23. Jalen
JALEN
Zuri digs out fresh clothes while I stretch out on the bed to watch. She checks the tag on the shirt and grits her teeth at whatever it says. She checks the leggings and does it all over again. I might keep buying her expensive clothes just for that frown.
She sits down at the dresser and starts fussing with her hair.
“I wish I could straighten this mess,” she says.
“There’s a full salon on the third floor. Brandy and Jules share it.” I fold my arms behind my head. “But I can build you one for your floor.”
She turns on the seat and frowns at me.
I chuckle.
The sun has come down behind the ridge while she was dressing, and the room has gone over to lamplight. She works a dab of gel along her edges and smooths everything back with both palms. Then she pins it up neat. She crosses to the nightstand and picks up her phone.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“What do you think I’m doing?” She wakes the screen without bothering to look at me. “I’m calling Renee.”
I smile and climb up off the bed. “Speaking of Renee, there’s something I want to show you.”
She waves me off and puts the phone to her ear.
I can hear it from across the room. It doesn’t even ring. Renee’s voice comes on bright and recorded, telling the world she’ll hit them back.
Zuri lowers the phone and stares at the screen. Her burnt caramel curdles sharp at the edges, panic climbing through it fast.
So I go to the sliding door and step out into the evening air. My wings come out of my back, and I stretch them until the tips reach past both ends of the railing.
The sharp edge cooks off her scent behind me.
“What are you doing?” she asks from the nightstand.
Then she looks down at the tiles by my bare feet. The peonies are lying there, dried out right where they fell the night I brought them home to her. Her thumb goes still on the phone, and sadness drifts into her caramel right under where the panic was.
I hold my hand out to her. “Come here. My dragon wants to show you something.”
She smiles at that. Then she looks back down at the screen. “Renee.”
I keep my hand right where it is. “Trust me, baby.”
She reaches out and puts her hand in mine. I fold my fingers around hers and pull her out onto the balcony with me. Neither of us has shoes on, and the tiles still hold a little of the day’s warmth under our feet.
My wings beat down hard and take us up off the tiles. Her phone slips out of her hand and claps down behind us, and she gasps and locks both arms around my neck, holding on with everything she has.
I press the words into her hair. “I got you, baby.”
I dip us off the mountainside, and Shadow Wolf Creek opens up below.
The moon is out big and bright tonight, and the whole valley glows under it, porch lights and streetlamps strung gold through the dark.
She turns her face out over all of it and watches, and excitement rolls off her skin and mixes into the night air.
I drink every bit of it. My dragon stands up tall inside me, so damn happy his heat steadies my wings.
I’ll be remembering the beauty of this moment for the rest of my life.
I take her down Main Street at rooftop height.
The square lamps burn below us, and the shop windows sit dark behind their gates, the craft store display still lit and the market awnings folded down for the night.
We swing wide over the shopping center, where the empty lot shines under one flickering pole light.
Then we pass over Stanley’s Diner, neon spilling pink and blue across its parking lot, and her classic giggle spills out, loud enough to scatter across the rooftops.
I fly us right on past it. She tips her head back against my shoulder.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“It’s my gift to you, my love,” I tell her.
Then I turn her over until she’s facing the town below, my arms locked tight around her middle.
She spreads her arms out wide like wings.
“WHOO-HOO!” She laughs it out across the whole sleeping valley, and I bank us through the night sky and give her all of it.
Near the square, I spill air and slow us. We come down on the second-floor balcony of a corner brick unit, and I set her on her bare feet.
“Huh?” She turns halfway around in my arms, checking my face for the joke.
Then a voice carries through the balcony door. “Zuri?”
She makes a small choked sound and presses both hands over her mouth.
My wings fold into my back, and my dragon soars inside me, proud of us both. I reach over and wipe a tear off her cheek with one finger.
“While you were resting, I had Malachi go fetch her,” I say.
“She was reluctant, but he got her to agree to move to Shadow Wolf Creek.” I gather her hands up in mine.
“I saw how unhappy you were, baby, and I wanted to prove to you that I would do anything to keep you here with me. Because I do love you, Zuri. More than you will ever understand.”
She goes quiet. I’m not waiting on an answer. Tonight was never about me.
The balcony door slides open, and Renee runs out and throws her arms around my mate.
Past them, through the open door, Malachi sets a pair of suitcases down by the couch.
Soren and Sable are working furniture across the front room with their wings pulled in tight and their heads bent under the ceiling, two gargoyles trying to fit where no gargoyle was ever meant to.
Treasure comes out of the back room with one hand resting on her belly, pointing the couch into its place, and the look on her face has both of those big men moving quick.
Renee breaks the hug first and holds my mate out at arm’s length.
Zuri wipes her face with both hands. “I’m okay.”
“Yeah. Thanks to you.” Renee’s own eyes are shining. “I was hiding out. Whitney was riding my ass about where you were.”
Then she plants her hands on her hips. “Would’ve been nice of you to answer your phone.”
Zuri looks back at me, and I don’t hide a thing.
Renee tracks the look between us, and that’s when she spots the crescents on Zuri’s neck. She raises both eyebrows. “Bagged a dragon, huh?”
Zuri’s cheeks go warm enough that I can scent it across the balcony. “Yeah.” She puts two fingers over my mark. “I was caught up in all of that. I’m sorry I didn’t answer the phone, Renee. I didn’t know what to do at first.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Renee waves the apology off with one hand. “You were a friend when I needed you. And these supernaturals?” She hooks a thumb back toward the living room. “They’re nothing like Millbrook made them out to be.”
Then she turns to me. “Hi!”
I bow my head to her.
Renee grabs Zuri’s hand and pulls her through the door. Two steps in, Zuri stops flat.
The gargoyles have that living room outnumbered all by themselves. Soren and Sable straighten up as far as the ceiling allows, and each of them folds a wing over his chest.
“Greetings, madam,” they say in unison.
I step in behind my mate. “Those are my buddies, Sable and Soren.”
Zuri lifts a hand and waves at Soren first. “You were the statue at the diner,” she says. “By the jukebox.”
“I got to her just in time,” Malachi says from beside the couch. “The ghouls were coming after her.”
Then he frowns at Renee. “She gave me a hard time about leaving.”
Renee rounds on him, chin first. “Losing my job, my place, everything I worked for? Hell yes I gave you trouble.” Then she drops the attitude and grins at him. “But that offer? That I could not turn down.”
She looks at Zuri. “Malachi said he’d give me my life dream.”
Zuri grabs her arm. “The spa? The one you were trying to get the business loan for?”
Renee grabs her back. “That one. THAT one.”
The two of them break out giggling, and then they’re jumping in place with their arms around each other, right there between the moving boxes.
Renee pulls back first. “No loan. All mine. On one condition.” She points at my mate. “You come in as my business partner. Which I have been BEGGING you to do since forever.”
Zuri turns and looks at me.
I keep my smile quiet and my mouth shut. She doesn’t need to say one word. Her caramel opens up rich and full, sweeter than I’ve ever scented it, and I know exactly what I’m smelling.
It’s love.
“I’ll keep the records,” Zuri says.
Renee shrieks and jumps, and then the two of them are holding each other again, rocking side to side.
Treasure crosses the room to Soren’s side, and the women break apart.
Zuri puts her hand out. “Hi. I’m Zuri.”
“Treasure. Soren’s mate.” She takes Zuri’s hand in both of hers. “This is my old apartment. I’m glad it gets to be a home again.”
Zuri ducks her head and studies the floor while the warmth comes up her face.
Then Renee spins past me mid-celebration, and I catch what’s riding under her perfume. My nose knows that note now. Somewhere out in this valley, somebody’s whole life is about to change, and she has no idea she’s carrying the news.
Malachi catches it the same breath I do. We share a look over the women’s heads, and neither of us says one word. She gets the privilege of being surprised, same as everybody else. Renee always belonged here. She just didn’t know it yet.
Treasure heads for the kitchen table, and Soren gets there first and pulls a chair out for her. She eases down into it.
“Can I give some feedback on what this town needs from a spa?” she asks.
Zuri and Renee take the chairs across from her, already nodding before she starts.
I lean against the counter and stay out of it.
The talk takes off without any of us, services and prices and what a wolf would pay to sit in a sauna.
My mate is going through it all with both hands moving, and my dragon sprawls out inside me, warm and done worrying.
Somewhere between that balcony and this table, I set down the last fear I was carrying.
She’s not leaving me. Her home is right here.
That leaves one problem, and her name is Delilah. She’s going to come to my town.
And when she does, this whole Creek will be waiting.