Page 128 of How to Entice a Fiend

“Should Marcus not love me because I’m missing two limbs? Eh?” Finn asks.

“But you’re cute no matter what and I’m… hideous like this.”

Marcus is still laughing. I’m not sure he’s ever laughed this hard.

“Stop!” Finn says, trying his hardest not to laugh just because Marcus is. “Let’s all forget about poor Claude and talk about Mads’s ability to pretty much win us that whole fight.”

I shake my head. “I did not do any of that. I just… leveled the playing field a bit.”

“How did you make him… look like that?” Alexei asks.

“I can tell you every step of it!” I offer, eager to share my research.

“Nope,” Ender says. “How about you don’t share any more of your mad scientist magic so this stuff doesn’t happen again. Especially out in the open when others might be listening in.”

“Huh… that oddly makes quite a bit of sense.”

Ender grabs my wrist and draws me back. “Let’s let them deal with the police aspect and laughing at Claude’s hair. Are you sure you even want to stay here? You want to be watched by me?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Uh… did you forget I was trying to ask for your hand in marriage like three days ago?”

“We barely knew each other three days ago.”

“We were held by a psychopath. That shit causes fated mates.”

“It… what? Are we werewolves?”

“I’ll howl at your moon, if you know what I mean.”

Ender shakes his head. “I don’t!”

I’m trying my hardest not to grin. “Weird. I thought it was pretty clear.”

“Well… it’s not.”

Honestly, I’m just feeling giddy and all of these wild emotions just swirled together. “Fuck… I was so terrified.”

Ender wraps his arms around me. Look at him. Refused to cuddle with me just days ago and now I get a hug!

“Don’t be stressed,” he says, voice soft.

“I think it was pretty reasonable why I was.”

“Hmm, I guess,” he teases.

“You guess?” I ask.

He laughs before setting his forehead on my shoulder, and I can just feel him sinking into my arms. “I’m tired. I feel like I’ve been tired every day since he took me… and suddenly, I can breathe.”

I squeeze him to me. “You deserve a break.”

“I don’t know that I do.”

“But you do,” I assure him. “Abel is gone. You no longer have to deal with that shit. All you have to do now is watch my ass, keep our friends safe, and raise Rylee.”

“I… I’m not quite sure they’d consider me their ‘friend,’ but sure.”

“Guys, is Ender closer to being your friend or your enemy?” I call out to them.

---