Page 121 of Fanged Embrace
She groaned dramatically, flopping back onto the floor with her arms spread out wide. Stifling a chuckle, I crawled around the chessboard and rolled to the floor beside her, snuggling my head against her shoulder.
River curled an arm around me, splayed knees poking towards the ceiling. “Maybe you’re just smarter than me,” she murmured against my hair.
My mind ran through a laundry list of small calamities that had occurred over the past few weeks alone and none of them favorably demonstrated my ‘smarts.’ Just last night I’d torn our room apart on the hunt for my cellphone, only for River to casually point out that I was using the glow of the cell screen to look for it—to look for the phone that was in my hand.
A wry smile curved my lips. “Yeah… that’s highly debatable.”
“Hmm, I dunno.” River tilted her head, fluttering fingers down my arm. “You sure as hell blew Addison away with your medical knowledge. I could see the sparkles in her eyes when you went off about hybrid bone density.”
I shrugged, but the compliment had me grinning. River’s miracle clinic had been in full swing for a few months now and just last week I’d accompanied her to check on how the hybrids were doing. Addison and Leah had given us a tour of their ward, where the two of them tended to any sick or injured supernatural looking for assistance.
With Addison’s background as a professional surgeon and Leah’s infatuation with understanding the supernatural, the two of them made a good team. They were able to handle just about every mystical ailment, from setting bones in fracturedwings to fixing the supernatural version of the common cold. And they weren’t the only ones contributing.
The clinic had been set up in what used to be an old schoolhouse—a massive, sprawling estate that Jordan had spruced up and revamped. Sky hosted music classes for any residents interested in learning instruments, Hunter and Dylan bickered over the best way to conduct their self defense classes (Dylan insisted Muay Thai was the way to go. Hunter wanted to teach her students how to bash heads with reckless abandon).
Amara hosted an art class that proved way more peaceful than the former and Maxine, feeling left out after everyone’s contribution, had apparently shown up one day with an armful of garments and let all residents know that she would now be teaching the fine art of fashion if anyone was interested in looking spectacular.
River herself had been busy too, meeting with various hybrids, vampires, and humans who had all been traumatized by the organization. With her powers, she was able to ease their auras—or something like that. She’d explained it to me in detail but I’d gone a little cross-eyed and confused by the end when she tried to explain what an emotionlookedlike. But clearly, whatever she was doing, it was working.
When I’d stopped by to visit I’d gone to find Mary, the young hybrid girl I’d spoken with after River and I wreaked havoc at that first facility. To my delight, she was looking happy and healthy, and babbled away about her newfound friendship with Hazel and Hilda. The twin tornadoes were a little younger than her, but they were just close enough in age to delight in tea parties and fancy dress days together.
Speaking of the twins…I lifted my head. “Did you hear about the stunt Hazel and Hilda pulled at High Stakes yesterday?”
River propped an arm under her head and adjusted, blinking down at me. “Oh god, what did they do now?”
“Apparently they got into Ursula’s potions again. WhenJordan wasn’t looking they managed to dump some magical concoction into the coffee machine. Now Maxine is refusing to come to work because her morning coffee turned her hair blue and she’s mortified.”
River snorted out a laugh, chest rumbling under my head as she giggled at Maxine’s misfortune. I watched her face, the slight crinkles in the corners of her eyes, the laugh lines that deepened as she chuckled. I saw her every single day but I still found myself in awe, rendered speechless whenever she smiled at me. Every morning I woke up to her and fell a little more in love.
I could see us having kids of our own someday. Raising them together, laughing about their antics just like this. The thought popped into my head abruptly. I’d never really contemplated having kids before, but being with River always left me giddy, eager to face the future together, eager to build a family in our massive, somewhat peculiar home.
I had officially moved in months ago, abandoning my shitty little apartment without a second glance. River’s home had become our home, and I knew every crowded corridor like the back of my hand. I didn’t even need to work, and River seemed more than happy to treat me like a princess, but it felt good to have a routine. A part-time gig at High Stakes kept me busy, helped me make my own way, even if it was just symbolic. And next year, I'd be studying architecture—building something beautiful out of my newfound freedom.
River’s laughter finally dissipated and she closed her eyes with a contented sigh. I lifted a hand to toy with her necklace, rolling the small dandelion pendant between my fingers. Warmth blossomed in my chest every time I saw it, though I couldn’t really put my finger on why. It just felt right, a little emblem of something tender and precious.
We lay quietly for a long, comfortable moment, the chessboard forgotten beside us, the pieces scattered across thefloor. This peace, this quiet happiness, was more than I had ever dared to dream. My eyes fluttered shut and I let my mind drift, lulled by the sound of her breath and the quiet tick of the grandfather clock, audible over the gurgling of the koi pond in the hall.
I was halfway to a dreamless sleep when River’s voice murmured in my ear. “Laurie?”
“Hmm?” My response came out crackly and I opened groggy eyes to see her looking down at me.
River’s voice was soft, almost shy. “Are you happy? Here, with me?”
I tilted my head back to look at her fully, blinking away the heaviness in my lids, sincerity shining clear in my gaze. “More than I ever thought possible. I mean, you’re literally my mate. I’m still wrapping my head around that one, by the way.”
When River had first brought up the concept of mates, a few months back when we’d ‘officially’ started dating, I thought she was making shit up. It seemed too good to be true, and way too esoteric; the idea that there is this perfect person out there, the only soul in the universe who can fit perfectly to the shape of yours. And I’d found it? I’d foundher—my mate. I didn’t believe it at first.
But she’d explained the bite she’d left on my neck, the scars my fingers traveled to whenever I was away from her, the way the gentle ridges brought me comfort—reaffirmed that she was mine and I was hers. I thought about the way I felt about her, how easily I had fallen head over heels before I could ever admit it to myself. The way her lips welded perfectly to mine, the way sparks ignited to roaring flames when she held me close under the covers at night.
It was true, and maybe, in some sense, I’d known it all along. I knew there was something special about her. Something that drew us together like magnets, an invisible ribbon of fate that would always lead me back to her. River wasmy mate, and I was hers. It was a bond forged in fire, unbreakable, and able to weather the infinite stretch of time.
River breathed out a contented sigh, planting a kiss on my forehead. “Good. Because I’m ridiculously in love with you. Not sure if you were aware.”
“Yeah, because it’s not like you remind me every day. Every night. Every few minutes…” I counted on my fingers and River chimed out a laugh that sent little thrills of pure happiness skittering through my chest. I rolled over and splayed out across her stomach, touching my nose to hers. “But the feeling’s mutual—in case you were curious.”
She curled a tendril of my hair in her finger, lazy grin sliding wider on her face. “You know, I had my suspicions. The rather loud declarations of devotion in bed are a bit of a dead giveaway?—”
“Oh my god, can you get your mind out of the gutter?” I leaned forward to press a kiss to her lips, smiling despite myself when her fingers trailed down my spine. “We’re having a cute moment here.”
