“Jackass.” But I was smiling, too, despite the tears in my eyes. “It was always going to be you. Since that first day in gym class when I took off around the track, hoping you’d catch me.”
Some love stories blossomed overnight. Others burned hot and fast, shooting stars plummeting to Earth, every stolen second precious. Ours was like that late summer Texas sunset, the sky a thousand shades of periwinkle blue, blush pink and wheat gold. Day transforming to night. One thing becoming another so softly that if you blinked, you might miss it. I’d thought I didn’t believe in happy endings. It turned out Dallas and I just had to find our own way there. And maybe that was the sweetest story of all.
Dallas leaned in to softly bite my neck. “You like being chased, sweetheart?”
—and lunged for me just as I bolted up the porch stairs.
An hour later, we were stretched out in bed, a half-empty box of cupcakes between us. The sun was setting, painting the walls of the room in soft shades of amber and rose.
“I’m sensing a theme.” He examined one of the pickle cupcakes warily, going so far as to sniff the cream cheese frosting and poke at the mini gherkin on top, but not daring to take a bite.
“Ghoulish pregnancy cravings?” I poked him in the side. “The maple bacon sold out in half an hour. You’re lucky I managed to save you one.”
“We should talk.”
“Is that man-speak for you telling me to get my razor out of your shower? Because I should inform you that I’m actually part werewolf. You won’t like the results if you deprive me of my grooming implements.”
“Deal, but I get to keep my flatscreen.”
“That thing can be seen from outer space.”
“And from the kitchen while you mix up cupcakes and I make you dinner.”
“Point taken.”
“And I think we should get married.”
My breath caught. I whirled to face him. “I swear if this is your idea of a joke—”
He caught my hand, sitting up and staring down at my fingers. “We could do it this summer. Maybe out by the lake at sunset, surrounded by cicadas and fireflies. Bring everyone back to the ranch after and have a cookout under the stars.”
I bit my lip, heart thundering. “Maybe we should wait.”
“Why?”
“I can’t get what one of the vampires said to me back at the farm out of my head. ‘How do you think we took all the others? Your friends can search all they want. They’ll never find you.’ This could be a real lead to tracking down Ben.”
Dallas was silent for a long moment, lips grazing the backs of my knuckles. “Think you could be right about my dad. I’ll pass it along to Mom and River. But we’ve put our forever on hold long enough. And if my dad were here, he’d say the same thing.”
I traced a strand of dirty blond hair away from his eyes. “And if I want to custom design a five-tier cupcake tower for our wedding cake?”
He snorted. “Like I thought we were gonna go with a box cake from the grocery store.”
His cell phone buzzed. When he checked the screen, he raised an eyebrow. “Sure you’re up for this?”
“I just took out two vampires, located our cat, who by the way, seems to have used Alexa to order a cloaking device in our absence—”
“Epic.”
“And baked ten dozen cupcakes. All before noon. And this is after Naomi told me to cut back on the caffeine.”
“Scaring me a little, sweetheart.”
I bared my teeth. He swiped to answer.
“I hear congratulations are in order.” Even on a video call, River Caldwell sounded cold and deadly. He was in his SUV. In the background, I could have sworn I caught a glimpse of cactus and stark canyons.
Dallas laughed. “We’ve only had the news for twenty-four hours and Mom’s already sent a contractor out to the house. She wants to update everything and make sure it’s child-safe.”
“Well, that’s Mom for you.”
I leaned forward. “You have a Project Eclipse problem.” River’s hard expression didn’t change. Not that I’d expected it to. He was too well trained for that. “I’ll go ahead and assume by your silence that you’re aware and are already dealing with it, but you’re also choosing not to keep us in the loop, which has put our people at risk twice now.”
“We know the leak came from the Council,” Dallas added.
“You think we haven’t been keeping tabs on the leaks that have been happening?” River said, so quietly it was like a black hole had sucked all the light from the room. “How stupid do you think we are? Of course we know what’s going on.”
“So why haven’t you shut it down?”
“Someone is acting behind the scenes, preparing to move against Guillermo, most likely. The last time such a coup was uncovered, the resulting bloodshed and shift in power within the Council and the packs resulted in hundreds of lives lost. Given the current state of instability within the vampire nation, I would expect a figure three or four times that.”
Dallas swore under his breath. “Can’t you get into their heads, see who’s behind it?”
“It’s not that simple. We run into two problems the moment I do that. First, all Tracers are well trained at detecting and blocking passive intrusions into their minds. It’s not the same as slipping in and listening for a few seconds to a group of civilians in a coffee shop. In order for me to read the minds of anyone here at the compound, I’d have to forcibly break through the mental barriers they have in place. The second I tried to do that, I’d be found out, which would result in open war on the Council. And that brings me to my second point.”
“Which is?”
“Everyone here is dangerous and powerful. Acting impulsively will get you killed. Better that our enemies stay in the dark until we know more.”
“Nice friends you’ve got there.”
“Cost of doing business.” He rubbed the wicked scar at his jawline, eyes distant. “On that note, I convinced Guillermo to allow me to choose twenty-five humans, those with sons and daughters, sisters and brothers who were bitten and turned, to get their memories back.”
My heart leaped. “My mother?”
“The truth is already out there about shifters. It’s going to come out that we’ve been manipulating people’s memories, and that there have been lasting consequences. Better that it be because we admit we were wrong in some instances and want to coexist with the human population peacefully, and that has to start with an act of faith.”
Tears filled my eyes. Dallas squeezed my shoulder.
“You’ve done good, little bro. I’m proud of you.”
“It’s all I could get for now. To tell you the truth, a lot of people up here are pissed I pushed this so hard.”
Suddenly I thought of Hayden, of the quiet desperation in her eyes when she’d spoken about her sister at Thanksgiving. “What about Ellie?”
Something in River’s expression hardened.
“I’m sorry.”
My jaw dropped. “Just like that? You know she would never—”
“It’s not up for discussion.”
“She’s Hayden’s sister. You were the one who rewrote her memories. Can’t you just—”