Chapter 1 #3
“We’ll count together, baby.” I took his sticky hand carefully.
“Okay! Can I tell them about the honey?”
“Absolutely not,” Mal said immediately.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s our special honey secret,” I improvised.
Killian dropped his voice to what he thought was a whisper but was actually just him talking slightly less loudly. “A SECRET! I’m good at secrets!”
“He told the guards about my birthday surprise,” Mal said, raising an eyebrow at me.
“And the cook about the new puppies.”
“And Aurion about-”
“I’m REALLY good at secrets now! I’m bigger!” Killian insisted, drawing himself up to his full height.
We somehow managed to corral our sticky, sugar-high son toward breakfast. He grabbed both our hands as we walked, mine in his left, Mal’s in his right, leaving sticky honey prints on our fingers. Torin followed at a respectful distance.
Sorcha was already waiting in the breakfast room, sitting at the table with tea. She took one look at Killian, covered head to toe in honey, vibrating with energy, and sighed deeply. The kind of sigh that said she’d seen this exact scenario play out a thousand times.
Mal and I looked at each other and tried very hard not to laugh.
***
After breakfast and bath number two (getting honey out of a four-year-old’s hair was its own special kind of nightmare), I realized I needed to visit Earth today before the banquet.
The time difference between worlds meant my friends on Earth hadn’t seen me in weeks, even though it had only been a few days here in Lytopia. Time moved faster there, a quirk of the portal magic that made my head hurt if I thought about it too hard.
“I need to check on the bookstore,” I told Mal as we watched Killian race around his room, riding the sugar high. “Visit the girls.”
Mal’s jaw tightened. “Alone?”
“It’s my bookstore, Mal. I’ll be fine.”
“I do not like you traveling through the portal without protection.”
“Protection from what? Aggressive book browsers? Demanding coffee orders?”
He didn’t smile. His worry was genuine, even if it was unnecessary. Ever since I’d become Queen, he’d gotten more protective. More cautious about letting me go anywhere without guards or himself.
“I’ll be gone two hours, tops.” I stood on my toes to kiss his cheek. “The portal goes directly into my place. I won’t even have to walk outside.”
“I wanna come!” Killian appeared at my side, tugging on my dress with still-slightly-sticky fingers. “Mama, I wanna come too!”
I knelt down to his level. “Not today, baby. Mama needs boring grown-up talk time.”
His lower lip jutted out. “But I’m good at talking!”
“You’re the best at talking. But this time I need to go alone.”
“Next time?”
“Next time, I promise.”
He held out his pinky, his face deadly serious. “Pinky promise?”
I linked my pinky with his, feeling my heart squeeze. “Pinky promise.”
“That means you CAN’T break it.”
Mal appeared behind us, watching the exchange with soft eyes. “Your mother does not break promises.”
“Good.” Killian nodded firmly. “‘Cause if she does, she has to give me ice cream.”
I blinked. “That’s not how pinky promises work.”
“It is now!”
I looked up at Mal, who was clearly trying not to laugh. Our son had us wrapped around his tiny honey-covered finger, and we all knew it.
“Two hours,” I told Mal as I stood. “I’ll be back before you even notice I’m gone.”
“I always notice when you are gone.”
I rolled my eyes, but my stomach did a little flip anyway. Four years of marriage and he said things like that without hesitation. Looked at me like I was the only person in any realm that mattered.
“Clingy,” I said.
“Protective.”
“Same thing.”
I stepped through the portal before he could argue, feeling the tug of magic as one world dissolved and another took its place.
The bookstore smelled like old paper, exactly the way it always did. Late morning sunlight streamed through the front windows, catching dust motes in the air. I’d barely stepped out of the portal in my back office when I heard voices from the main floor.
“-and I told him, if you can’t commit to a second date, don’t waste my time with the first one!”
Krystin.
I pushed through the storage room and found them all there, Krystin behind the counter with a coffee cup, Bella curled up in one of the reading chairs, and Daphne perched on the arm of the couch. My best friends, my people from before everything got complicated.
“Look who finally remembered she has friends on Earth!” Krystin spotted me first, her face breaking into a grin.
“I’m sorry!” I crossed the room and they all rose to meet me, pulling me into a group hug that smelled like Bella’s expensive perfume and Krystin’s dry shampoo. “It’s been crazy. Where’s Emma?”
“She needed the day off, so we thought it’d be nice to catch up with readings. And crazy, you say?” Bella pulled back, eyebrows raised. “You’re literally a werewolf queen. That’s past crazy. That’s certifiable.”
“When you put it that way, my life sounds fake.”
“Your life IS fake.” Krystin returned to her perch behind the counter. “You married a wolf king because of a spell you found in your grandma’s basement. That’s not real life. That’s a Hallmark movie on acid.”
“Hallmark doesn’t have that much sex,” Daphne said.
“How would you know?”
“I watch a LOT of Hallmark.”
We settled into our usual spots, me in my favorite chair, Krystin leaning over the counter, Bella and Daphne claiming the couch. Daphne had portaled earlier from Noctherion, where she lived with her mate, Aurion. Mal’s brother. Our little group spanned two worlds now, but somehow we made it work.
“How’s Killian?” Bella asked.
“Four years old and absolutely feral.” I pulled out my phone, scrolling to the photos I’d taken this morning. Data didn’t work in Lytopia, but at least the camera did. “He ate an entire jar of honey before breakfast.”
“Like... a big jar?” Krystin leaned forward.
“The biggest jar. With his hands.” I showed them the picture of Killian, covered in honey, grinning like a maniac.
Daphne laughed so hard she snorted. “Did he survive?”
“He’s literally vibrating. I left Mal dealing with the sugar crash.”
“Speaking of mates who make questionable parenting decisions,” Bella said, tucking her feet under her, “Logan let the pack pups ‘teach’ him TikTok dances last week.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. There’s video evidence. I’m saving it for divorce leverage.”
“You’re not getting divorced,” I said.
“Not yet. But when I do, I’ll have ammunition. Logan asks about you all the time,” she added. “Wants to know when you’re visiting again.”
“How is pack life treating you?”
Bella’s mate was a wolf king too - different pack, based on Earth instead of in Lytopia. Their romance had been its own kind of chaos.
“Exhausting but good.” She smiled that secret smile she got whenever she talked about him. “He’s doing the possessive lurking thing again.”
“The standing-behind-you-while-you-talk-to-other-men thing?”
“And the growling. So much unnecessary growling. Last week a barista called me ‘sweetheart’ and I thought Logan was going to vault over the counter.”
“Mal does that too!” I laughed. “Must be a wolf king thing.”
“It’s ridiculous.” Bella paused. “But also kind of hot?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Meanwhile,” Krystin cut in, “I’m single while you three are literally queens. How is that fair? We all joined the same book club. We all read the same vampire romances. Why did YOU get the supernatural soulmates?”
“Not sure. The Society of Edward’s Sparkles didn’t prepare any of us for this,” Daphne said. “I’m sure your king is out there somewhere.”
“Remember when we thought the most unrealistic part of Twilight was that Edward watched Bella sleep?” I shook my head. “I woke up to Mal standing over my bed like three times after we were married.”
“That’s creepy,” Krystin said.
“It was terrifying. I threw a lamp at him once.”
“Did it hurt him?”
“No. He caught it. Then he looked offended that I’d tried to hurt him. Like I was the unreasonable one.”
“Being single is also overrated,” Krystin sighed, steering us back. “So much loneliness and bad dating apps. I swiped through forty guys last night and not a single one could write a complete sentence. One guy’s entire bio was ‘I like stuff.’”
“Stuff,” Bella repeated. “Just... stuff.”
“STUFF. What stuff? Food stuff? Murder stuff? Stuff is not a personality!”
“We should find you a nice werewolf,” Bella suggested.
“Hard pass.” Krystin held up her hand. “I’ve seen what you deal with. The growling, the possessiveness, the ‘I must protect you from baristas’ energy. I’ll stick with Netflix and emotional unavailability.”
“You’ll find someone, though. I’m sure of it.” I added.
“At this rate, I’ll be single forever and get eaten by my cats.”
“You don’t have cats.”
“I’ll get them specifically for that purpose. I’ll adopt like six of them. They’ll feast on my corpse. It’ll be poetic, my last act of kindness.”
“That’s not poetic, that’s morbid.”
“Same thing.”
Daphne shifted on the couch, picking at the hem of her sleeve. “Are we talking about the banquet? Because I’m terrified.”
Right. Daphne would be there too, representing Noctherion with her mate.
“You’ll be fine,” I assured her. “We’ll figure it out together.”
“Easy for you to say. You’ve been Queen longer.”
“Not by much.” I leaned forward. “I panic every time someone bows.”
“Right?!” Her eyes went wide. “I keep wanting to tell them to stop! I’m like, please, you’re making this weird, just stand up!”
“And the forks,” I groaned. “Do you know how many forks there are?”
“Seven,” Daphne said, holding up her fingers. “Seven different forks.”
Krystin looked horrified. “What do you need seven forks for?!”
“No one knows,” I told her. “I’ve asked multiple people. They all just stare at me like I’ve insulted their ancestors.”
“It’s a conspiracy,” Daphne agreed. “A fork-based conspiracy designed to make us feel stupid.”
“I will never complain about my life again,” Krystin said. “At least I only need one fork.”
“Want to come?” I asked her and Bella. “Both of you? To the banquet?”
Bella shook her head immediately. “To a banquet with werewolf royals? Hard pass.”
“Yeah, that sounds like my personal nightmare,” Krystin agreed. “Too many wolves, too many forks, not enough alcohol.”
“There will be so much alcohol.”
“Will there be wolves judging my fork usage?”
“Probably.”
“Then it’s a no from me, dawg. Pun intended.”
Bella uncurled herself from her chair. “Bring Killian next time though. We miss his chaos energy.”
“He already made me do a pinky promise.” I smiled, thinking of his serious little face. “Apparently if I break it, I owe him ice cream.”
“He has you wrapped around his finger,” Daphne observed.
“Completely. And I’m not even ashamed.”
I checked the time on my phone and winced. Two hours had flown by, the way they always did when I was with these women. We’d been friends since high school, since we’d started the Society of Edward’s Sparkles as obsessed freshmen convinced we’d find our own supernatural soulmates someday.
Turns out we were right. Just not about the vampire part.
“I have to go.” I stood, and they all rose with me. “I’m sorry. The banquet-”
“Go.” Krystin waved her hand. “Save the werewolf political alliances. We’ll hold down the fort.”
“You mean you’ll drink the rest of the coffee and gossip about me after I leave?”
“Obviously. Bella’s going to do an impression of your ‘I’m a queen now’ face.”
“I don’t have a face!”
“You absolutely have a face,” Bella said. “It’s this-” She lifted her chin, pursed her lips slightly, and adopted an expression of vague constipation mixed with panic.
“I do NOT look like that.”
“You kind of do,” Daphne admitted.
“I hate all of you.”
We squeezed each other in a group hug, and made promises to visit more and bring Killian next time. Then I stepped back through the portal, feeling the tug of magic-
And Mal was there.
Of course he was. Standing right in front of the portal point, hands clasped behind his back, clearly having been pacing. His head snapped up the moment I appeared.
“You waited for me again?” I asked, stepping fully into Lytopia.
“No. I just happened to walk past.”
He pulled me into his arms immediately, crushing me against his chest like I’d been gone for weeks instead of barely minutes for him. I felt his nose press into my hair, breathing me in.
“You know I can handle a portal to my own bookstore, right?”
“I know.” His arms tightened. “But I prefer to be here when you return.”
“Clingy,” I murmured against his chest.
He pulled back just enough to look at my face, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks. “Completely yours.”
I felt myself melt, the way I always did when he said things like that. “Okay, that was smooth.”
“I have been practicing.”
He kissed me softly, nothing like the desperate morning kisses in our bedroom. This was tender, relieved. The kiss of a man who’d spent two hours worrying about something he knew was irrational but couldn’t help anyway.
“How are your friends?” he asked when he finally released me.
“Good. Krystin’s single and planning to be eaten by cats. Bella’s saving TikTok videos for divorce leverage. Daphne’s as nervous about tonight as I am.”
“You will be magnificent tonight.” He took my hand, lacing our fingers together. “You are always magnificent.”
“Now you’re just flattering me.”
“Is it working?”
It always did.
I squeezed his hand and started walking, pulling him toward our chambers. We had a banquet to prepare for, seventy werewolf royals to impress, political alliances to navigate. But right now, with Mal’s hand warm in mine and honey footprints visible on the castle floors, everything felt manageable.
“Did you deal with the sugar crash?” I asked.
Mal’s expression said everything.
“That bad?”
“He threw a toy at Torin’s head, cried for twenty minutes, and then fell asleep in a potted plant.”
I stopped walking. “A potted plant?”
“In the hallway. I do not know how he got there. Torin found him curled around a fern.”
“A fern.”
“He was hugging it.”
I laughed so hard I had to lean against the wall. My life was insane, but I wouldn’t change a single thing.