parent sold the house and moved into a condo.
“Same here,” Teran chimed in, carrying in a tureen of the soup. She placed it on a trivet on the coffee table. Meagan darted into the kitchen, returning with the soup mugs and spoons. Teran made one last trip for the French bread. The room smelled like chicken soup and warm bread, and I gently moved the snoring Xi to one side.
As Teran handed out mugs of soup, Killian caught my eye. He had returned on Wednesday, relieved that his sister was starting to heal up, and we had spent the evenings together. He had been furious at Hank, until I convinced him that it wasn’t Hank’s fault at all.
I turned on It’s A Wonderful Life, and we gathered around, watching Jimmy Stewart learn that his life wasn’t so bad after all. By the end, we were full and sleepy, but it felt like the evening had brought the five of us closer together.
As Ari and Meagan left, I hugged my best friend. “Don’t let this one get away, Ari. I think she’s good for you,” I whispered.
She nodded, biting her lip. “I think so, too. And that’s what makes me so afraid,” she said before ducking out the door.
Teran gave me a hug. “On Sunday, after you get done with giving your readings, I’ll come over and we’ll take a look through your mother’s tools and see what you still need to find. The Ladies have been pushing me the past couple days about it.”
“Esmara talks to me,” I said. “What about you?”
“Great-great Aunt Prue,” Teran said. “She was a firecracker. I’ll tell you all about them on Sunday.” She gave me another hug, then headed out to walk home through the snow.
I turned to Killian. I had been so sore from the attack all week, and was just now feeling like myself again. He wrapped me in his arms, kissing me soundly.
“So should I get out of here too, to let you sleep?”
I gazed into his eyes, and right then, I knew I didn’t want him to go home. “No, I want you to stay the night,” I said. “I want you.”
He let out a faint sound that sounded like a cross between a moan and a snarl. “Oh, love, if I do, you have to know that I don’t want anyone else touching you—not like that. I’m a wolf shifter. We tend to be territorial about our mates.”
The word “mate” threw me for a moment, but then I thought about it. Ellison couldn’t have cared less if anybody else looked at me, as long as he didn’t have to touch me. But Killian, he wanted me. And he wanted me to himself. I had friends who were poly and that was fine, but it wasn’t my path.
“As long as you never try to control me. I can’t do that again,” I said softly, stretching my arms out around the back of his neck. My breasts pressed against his chest and all I could think about was that I wanted him to tear off my clothes and take me to bed.
He sniffed the nape of my neck, gently. “I can smell you. You’re aroused.” He paused, then said, “I’ll never try to dominate you—not in a controlling way. Not in any way, except know that if we share a bed, you’re my mate and I claim you as my woman. It’s who I am, love. Can you handle that?”
I leaned up and nibbled on his lip. “I’ve never been interested in playing the field, not in the past and not now. So that’s not a problem, my sweet.”
Killian kissed me, long and deep and hard. He swept me up and carried me to the sofa. And there, in the glow of the lights and tinsel, with Xi and Klaus racing around, he undressed me.
Outside, the snow still fell, and ghosts wandered through Moonshadow Bay, some lonely and haunted by their lost lives, others blissfully silent, locked in their own worlds of contemplation. Deep in the bowels of the earth, a land elemental was biding his time, angry and waiting for revenge. And partying it up in the spirit world, my Ladies watched over me, my mother with them.
There would be danger to come, I knew that as sure as I knew my name. And there were a lot of things I had yet to untangle. But here, now, on the night before the Winter Cotillion, Killian and I rode on