Page 30 of Wedding the Werepanther

Right when I’m chewing my last bite of donut, my phone chimes with a message from Jace. The dragon grumbled the entire time I showed him how to use one of the magicked human phones, but he’s figured it out well enough.

I leap to my feet, wad the bakery box into a ball, and lob it across the green to land in a trash can. Then I hold out my hand to Kayla. “I have another surprise for you.”

“What is it?”

“You do know the meaning of the word surprise, do you not?” I smirk at her.

“You do remember that the last time I got surprised, it was a flipping marriage contract?”

My smile widens at the reminder I still need to get her to accept our marriage. I can do this. Iwilldo this. And today’s surprise is all part of my game plan. I stretch my hand closer. “You’ll like this one, I promise.”

She lets me pull her to her feet and onto the shadow roads. After only a few steps, we pop out in front of the waterfall that gives the town its name.

Her head swivels as she takes in the lovely pond and the continuous fall of water splashing into its end. “Just because I talked about going skinny dipping doesn’t mean I want to.”

“We’re not doing that.” Or at least not right now, my mind spinning at the thought of taking her skinny dipping. “It’s this way.”

I lead her back into the trees along a faint trail bordered by heavy ferns. After a few yards, we enter a small clearing dominated by a rock formation covered in crystals. Continuing to tug her along with me, I step forward. Instead of hitting stone, my foot disappears. With my next step, the world spins around me in a dizzying whirl, and I step out into Alarria.

“What the actual hell?” Kayla whispers, eyes wide as saucers. “Am I in flippingFaerieright now?”

“Yes.” We stand in a wide glen surrounded by a mix of pine and blue birch. Golden larks sing in the trees, and the breeze carries the rich mixture of plants and animals and fertile soil that speaks to me of home. Power thrums all around us,spreading up from the ground to fill everything with magic. “This is Alarria, my birth realm.”

An orc grunts hello as she passes us, headed for one of the other six-foot standing stones that ring the clearing. They’re each carved with the name of a realm. She walks into one of the stones and disappears.

“What is this place?” Kayla asks.

“These are the doors of Faerie Naomi made. Each one leads to one of the major Faerie realms or to Earth.” I wave at the door we just came through. Pride fills me. “I helped Naomi make several of these.”

My witchy beauty turns wide eyes upon me.

“Now come. This isn’t actually the surprise.”

“It gets better than this?”

“Way better.” I smirk.

“Promises, promises,” she says in a teasing tone.

“Know this, my wife.” I step close, holding her eyes with mine. “I will always keep my promises to you.”

She swallows, her cheeks pinkening, and I can hear her heart speed. Then she clears her throat and breaks eye contact, stepping past me. “So this surprise…”

I pull her through the door to Dularia. Mountain peaks soar all around us, craggy gray triangles thrusting up into the blue sky. We stand on the side of one such mountain, the wind whipping our hair and shivering across our skin. It’s summer here, as it is in Ferndale Falls, but a cooler summer at this altitude.

Kayla gasps and points to where several dragons fly through the air, their massive sizes made small by distance. “Are thosedragons?”

“This is the dragon realm,” I say. I’ve been here a handful of times, but always on official business, which is why I had Jace arrange permission for this more personal visit.

We watch for a good ten minutes as the giant fae continue to cavort through the air.

“You know,” she murmurs, waving a hand toward the display. “As grumpy as Luke and Jace are, I kinda didn’t expect playful dragons.”

“These dragons are only about fifty years old, which makes them teens.” I smile. “And Luke and Jace are both on Earth for a reason. From what I gather, neither fits in with the other dragons.”

“Because they’re grumpy?”

“No, more like the other way around. They didn’t fit in, and being treated as outcasts for three hundred years made them grumpy.”