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“I just wanted to ask if you had any more of that cream you gave my aunt before you left, Fee? She said it really helped her joints.”

“Definitely! Come by the grove tomorrow and I’ll refill it for her.”

“Thanks!” Lena said. “Will do.” She hurried out after her sister and when Fee turned back to Theo he was smiling at her, softer this time, like he was seeing her for the first time.

“You’ve become quite the entrepreneur since the last time I saw you.”

“Well, I don’t just sit around waiting for you,” Fee said with a wink. “Come on.” She tugged him out of the booth, even as he protested about not finishing her milkshake.

Outside they found Ryder smoking in the sunshine.

“You need to quit those, man,” Theo said, and Ryder tossed the cigarette.

“I know.” His voice was rough like he probably should have quit a while ago.

“This is Phoebe.”

“I remember. The disappearing house.”

Fee laughed. “Oh, that other little wolf was you?”

“Little?” Ryder frowned and Fee laughed harder.

“Come on. I have some friends you might like.”

She led the werewolves back to the grove, where plenty of her nymph sisters were eager to spend the afternoon with them.

Laughing and talking in the dappled sun of her porch, Fee almost didn’t care that she couldn’t have Theo in all the ways she wanted.

She could have him like this.

And she’d take it.

“And he believed you?” Daphne cackled in delight as Fee relayed her little prank from the diner.

“It was for like a split second!” Theo protested and Ryder snorted.

“You weren’t even there!”

“I can imagine, though,” Ryder said with a smirk. “Probably wishful thinking.”

Theo’s cheeks flushed red.

“Oh, stop teasing him,” Fee said. “He doesn’t want to have babies with me.” They were crammed into the hammock together and Theo watched her as she spoke as though he were looking for clues about what she wanted.

“Little half-wolf, half-nymph babies!” Amethyst squealed. “They’d be so cute.”

“Sneaky and aggressive,” Ryder joked and everyone laughed.

“How would that even work?” Daphne asked.

“Doggie style. We already discussed it,” Fee deadpanned and sent the group laughing again. She didn’t actually want to think about what could or couldn’t work between her and Theo. It was too depressing.

She didn’t know how to be with him, or if it was even possible. She wasn’t built for him or he for her. She was made as part of the forest, not as the other half of some werewolf soul. What would even happen to her soul if she tied it to Theo’s? Half to the trees, half to a wolf, leaving Fee with nothing for herself.

She shook off her sadness at the thought and pushed herself out of the hammock, using Theo’s thigh for leverage.

“Who wants more lemonade?”