Page 84 of Wishing for a Werewolf
Hoo, boy. I bite back a laugh. That sure didn’t take long. They sound exactly like human kids raised around sweets.
“If you eat your pizza,” I say, “I’ll make s’mores for dessert.”
Rune shoots me a thankful look.
“What are s’mores?” Astrid’s ears perk up.
“Only the best campfire treats ever!”
“Me! Me! Me!” Babybelle bounces onto my lap, then down, then runs circles around the fire. “I want s’mores!”
“I’ll make you an extra special one.” I can smear a littlemarshmallow on a graham cracker for her, since goats can’t have chocolate.
Rune takes a big bite of pizza and makes happy food noises, humming with delight and smacking his lips. Then he grabs a piece of pizza off Astrid’s plate. “If you’re not going to eat it…”
“No!” She snatches it from his hand. “I want it.”
Next, he reaches for Agnar’s, but the little boy jerks it away before he can touch it.
Rune smiles over at me, and I grin back, happy that he remembered to use the reverse-psychology trick.
Then he pulls them onto his lap and sits with one perched on each of his legs, leaning back against his wide chest as they eat their pizza. The firelight bathes his handsome face and glints on the dark fur of the pups heads, turning the three of them into a cozy painting limned in orange. He’s so at ease with them, so present, that seeing the three of them all cuddled up almost makes my ovaries explode. Children of my own have always felt like a distant dream, but Rune makes it feel amazingly possible. And he’ll be the best father any child could hope for.
I fetch the s’mores fixings and a couple of skewers and head back to the fire, where I toast marshmallows and sandwich them between slabs of chocolate and graham crackers.
The twins devour the treats, giggling with delight, and Rune pulls them close. “Are s’mores worth eating your supper for?”
“So worth it!” they chorus.
His face breaks into a radiant smile, so full of love myheart explodes.
Sunday dawns a little cloudy, but the sun soon comes out. Rune gets to the farm in the nick of time, because a group of people show up a good half hour before the first hayride is set to arrive.
Shadow fae wing in from the air, gnomes spiral out of the ground, and wood nymphs appear from the trees,literally. They all converge at the front of the maze. Then Severin and Hannah appear overhead, him carrying her in his arms, his shadows coiled around her. They make an especially festive display because an entire flock of pixies hangs all over the pair of them. Several grip Severin’s inky hair until it floats around his head like a miniature night sky spangled with blue stars.
“What is this?” I ask.
“The fae want to try some of the human fall traditions, and I didn’t think you’d mind,” Hannah says.
“Of course I don’t mind!”
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, Blue spirals up into the air and whistles something high and fast. The pixies give answering cries of joy and go streaking into the maze so quickly they leave little glowing lines across my vision for a few seconds until I blink them away.
The wood nymphs go next, tall, graceful bodies swaying slightly as they walk, like a tree in a gentle breeze.
Elowen goes last, waiting for Ruby to join her. Instead of doing any kind of gymnastics, the gnome holds her girlfriend’s hand and walks beside her.
“Now that’s true love,” Hannah whispers to me, smiling fondly after the pair.
The rest of the gnomes make up for it, tumbling and front-flipping into the maze with a bunch of excited yells.
The shadow fae go last, so tall and gorgeous and tattooed they look like extras from a music video. Severin and Hannah follow them in, my friend giving me one last happy smile and wave before turning back to her husband.
“Is there anything we need to do?” Rune asks.
“Oh, yeah.” I start running for the soap barn, him loping easily along beside me. “I don’t have any of the soap samples ready, and the goats are still in the southern pasture. Will the fae care whether they see goats?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” he rumbles. “I think the more important question is, will the goats be all right seeing fae?”
