Page 18 of Cruel Revenge
“I hope so. We need to send the save the dates or invitations as soon as we can.” Heath grinned. “But it could just be the two of us, and I would say it’s the best day of my life.”
“I know it’ll be the best day of mine,” I said softly, leaning in to kiss him.
8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Iwas up early the next day, even though Heath and I had stayed up far later than we should have. The time to ourselves the evening before had been rejuvenating. As we got through the morning, neither of us was tired. Giggling over coffee and arguing for the privilege of making breakfast. He grabbed my hips and kissed me as I tried to reach for the eggs, keeping me away from them. I got him back by making the bacon while he couldn’t stop me, if he didn’t want to burn the eggs.
“Gods, they are gross sometimes,” Landon said, clearly humored by us.
“Yeah, it’s like a bad movie,” Dirk agreed.
“If you two say anything else, you will be kicked out of the house,” I said in a cheery tone, not letting them bring me down with their teasing, childish act when we all knew they were just as bad when no one was looking.
“Sorry,” Dirk said quickly while Landon only laughed loudly, both finding seats at my dining table.
“Thank you for listening to Jacky,” Heath said as he piled more finished scrambled eggs onto a plate.
Carey came out next, taking her seat with only a quiet good morning to everyone.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” Heath said, kissing the top of her head as he put down the full plate of eggs in the center. Before he came back to help me, I saw him point at the werewolves. “Wait for everyone else to dish their plates first,” he ordered, putting some power in the words.
“Wow, making it a real order. Pa, come on,” Landon muttered.
“That’s what you get for teasing Jacky.”
“Fair enough,” Landon mumbled, almost sinking into his chair.
Shaking my head, I brought the large plate of bacon. It was a simple breakfast, but at least it wasn’t something out of a wrapper that someone could find in a vending machine.
“There. Now we can dish up and have breakfast,” I said, finding my seat. “Why are you two here for breakfast today?”
“Pa has the NAWC meeting today. I’m going with him, so I figured I would drag Dirk along as well.” Landon shrugged. “Figured we’d get here early so we could discuss everything we might want to mention at the meeting, if there’s something important, and what sort of reactions we’re expecting from the members of the council. Even though Callahan is going to manage the councils for Pa, we still need to be prepared for any meeting we plan to attend with them. This is the North American Werewolf Council, the strongest council in the world. There are more werewolves in North America than in any other continent in the world right now. And this is something Hasan can’t swoop in and fix for us like he’s apparently done with King Brion. We need to be prepared.”
“Alright,” I said, shrugging. Then I remembered something important. “You know, speaking of Hasan. He promised to return my charm to me?—”
“Oh, I knew I forgot something,” Heath said, mumbling a curse. He went to his coat near the door and pulled out a charm I knew well. “They wanted me to pass this along to you yesterday. Subira said it’s good as new.” Heath held out the charm that I had gotten used to wearing. It had been made when my brothers and I went to Alaska but had gone unused. “When I told them you wear it every day, even when there're no raids, Subira was pleased, but also offered to give you some of the family jewelry if you wanted to wear a keepsake.” He kissed my temple as he sat down.
I put on the charm, resting a hand on it for a moment, grateful it was back in place. Somehow, it feltmorenow that Subira had it. Hasan must have noticed what I hadn’t about her magic in it fading and knew what that meant. Now I understood, the full weight of her magic sitting on my chest, but not heavy. Justpresent, like she was in the object and in the room with me for a moment.
“I like this one,” I said, not wanting anything else. The charm meant a lot to me. My human mother went out of her way to make me the problem, never offering me protection because I waswrong. Subira was protection and love, and the charm was evidence of that, physical and real. “I don’t need anything else. I can let them know that.”
“Okay, love,” Heath said as he made us two plates. Carey was already eating her own breakfast, and the men were waiting on Heath and me. Once a plate of food was in front of each of us, Landon and Dirk quickly took their own portions.
Once I was done with breakfast, I sighed and pushed the plate away.
“You two are doing clean-up,” I said, pointing at Landon and Dirk.
“Okay,” they replied, almost simultaneously.
I looked at Heath, raising an eyebrow. He nodded, and I knew he’d make sure they properly cleaned up everything from breakfast. With that, I left them to call Zuri, hoping my sister would return and help me figure out all the wedding stuff while we had some time. I knew eventually there would be more from Davor and the rest of the werewolves looking over the information to find a new location to raid. Until then, I had to get as much done as I could if I wanted a proper wedding.
It surprised me how much I wanted a proper wedding. I wanted all of it, from the dress to the reception to being walked down the aisle and dancing until my feet hurt. The problem was that weddings took ages to plan, and so did trying to find the witches we were at war with.
Well, thankfully, I have Zuri, when she’s not doting on our other siblings.
I called her from the secure system on my computer, with it ringing several times. I hovered over canceling the call and admitting defeat when she finally answered.
