Page 212 of Halfblood Deceived

“Aww!” Lex and Evan chorused.

Luce nodded. “You are cute and cuddly, Uncle Zeydan.”

“I knew she had a few missing screws in her pretty head,” Andreas commented, giving Zeydan a sideways look.

Zeydan arched a brow at him. “Pot, kettle, mister ‘building bombs calms me.’”

Gabby winked at Zeydan. “You are rather cuddly in your wolf form, if memory serves.”

“But not more than me,” Lex said, giving Zeydan a mock-jealous look.

“You are the cuddliest ever, darling,” Gabby agreed with teasing gravitas.

Mari shrugged. “I can’t disagree with Aella. You do make a rather nice warm bed in your wolf form.”

“For minuscule people, perhaps,” Andreas commented.

Mari flipped him the bird.

Zeydan smiled, meeting Andreas’s eyes. “I won’t pretend the idea of losing her doesn’t terrify me. But if I lived in fear of loving someone, I wouldn’t have any of you in my life. And what an empty life that would be.”

“Awww!” Lex and Evan chorused again, the horrible buggers. “We love you, too, darling!”

Andreas’s eyes flitted toward Mari just as she flicked a glance at him.

Both turned away as if burned, but Zeydan, Luce, and Gabby noticed. The latter stood from her desk and sat on the arm of Zeydan’s chair, hugging him and kissing his cheek. Mari rolled her eyes at him with an indulgent smile. Luce dashed toward Zeydan and curled up in his lap. He hugged Luce and Gabby, not giving a damn about how sappy he felt even as Evan and Lex took pictures.

Zeydan loved all his oftentimes maddening oddballs. He’d kill and die for them in a blink.

Just as he would for Aella.

He let the warm feeling of contentment and acceptance wash over him, smiling even as he felt something irreversibly shift inside him.

Loving Aella was equally terrifying and exhilarating.

And perfect.

CHAPTER 43

Aella sat next to Rebecca at one table in the staff room. They’d taken to buddy-reading an audiobook every week, and this one was so good they were using every moment available to finish it.

The narrator spoke the ending line of the book five minutes before their break ended.

Aella blinked, not realizing she’d been crying. Rebbeca, usually stoic even during the most heart-wrenching scenes, sniffed and wiped at a stray tear as well.

The ending had been bittersweet, but hopeful and beautiful.

“How am I supposed to function after that?” Rebecca wondered. Her expression was dead-serious, brows furrowed over her lovely brown eyes.

Aella let out a shaky laugh, removing Rebecca’s borrowed earphone and standing to get them both some paper napkins. “I don’t know. I think this will be the worst book hangover I’ve ever had.”

Rebecca nodded, giving Aella a grateful look as she accepted her napkin and dabbed at her nose. “Same.”

“So, we are re-reading it soon, right?” Aella asked.

The cute vampiress laughed softly, something she rarely did. “Yes, we definitely are.”

The door opened behind them, and in came a harassed-looking Brittany. “You two are late.”

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