Page 99 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
Frustrated, Donnie tore away to pace.
“What kind of rehabilitative resources?” I asked.
Donnie stared at me for long beats. “Therapy has been proven to help inmates in the past,” he answered slowly. “I’ve also witnessed improvement in goal setting—helping a person set a goal and giving them the tools to accomplish that goal.”
I coughed to clear the roughness settling in my throat and hoped I wouldn’t regret my decision.
“If you want to try that here, George can help you set it up,” I said. “If you accept, future prisoners will be your charge. You may choose two from your human patrol to work alongside you, and George will pick three from our fae guard.”
“If you are willing to adopt these rules, we would be willing to try them as well,” Evander said.
“Compassionate and good-looking. Why me?” Cierra scoffed, murmuring so low I doubted any human ears heard her.
When I snickered, Teddy poked my side.
“What did she say?”she asked in my mind.
“I think the female shifter has a crush on your friend.”
Teddy didn’t just smile but wound her arms around mywaist and, through her mind-speak magic, sent me an exuberant laugh. How I loved my mate’s joy.
I couldn’t wait to marry her. We had waited far too long, but in a few days, we would finally be husband and wife, as well as soul-bound mates.
This fracture in Teddy and Donnie’s relationship still worried me, though, especially since he was supposed to walk her down the aisle along with Brenton.
Donnie, if you truly love your friend, please turn up.
Chapter
Twenty
ELIAS
Nerves overwhelmedme as I restlessly moved my hands from my trouser pockets to my neat hair, ruining the tight bun. It was fine, though. Teddy preferred my hair untied. But I’d wanted to look presentable for her. While I hadn’t seen her yet because of some weird human tradition about the groom not being allowed to see the bride before the wedding, I knew she looked beautiful. She was always breathtaking.
I shook out my hands, making George eye me with confusion.
“Why are you nervous?” he asked.
I honestly didn’t know. While I hadn’t helped with any wedding planning, this day was important to Teddy. I wanted everything to go perfectly, which Ryenne promised me it would when she forced me to vacate our home before the sun had a chance to rise this morning.
But we’d already had to delay our wedding day because of the chaos in our kingdom. I wanted today to be exactly what Teddy had always envisioned.
“How angry do you think Ryenne would be if I went back home and demanded to see Teddy?” I asked.
Everly snorted. “I’d mourn your death.”
The terrifying part was she was only half joking. Since I didn’t want to cross her after Donnie’s and my argument, I stayed seated in George and Everly’s living room. It was a nicer, homier living room than the one we’d shared when we all lived together. Their place looked more like a home than ours had, with little accents matching their personalities.
Then again, I’d never considered making a home until I’d met Teddy.
“I could keep Ryenne busy while you sneak in,” George said.
Was I really going to do that? Sneak into my own home?
“How are you going to distract her?” I asked.
“Leave it to me.” He clapped my back.
