Page 64 of Knot in Their Wildest Dreams: Part 1

“Celeste,” I said, leaning forward, “I swear to you - we’ll make this up to you.” And I meant every word, if it took the rest of my life.

She studied me for a long moment, then nodded. “Good.” As the last of the meteors faded from view, silence settled between us again. But this time, it wasn’t heavy with unspoken resentment. It was something else. Something new.

Liam cleared his throat. “Celeste?”

She glanced at him. “Yeah?”

His voice was careful, but there was no mistaking the emotion behind it. “Despite everything, when this contract ends… I don’t want this to be over.”

Celeste’s lips parted slightly, her breath catching. Her gaze swept over each of us, searching, waiting.

Vigo nodded. “Neither do I.”

Dante, who had been quiet for most of the conversation, finally spoke, his voice rough. “Same.”

A small, disbelieving laugh escaped her lips. “You guys…”

“We mean it,” I said. “We don’t want to stop seeing you.”

Something passed between us then, something life changing. The kind of realization that didn’t need to be said out loud, because it was already there, maybe it had always been there.

She looked down for a second, a flush coloring her cheeks, before her gaze lifted.

“Then let’s stop pretending,” she said quietly. “Let’s see where this really goes. For real.”

Something caught in my chest. Liam exhaled a breath like he’d been holding it forever.

Dante’s jaw unclenched, his eyes burning with something fierce and possessive.

“You’re ours now,” I murmured.

She smiled.

Liam reached for her hand, and this time, she didn’t hesitate. Her fingers curled into his like they belonged there. Above us, the stars continued to shine. No matter how this panned out, I felt it deep within my soul - she was meant to be ours.

“Come on, let’s go celebrate our newest ‘merger’.” I joked, ready to take her outside where we could see the real stars. Her face lit up, and Liam wrapped her up in his arms, lifting her as she shrieked out a giggle. I looked over at Dante. He’d been strangely quiet this whole time.

“Could have used a little backup there!” I growled at him quietly as we stood to go outside. He just avoided eye contact.

“Do you really think she might not have been behind…” he trailed off. He was talking about Arkala.

“What do you think? It’s apparent that she’s not evil. She’s our mate, it’s obvious.” I replied, following as Liam whisked Celeste outside to our picnic blanket. At this point, I didn’t believe she had it in her to do anything truly evil. I just didn’t.

For the first time, we were choosing each other.

And we weren’t letting her go.

Chapter 45

Celeste

I was on cloud nine. Which, all things considered, was wildly inappropriate given that I’d recently learned the pack I was falling for had once planned my kidnapping. But they told me the truth about it. I knew that whatever they had wanted to happen that night, it wasn’t supposed to go as far as it did. And they were remorseful.

Truthfully, someone had taken me. And I still don't know who it was. I didn’t tell them about that part. I figured no one needed to know that someone was in on the plan and helped me. Whoever it was, they risked a lot to help me stay in power. And I needed to solve that one on my own.

I understood, in a way, why Pack Lockwood wanted me out of power. With all the things they thought I had done to sabotage them, with the way they thought I was a monster, I couldn't blame them for thinking the worst of me. But now that we’d cleared more of that up, I had something more important to ask them.

Vigo was tracing constellations on my arm, his eyes not on the sky, but on me. We’d been laying out here for hours now, the walls we’d built against each other now crumbling down. Now that we had all admitted that we wanted more, we were free to by as intimate as we really felt with each other.

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