Page 67 of Finn's Solace

"There are a lot of people here," I murmured as I scanned the grounds. The party was held at the packland, and despitethe large area, the place looked packed. Was the whole damned town a part of the clan?

"There's Dad and Papa. Oh, they're talking to Nash. Come on. He might have some news about the asshole."

Finn's dad had kept us in the loop about Nash's investigation, and apparently, we weren't the first gay couple he'd attacked in Mistvale. The other couple had been human, and they were still at the hospital.

Raiden had felt terrible when he found out, and Finn had gone over to his place to assure him we didn't blame him. The poor guy had issues of his own to deal with, after all, and it didn't matter if you were an old-as-dirt dragon when you were worried about the well-being of your kid.

We made our way through the crowd with Finn introducing me to various people, some whose names I forgot as soon as the next person was introduced. At this point, I might need a flow chart of some sort to keep track of everyone.

"Finn! Levi! Glad you could make it. Levi, this is Detective Nash. He's been working on your case."

"It's nice to meet you," I said, shaking the man's hand. He was human, but there was some supe in his blood. Shifter, maybe? He seemed to be in his late forties, and he was a big, intimidating-looking man save for his warm smile. His eyes were green, but far paler than Finn's, and nowhere as beautiful. Or maybe I was just biased.

"You too. Glad you're doing better. I do have some news about your attacker."

"Is it good news?" Finn asked, making him smile.

"Good for us, yes. I ran his prints and then had some tests done on his bat. He's done this before, quite a few times. Three of his twelve victims died, and quite a few were permanently injured. He left quite a lot of evidence, so it'll be an easy conviction."

I frowned, not liking the thought of someone like that coming so close to my mate.

"If there was so much evidence, why wasn't he arrested before?"

Nash shook his head. "He targeted small towns for the most part, and we're not really good about sharing details with other towns. Plus, he usually took off before he could be investigated, so nobody even had a suspect in mind."

"And I'm guessing not all of the cops who got the case were interested in solving a hate crime," I said, making him wince.

"Yeah, that too. But we have more than enough evidence now, and if all goes well, he'll be in jail for the rest of his life."

"That's good," Finn said, leaning into me, and I wrapped my arm tightly around him, holding him close.

We chatted with the detective for a while longer, then moved on to talk to someone else.

Finn introduced me to Cam and his three mates—they'd returned just in time to witness the hatching of Cam's new sibling—and the relief and happiness I felt at seeing Micah thriving and so clearly loved felt amazing. Ravenshire mighthave tried to break his spirit once, but Mistvale had saved him, just like it had saved my mate, and maybe me too.

Over the next few hours, I talked to more people than I ever had in a single afternoon. I met shifters, mages, the unicorn I'd heard so much about, a merman-siren—I hadn't even known there was such a being—and many other supes I'd never come across before. Most of them seemed to be directly connected to the clan, but some were just supes who lived in Mistvale and had ended up being invited by one of the clan members. I hadn't realized it was open to non-clan members, but I liked it. Finn told me it originally hadn't been like that, but over the years, these parties had turned into a place for the supes of the town to meet and interact with other supes without worrying about human presence. The humans who were here already knew about the supernatural world.

"How are you doing?" Finn asked as he leaned into my side, and I smiled up at him.

"I'm loving it. There are so many people! I don't think I'll be able to talk to them all today."

Finn laughed, shooting me an amused look. "Yeah, I don't think you will. But this is the first of many such parties you'll have to attend, so you'll have plenty of time to get to know everyone."

Like it did every time Finn mentioned our future together, my heart skipped a beat, and I leaned up, pressing a soft kiss on Finn's lips. His eyes twinkled as I pulled away, and he cupped the back of my neck and pulled me back in.

We kissed like we were the only people there, and everything and everyone around us just faded into nothing until all I could feel was Finn's warmth against me, and all I could hear was the soft sound of our lips brushing, and all I could taste was him.

A wolf whistle popped our bubble, and suddenly everything rushed back in. I pulled back, smiling when I saw the completely expected blush darkening Finn's cheeks.

I had no idea who'd whistled, but Finn seemed to know instantly as his eyes flicked to Cam, who waggled his brows at him. Finn flipped him off, which surprised and delighted me. Were there sides to Finn I had yet to discover?

Finn

We grabbed some food, then got dragged into different conversations. At some point, I lost track of Levi, but if there was any place we were safe in this world, it was right here, so I didn't worry.

When I finally managed to extricate myself from a riveting conversation between Miles, Mateo, Neel, and Paxton about interior decor—Miles and Mateo were helping Neel and Pax with the renovation of their B&B—I started looking for Levi. With all the people around, it took me a minute to spot him.

Levi was way on the other side of the crowd, talking to Raiden. Raiden had brought his eggs and hatchling with him—he probably didn't want to leave the eggs at home sincethey could hatch at any moment—and sat in a chair with a huge basket on a small table in front of him, William—his mate, and Cam's bio dad—in a similar chair beside him. I didn't think they'd moved much at all, but I was glad they'd still shown up.

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