AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It doesn’t have to happen this fast. Are your emotions at all grandly impacted by our visit to Faerie and the fact carbs there are free?”
“No, you said I could have Faerie regardless. My insatiable wish to lounge about as a Pomeranian a few days before I turn into a dire wolf and bite your brothers carries more weight.” I clear my throat. “But you’re the biggest reason. I may not know much about love, but if anything can get close…I think being fated mates is the best assurance I’ll ever have. I don’t want you to live another moment thinking you aren’t worthy of being chosen. I don’t want you to have to face the people who have hurt you by yourself ever again. I want you to know that you are worth so much more than you think, and I need you to know that it’s not just the people pleaser in me saying so. Everything you are feels like everything I’ve been looking for my entire life.”
Gently, he shakes his head and tucks a few straying strands of my hair behind my ear. “Please sincerely navigate every angle and prioritize your comfort over mine. I don’t know what I’d do if my actions led to pains I could never remedy.”
“It wouldn’t be your fault. You’re letting me make my own choice. And it can’t even be an impulse because there are weeks before you can act on it.” Which kind of feels by design if all werecanines carry some of these same character traits…
Well played, universe.
Ollie nods, thoughts streaming behind his eyes as he peers down at our joined hands. His thumb runs over my knuckles. “If these next weeks go by and you haven’t changed your mind, I will take you to Svalbard and tie our future together beneath the stars. You were not wrong earlier. I trust Cael with my life and my loyalty. He has seen ages I can’t begin to comprehend. He knows me and my faults and my fears. He has never ruled a decision I have not completely agreed with.” His eyes close. “It is so hard to trust myself when I have been taught for so long how unreliable I am, but I can trust Cael…and…” His eyes find me. “I can trust you.”
This is the moment when my actions and thoughts are supposed to catch up to me. This is the moment where I’m supposed to doubt whether moving to another state half a day away from my family and everything I’ve ever known is the right thing to do. This is the moment when my stomach is supposed to knot with nerves as all the red flags I gleefully ignored begin prickling in the back of my mind.
Instead, the aching tightness in my lungs eases.
Every bit of worry that has been eating at me since I learned of this decision fades away.
It occurs to me—on the floor in my bedroom with my deepest, most embarrassing secrets on display—that all I have ever wanted from anyone is to feel this safe.
Safe enough to utterly screw up.
Safe enough to be the rawest, ugliest, most depraved and strange creature in the world.
Safe enough to believe, for even just a moment, that everything will be okay.
Chapter 26
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The street goes both ways.
“Do it.”
I knew it.
Heaving a sigh, I nudge the chicken foot on my plate with my finger and wish we had forgotten these things at my parents’ house, or that Ollie hadn’t thought to freeze them, or that he’d not found them while manically cleaning our freezer. Alas, had anything happened to them, I’m sure he would have merely asked Willow for a fresh supply…
After the most recent movie night, I have learned that woman hates chickens enough to make one question why she has so many. She would murder one on request. Gleefully.
Thinking of Willow, I should quit my job soon. No matter what happens come the full moon, Faerie is a better place for me to live. My hesitation rests solely on the fear of disappointing Racheal.
But I need to get over that.
Because it becomes clearer each day that Ollie should not be left unsupervised.
First the baking apocalypse, then the setting up tiny rope guards around the mess in the living room using yarn and cardboard, now the delightful resurgence of this meal.
The part throwing me off is how it smells like good food…but looks like something my brain would plop into a nightmare.
Oh, crap.
Alana has been listing reasons behind why I should become werecanine for the past ten minutes; I’ve forgotten to listen.
Blinking back into the conversation, I discover her saying, “Also, he’s cute? Like. Really cute? I fully condone you having a cute forever husband, entering the faerie world, and living blissfully in this cozy fantasy romance you’ve described. It’s giving Studio Ghibli. Take your little lunch to an overlook, sit on the rocks, and munch your sandwich. Completely ignore the political undertones and hints of magic all around.”
My current little lunch would not be featured in a Studio Ghibli film, I don’t think. At least, I hope not.
I sigh. “A, you didn’t miss the part where I would become fae, did you?”
