Ten
Cam
I was buzzing with excitement as I paced around Micah's bedroom, unable to sit still as I watched him get ready. We were about to head to our welcome home party, and I was excited to see everyone. The Mistvale clan was more than just the clan I belonged to. It was my family.
Like every family, I got along with some people better than others. Raphael, for example, was one of my closest friends. He'd saved my life, and the bond that experience had built between us had only grown stronger over the years.
"Are you ready yet? You know you look gorgeous, right?"
Micah rolled his eyes at me. "You're only saying that because you're impatient."
Narrowing my eyes at him, I stepped up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist as I slid my nose against the side of his neck. "You, my dear princess, are the prettiest, sexiest man I know, and I am very, very lucky I get to call you my mate."
Resting my chin on his shoulder, I met his wide eyes in the mirror, my eyes roaming over his face. I admired the perfectly applied mascara around his eyes, the faint hint of blush on his cheeks, and the way he'd styled his dark hair in a sleek ‘do.
"Maybe we should skip the party." I pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, and he chuckled.
"You want to skip the party? I guess the makeup's working then."
" You are working. The makeup is just an added bonus."
Micah rolled his eyes at me, but the blush on his cheeks was most definitely darker. He could act all he wanted, but I knew he liked it when I praised him.
"Come on, sexy. Let's get going before I really decide I don't want to."
Taking his hand, I tugged him out of the room and down the stairs. His family had left already, since Gus was helping with the cooking, Cassian usually went where Gus did, and the twins would be damned if they weren't the first ones to show.
Locking up behind us—not that anyone would dare break into the house of the great fire mage Cassian Romanov—we walked down the driveway, my hand still clasped around Micah's.
"Can I drive?" I eyed Gus's cute little car, wondering how fast I could make it go. I didn't drive much, since the places I wanted to go were usually either close enough to walk or far enough to fly. We'd taken a cab everywhere when we went on our trip, so I couldn't remember the last time I'd driven.
"Hell no. Papa would kill me if you wrecked his beloved."
I pouted, but didn't push, leaving his hand with a kiss as I walked toward the passenger side.
A few droplets of rain dotted the windscreen as we drove toward the packland, but I knew the rain wouldn't increase, not today. DD would be doing his best to keep the weather in control, not that many Mistvalers minded the rain. It was a part of this town just as much as the trees around us.
Arriving at the packland, the sense of comfort and family enveloped me as I stepped out of the car, and I glanced at Micah to check if he could feel it too. He had a small smile on his lips as he walked around the front of the car, and I took his hand in mine.
"I feel it too." He answered the unasked question in my mind, and I smiled.
"Come on."
The packland was crowded like it only got during the parties. Since our clan had grown so much in the last decade, Noel had moved the party from his and Caleb's backyard to the packland's center ages ago, and people milled everywhere, chatting with each other and munching on various finger foods that were laid out on long tables at the edges of the clearing.
A ten-year-old girl with long, wispy black hair and bright blue eyes ran up, peering at us curiously.
Smiling, Micah kneeled down in front of her. "Hey, Lena. Do you remember us?"
Her brow furrowed, and then she grinned. Turning around, she raced back into the crowd, shouting, "They're here! They're here!"
"I guess that answers your question."
After that, we were swamped . Everyone wanted to say hello and hear about our trip and catch us up on everything we'd missed.
If I couldn't feel the love that filled the air from everyone, I'd be overwhelmed by the sheer number of people wanting to talk to us.
"Alden!" I grinned at the fair-haired unicorn—the last of his kind—and his dryad mate, Elian. Elian rarely strayed out of the Silent Creek Park, the land he was bonded to, so his presence here made me doubly happy. I'd been planning to visit him and Alden at the park later this week, but now I wouldn't need to.
"Cam, Micah, it's so good to see you. Mistvale just isn't the same without you two," Alden said, making me grin.
"Aww, did you miss us?"
"Can't you tell? Everyone did."
A lump lodged itself into my throat, and for once, I had no reply. Sensing my emotions, Micah gave my hand a squeeze, then excused us away, dragging me to a quiet spot between two cabins.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. It just hadn't quite hit me how much I missed everyone until now."
Micah gave me that soft, understanding smile of his, then leaned forward to kiss the corner of my mouth. "I can relate to that. I thought everyone being here would be too much, and while I'm working overtime to keep my shields up, I'm glad."
Damn, I couldn't imagine being Micah right now. He was probably expending most of his energy on his shields so he wouldn't be assaulted by the thoughts of everyone, and here I was making him exert even more energy to comfort me.
"Hey, I don't mind. I rarely get to comfort you anyway," Micah said with a grin, then winced. "Sorry. I had to focus on your mind to keep my walls up, so I can hear everything you're thinking. I can stop if you—"
I shook my head, cutting him off. "You know I don't mind. My thoughts are and will always be open to you."
Because I love you , I added mentally, and Micah smiled widely. There wasn't much I wouldn't do to make him smile like that.
Micah
We waited for a few more minutes, sharing some chaste kisses, before making our way back into the thick of it.
In the time we'd been gone, Noel, Jai, and Papa had called everyone over for lunch, and now some of the people roamed around with plates of food in their hands—or a glass of blood, in Papa and Niall's case—while others sat on the stoops of various cabins.
"Oooh, food!" Cam made a beeline for the large tables covered in bowls and dishes of various foods. Some dishes had been cooked by the aforementioned trio while others were brought in by the other clan members.
I spotted pitchers of Aeron's fancy blood drinks—he was a necromancer, but his mate, Niall, was a vampire, and he enjoyed making new drinks for him—and cookies, cakes, and various sweets from She Bakes, She Brews , which was owned by one of the newer clan members, a witch named Iris. There was alcohol too, but nothing stronger than beer and wine.
I was tempted to just have dessert for lunch, but Cam knew me too well, and he filled two plates with food, his pile double mine—dragons had big appetites—before handing one to me.
"Come on. Let's mingle."
I followed Cam back into the fray, and we got separated as I chatted with Kezan about clothes and his shop, Wish For It , while Cam was pulled away into some kind of debate between the twins, Neel, Paxton, and Dean. Knowing them, the twins and Dean were probably planning some kind of mischief while Neel and Paxton tried to talk them out of it. What had they been thinking, calling Cam to talk some sense into them? Did they not know him at all?
"Would you like to come back to work at the shop? I never found an assistant manager quite as good as you." I stared at Kezan, surprised by his offer.
I'd loved working at his clothing boutique, loved seeing the customers' faces light up when they found their perfect outfits.
"Is this a serious offer?"
Kezan nodded, his brown eyes warm and sincere.
"Um, would it be okay if I took a few days to think about it? Cam and I are moving tomorrow, so we'll probably need a few days to settle in."
"Of course. Take your time. The job's yours whenever you're ready."
"You're moving? Moving where? Don't tell me you're leaving Mistvale. This is not a farewell party!"
I turned with a grin as Raphael stalked toward us, his brows furrowed as his long blond hair flew into his face, only for him to impatiently push it away.
"Answer my question, Micah."
Chuckling, I shook my head. "Yes, we're moving, but our new place is right behind the cul-de-sac." While Raphael and Jai lived in a big house a few blocks away from my parents' place, he used to live in the cul-de-sac, and his brother-in-law, Joy, still lived there with his mates.
Raphael's eyes widened, and then he grinned. "That's great! You'll still be close."
Raphael was the embodiment of the 'fun uncle' stereotype. Like me, he'd been mistreated by the mages of Ravenshire, including his own family, before he came here. Despite that, he was an amazingly cheerful person, and whenever he and Cam got together, people in their vicinity knew to be wary.
After congratulating me for the move and giving me a rib-crushing hug, Raphael ran off, probably to track down Cam.
I drifted around the place, sharing small conversations with people as I ate. Cam made rounds nearby, checking in with me every few minutes before drifting off to talk to someone.
When I'd finished my meal, I went to put my dish into the dirty pile, and then got caught up in a conversation with Noel and Jai, who'd already been informed by Raphael—his mate—about our impending move.
"Tell me if you need help moving. Caleb and I would be happy to help."
A loud growl stopped me from replying, and I turned around to see Cam racing across the packland with two small wolves flanking him on either side while a much bigger brown wolf chased after them. Cam never could resist pulling Caleb's tail, metaphorically speaking.
"Uh, I don't think so," I said, referring to Noel's earlier comment. I was pretty sure that if Cam wasn't Raiden's son, Caleb would have whooped his ass by now. But all he could do was growl at him and chase him around, so that was what he did.
I used to think Cam was just childish, that he continued messing with people because he didn't want to grow up, and didn't want to act like an adult. But over the years, I'd learned differently.
Cam didn't cause mischief because it made him happy. He did it because it made the people around him laugh, and he enjoyed bringing a smile to everyone's faces. Well, everyone except Caleb.
I had no idea what Caleb had done to become a focus of Cam's pranks—or if he'd even done anything—but I knew his reactions entertained Cam to no end, and that was probably why he kept doing it. I was surprised he'd dragged Rowan and Sage into his scheming this time, and I wondered what their moms—Rebba, the alpha of the Mistvale pack, and Rhiannon, the clan's only warlock—would have to say about this once they caught on.
"There they go again," Joy—a human, and Jai's brother—said, and my lips quirked up at the fondness in his voice. This was why Cam did it, to cheer people up, and I loved him for it.
The party ran late into the evening, so much so that Noel, Jai, Papa, and a few others cooked up some dinner to go along with the leftovers from lunch, and we ended up all having dinner there too. Some of the people had left early, but the core of the clan—Raphael, Jai, and their kids, Cam’s and my families, Noel and Caleb, Rebba and Rhiannon and their kids, and Aeron and Niall—was still here, and we talked well into the night.
It was only after Dean, Rowan, and Sage had fallen asleep that everyone decided it was time to head home. The others had helped clean up before they left, so it only took a few minutes to put everything right, and then we left.
Mateo and Miles joined us in our car on the way back, and even they fell asleep before we reached home.
Like every good Mistvale party, everyone was too exhausted to stay upright by the end.
After waking up the twins and making sure they went inside the house, I drove us to Cam's place without consciously deciding to. We could've stayed at my place, but I was tired from maintaining my mental shields all day, and it was easier to leave them down at Cam's place than mine. Raiden was an expert at keeping his mind hidden from me, and he was teaching William how to do it too, so I was less likely to stumble upon thoughts that would leave everyone embarrassed.
Amelia was trickier, but her thoughts were mostly occupied by her art, so it wasn't too bad. Definitely much better than hearing my dads' thoughts—especially the ones they had about each other—or my brothers'.
Once in Cam's room, we both changed into loose sleep pants before climbing under the covers shirtless. Cam wrapped his arms around me, and I cuddled close, relaxing my mental wards as I sank into his embrace. It didn't take either of us long to conk out.
Yep, it was a good party.