Page 43 of Wedding the Werepanther

The animals stop galloping around and join us, Dewdrop coming in for a landing on my lap. “I have new friends!”

“You sure do.”

Babybelle bahs up at Autumn with big, pitiful eyes and gets a fruity piece of cereal. Then Finn gets one, too. Princess Buttercup demands to smell Skye’s cupcake, but turns her nose up and meows disdainfully.

“It’s completely unacceptable that it’s not chicken,” the blonde witch translates for the rest of us.

“I want not-chicken,” Dewdrop says. He sniffs the crunch berry cereal dotting Jasmine’s cupcake. “New fruit!”

“Hold on. That’s not real fruit.” Who the hell knows if dragonets can eat cereal safely? I dig around in my mini-backpack purse and pull out the grapes I brought for him, unsealing the ziplock top. “Here, you can have these.”

He reaches in and plucks out a grape, and everyone awws.

“Look at his little hands!” Violeta makes heart eyes at him and clutches her hands together like she’s trying to stop herself from squishing him.

“Where’d you get this cutie?” Jasmine leans over and snags one of the grapes to hold it out for him.

Dewdrop chirrups a thank you and munches it happily.

“In between the Datepocalypse and the Weddingpocalypse, something pretty great happened.” I tell them all about Shadow taking me to Faerie, finding the dragonets, and meeting my familiar.

Somewhere in the middle of my story, all of the familiars fall asleep. Finn drapes across Hannah’s feet, Princess Buttercupmakes a cat loaf on a stack of books, Babybelle sprawls in the middle of the floor, and Dewdrop snuggles onto my lap with a contented purr.

“Visiting Faerie was something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl, and getting to see a place as magical as the dragonet glen has been life-changing.” A soft smile tugs at my cheeks as I run my finger along one of Dewdrop’s wings. “I’ve been so inspired. Every time I turn around, I have a new game idea.”

“And Shadow did all of that for you as a surprise?” Violeta’s heart eyes get even bigger.

“So romantic,” Skye sighs.

“I must admit I wasn’t one-hundred percent on his motives before.” Jasmine points at me. “But that is some next-level boyfriending.”

“Not my boyfriend.” I make a face. “I’m not sure what we’d be to each other without the marriage contract binding us.”

“Severin didn’t know of any way to break the contract,” Hannah says.

“Same.” Skye makes a sad face. “Luke and I haven’t found anything in his library yet.”

“Yeah, Jace came over and kinda got a feel for Victoria’s magic, but he didn’t know of anything that would help.”

“So you wait it out. It’s only three weeks.” Autumn shrugs one shoulder. “No biggie.”

But she’s wrong, so wrong. Shadow struts through my mind, naked, just like he did every night before he finally put up the new door. Those flashes of long, muscular thigh, the bitable firmness of his ass, the way I kept trying to get a glimpse of the goods even while pretending I wasn’t looking…

“Oh, ho! I know that face!” Jasmine crows. “You want him.”

I turn painfully red, but I’m tired of lying. “I do.”

“Yesss!” Violeta elbows me.

“He keeps getting naked! And when he’s not naked, he’s wearing a tux!” I groan and rub my face. “It’s not fair. I’m only human.”

“So what’s the problem?” Skye leans forward.

“Hello? Magically binding marriage?” I throw up my hands. “I like him, sure, but a marriage that can never be broken is a lot to ask after one official date, even if it hadn’t been the date from hell. Plus…” I trail off with an awkward shrug.

“Plus what?” Violeta leans forward. “Did he do something?”

“He told me he sees his pursuit of me as a game.”