erupted with spring blooms. The weather is soft and fair, which has been great, because this past winter royally sucked. I sigh heavily, tilting my face toward the warm sunlight dusting through the library at my parents’ castle and breathing in the warmth, letting it flow over my skin.
It’s been six months since the war. The war that hasn’t yet been named, hasn’t yet become text in some new editions of our history books. The wounded memories of my time in Tarsian are still fresh enough to send chills licking up my spine if I think about them too deeply, but lately, there’s been a shift–something tangible. Something I can taste.
Grief has turned to resignation, and resignation turns to conviction while I rise from one of the tables in the library and slip the books I’ve been studying into my messenger bag.
I’m going to learn how to read the Book of Whispers because I won’t allow what happened last year to ever, ever, happen again.
I pad downstairs, walking through the familiar hallways of my childhood home and feel a sense of peace when I catch my mom bustling around a corner dragging an empty suitcase behind her.
“Where are you going?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“Aviva had the baby, finally,” Mom says breathlessly, her eyes watering with excitement.
“So you’re heading to Silverhide?” I’m slightly jealous, but… still, the idea of returning to Eastonia soon makes my stomach tighten. I’ll get there, eventually, but for now, I’m fine where my feet are planted.
“They’re still in Moonrise at the moment, but yeah, I’m going to go spend two weeks or so with them while they get settled. Poor thing.” She shakes her head. “The baby was eleven pounds.”
“Eleven pounds?” My gasp echoes through the foyer. “H-How?”
“Ryan. That’s how. Poor Aviva. It sounds like she’s fine and making a full recovery, but it was a very long labor. I felt so awful when she asked me to tell her about when Sydney and Ryan were born that I skipped some very important details… like her mate being just as large as the baby she just had.”
“Mom!” I tease. “You should have told her!”
“Well, I have two weeks to make it up to her, don’t I?” She grins at me.
“I have gifts for them. Can you take them with you?”
She checks her watch. “Only if you have them delivered here from Shadowcrest in the next hour. Your dad and I are leaving soon.”
“I’m heading home now. Don’t leave without them, please?” I rush out of the foyer and through the front door as fast as my feet can carry me, but my own advancing pregnancy makes the dash to my car more like a swift waddle.
I slide into the driver seat and haul ass back to Silverhide, punching the Bluetooth on my dashboard in haste.
Cole answers his phone on the second ring. “Hey–”
“Cole? Are you at home? Ryan and Aviva had their baby, and my parents are about to leave for Eastonia. Do you remember where I put those gifts I got them?”
Cole blows out his breath, making a very male grunting sound that makes me imagine him looking around our horrible disorganized cottage while scratching his head. “No, but I can look. I have a few minutes before I need to head to the hospital.”
“I’ll be home in five minutes.” I turn into the gates to Shadowcrest, which open for me automatically. Sydney’s territory is gorgeous. It’s a suburban utopia full of young families like ours. While Sydney lives in his old manor on the hillside, we moved into one of the cottages six months ago while waiting on our new house to be built. A house that will have his-and-her walk in closets and my own dedicated office space.
The house won’t be ready for another month, and I’m due the next month. To say I’m stressed is the least of it.
I pass the plot of land where the new pediatric clinic is being built. One day soon, that’s where Cole will be working, and he’ll have a normal schedule that means he can be home there with us in the morning and come home from work before dinner, but as it stands now, he’s pulling night shifts for his residency, sometimes for days at a time.
It’s been insanely busy ever since we settled here together. I feel like we haven’t had a single day to spend together in weeks, maybe months. Dad was right about my credits transferring from TU to Wellington, and he was also right about the fact that based on Wellington standards, I was already ready to graduate. So, degree in hand, I jumped in with both feet and started shadowing my great uncle Ben at the castle most weekdays, learning the tricks of the trade in preparation for taking over his royal position.
I pull into the wooded neighborhood of stone cottages and spot our house through the flurry of bright, spring flowers and fresh green leaves. My car is barely in park when I fly out of the car and race up the steps, ignoring the burning sensation in my lungs. “C-Cole? Did you find them?”
I edge past cardboard boxes stacked in the snug front hallway, standing on my toes to try to spot my mate over the mess. “Cole!”
“I have them right here!” he shouts from somewhere in the depths of the house. I hear boxes toppling over as he makes his way in my direction, carrying a basket full of pink toys, pink clothes, pink… everything.
I bend over as best I can around the swell of my stomach to catch my breath. “Okay–I’m going to drive back now–”
“I’ll drive us.”
I rise, giving him a confused look. “But your shift–”
“It got canceled,” he shrugs. “Scheduling mix-up. I was supposed to be off for the next three days instead of on call.”
“Three days off?” I stare at him in disbelief. I can’t remember the last time in the past few months he had that kind of time off. “What are we going to do?”
“What are we going to do?” he laughs, glancing around, then down at me. “You’re going to get off your feet and rest, and I’m going to sort this stuff out, once and for all.”
“I can help.”
“You’re not supposed to be lifting anything right now, Misty.” He steps past me, grabbing his keys and a light jacket. “In fact, at your last appointment, you were told you needed to spend more time off your feet.”
I follow him outside to his vehicle–a sleek black SUV Ryan recommended. “Our house is a mess because of me,” I argue while he holds the passenger door open and helps me in.
“Well, we both thought we’d be in the new house by now.” What he isn’t saying is that I went a little nuts in the online shopping department and fully furnished a house three times the size of the one we’re currently living in, and everything was delivered faster than it’s taking for the construction to wrap up.
I watch Cole as he rounds the car and slides into his seat, reaching behind to set the basket of gifts in the back seat.
“I’m not going to just lay there while you find a home for all the boxes.”
“I already talked to Sydney about it, and he’s going to drive down with his truck and store all of it at his place. It’s not a big deal at all.”
Shadowcrest speeds by in a blur. I stare out the window as rain clouds darken the afternoon sky. By the time we reach the castle, my parents are waiting for us, and Cole has only a minute to dart to them with the basket before Dad whisks them into the aether to meet their new grandchild.
Cole’s hair is damp with rain when he gets back into the car, grinning at me.
“What’s that smile for?” I ask, noticing the mischievous glint in his eyes.
“I just found out the baby’s name.”
“They named her? What is it!”
“I’ll tell you if you have dinner with me, right now. Any restaurant you want, any pack you want to dine in.”
I raise my brows. “And you won’t complain when I order every dessert?”
He purses his lips. “You eat a lot of sugar.”
“I’m pregnant,” I remind him. “It’s what the baby wants.”
“As a doctor–”
I interrupt him with my restaurant choice, and he submits, chuckling to himself. In his defense, again, there was an entire two-month block of time when I couldn’t stomach anything but chocolate cake, so I was surviving off that alone, and Cole was actually pretty worried about it.
But, Cole is my husband, not my midwife, so he can’t tell me what to do.
We drive downtown to the Crescent City pack territory. We park at a familiar restaurant that has tables overlooking the lake. Cole holds my fingers as a waiter guides us through a sea of tables and finally reach one of the tables overlooking the water.
The sun is setting, and it’s beautiful as it peeks through breaks in the rain clouds. Vibrant light in shades of pink and gold dance over the circular table where two people are sitting side by side, beaming at us.
“Oh my Goddess!” I shout, ignoring the other patrons in the area. “What are you doing here?!”
Georgia jumps up and throws her arms around me. Declan and Cole greet each other, and I notice Cole giving Declan a slight bob of his head… a slight bow, before pulling out a chair for me and sitting down.
It’s strange, honestly. My mate gave up the title of Alpha King… passing it on to Orion, his father’s old Beta, who now claims the title of Alpha King of Oasia and Serpentia–the desert territory of Tarsian.
That makes Declan the prince and heir.
Declan’s cheeks glow with a furious blush at the fact that Cole just acknowledged the fact that he ranks higher than Cole now.
“Cole told us you’d choose this place,” Georgia teases from across the table, resting her chin on her fist.
“They have the best dessert in the kingdom,” I smile, still shocked and overwhelmed to see them here. “What–what are you doing here?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise, and Cole helped me do it.” Georgia beams at Cole. “I’m here for your baby shower next week. A boy, huh?”
I look at Cole, my heart leaping out of my chest. He knows it's been a hard transition being back here, starting a new life. My old friends from childhood faded into the shadows when I returned. Georgia had been a constant in my life for three years before the war, and suddenly we were separated.
“We are having a boy,” I reply. “Actually, Ryan and his mate just had their baby today.”
Conversation swirls across the table for the better part of an hour. I order dessert instead of a real meal, but I have a few weeks to milk this pregnancy and the cravings that come with it and plan to do so until the bitter end.
But as the night draws to a close, I notice Declan and Georgia looking at each other, slightly… communicating.
Declan’s still twenty, but Georgia’s twenty-one now…
“We have something we want to tell you guys,” Declan says, smiling at her before turning to us.
Cole rests his hand on my thigh, leaning back in his chair.
I meet Georgia’s eyes.
“We’re mates. We’re getting married.”
The happiness I feel for her is… so sweet. So overwhelming. A rush of relief and gratefulness to the Goddess floods my body. I think every wonderful moment like this one will make me feel that way after everything we’ve been through.
“It’ll be a royal wedding, of course,” Declan confirms after our congratulations die down to a simmer. “In Oasia. My parents are already planning for some time next fall.”
“You’re going to be a queen,” I say to Georgia, and she blushes.
“Will you be my maid of honor?” she asks.
“I’m married and about to be a mom… can I still do that?”
“Matron of Honor, then. There’s no one else I’d want by my side,” she says, reaching across the table to grab my hand. “Please? I want it to be you.”
Everything I had to do and endure led to this moment.
“Yes. I’ll be your matron of honor.”
But that means I’ll have to return to Eastonia. To Oasia.
My skin prickles in warning at the thought.