sorry,” I said.
He kissed the top of my head. “For what?”
“Everything.” I raised my face to look at him, my tears mixing with the water from the shower spray. “Every fucking thing I’ve done that wasn’t fair to you. Running off to do this job for Valas without telling you where I was going. Letting Charles mess with my head. Forcing you to work so hard to make this relationship work because I make everything so damn difficult. And a million other things I wish I could change about myself.”
He cupped my face with his hand. “I know you feel that you owe me an apology, so I accept it, but please believe me when I say I don’t need or want you to apologize for any of those things. And I don’t want you to change one bit.”
“But I have changed.” I bit my lip. “The sorcerer power is gone. No more powerful dark magic. I’m just Alice again.”
He brushed my cheek with his thumb. “You were never just Alice. You are wonderful, beautiful, powerful, perfect Alice.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you?”
He smiled. The corners of his eyes crinkled. “I thought maybe if I played my cards right, I might get lucky later.”
“Only if you feed me and make me coffee first.”
He kissed me. “And after you tell me what happened when you went through the mirror.”
I stilled.
“I read your letter the day you left.” His expression hardened. “I had to know.”
“You deserved to know. I’m glad you read it.” I squeezed his hand. “I hadn’t even gone through the mirror before I realized I’d made a huge mistake by not telling you the truth. I worried I wouldn’t make it back so I could tell you that.” I bumped his shoulder with mine. “Thank you for getting the house ready. I’m sorry you had to do it by yourself.”
“I didn’t,” he said, surprising me. “The whole pack helped. All seventeen members.”
“Seventeen?”
“Counting the Hayes brothers and the four provisional members you need to meet before we formally bring them into the pack.” He kissed my knuckles. “We’re going to be stronger than we’ve ever been.”
“What about your sorcerer power?” I asked.
He smiled. “It’s gone. Without yours to feed from, every time I shifted, it faded. And I’m glad it’s gone. We don’t need it.”
“We don’t,” I agreed. I’d feared losing that power meant I would be vulnerable, but that was the black magic’s influence talking. We were strong together, Sean and I, and we didn’t need Miraç’s poisonous legacy.
He rose and pulled me to my feet. His warm hand slid down my side to rest on the curve of my hip. “Let’s get dressed, go find Daniel, and have a meal. Then you get to choose: sleep, tell me about your trip, or make love for the first time in our new home. Or any combination of the above.”
“Not for the first time,” I pointed out, shutting off the spray and reaching for a towel. “There was that time on the floor in the living room, that time in the kitchen, that time in the backyard, that time in the front yard—”
He kissed me hard. “Point taken. The first time in our bed in our new home, then.”
“Of those three choices, I like that option the best.”
His smile warmed me all the way down to my toes. “Me too.”
Sean dressed quickly and went downstairs to make us something to eat. As I combed and braided my hair, I tried talking to Daisy again, but she’d retreated into a dark corner of my mind and still didn’t respond. I didn’t sense anything wrong, so I gave her some space. I put on a T-shirt, yoga pants, and flip-flops and hurried to the main floor.
I found Rogue sprawled on his bed in the living room and Sean in the kitchen, putting a casserole in the oven. “Nan brought some of these,” he told me as I slipped my arms around his waist from behind. “Handy for quick meals. Just heat and eat.”
“She is an amazing person.” I squeezed him. “Any more challengers since I left?”
“Two. They regretted it pretty quickly.” He raised my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “I doubt there will be many more. The word’s gotten out.”
“And the Council?”
“Still pissed. I’m not worried about it.”
“Yes you are.”
He chuckled. “Maybe a little. I think they sense that attitudes among shifters are changing and certain members of the Council will always