Chapter 32
GRACE
There’s something unfairly magical about the scent of three alphas and the distant possibility of a delicious breakfast all swirling together at nine in the morning.
Connor is sprawled on my sofa. He’s picked up my Sudoku book and is staring at it as if the numbers will rearrange themselves if he looks menacing enough.
Zev has somehow managed to sneak out to the store and return with the fixings to make pancakes without anyone noticing.
My kitchen is his now where he stands shirtless.
I’m not even allowed to pass the doorway.
Fowler, beautiful disaster that he is, is fiddling with my window fan and getting nowhere.
The window fan is two years older than I am and responds to threats by whirring out its last wishes before resuming its regular stutter.
It hasn’t really beat the heat since the start of summer, so it won’t now. I’m honestly not quite sure why Fowler keeps trying. Except that he always does, and that’s why I love him.
“Grace, do you want bananas in yours?” Zev asks.
“Bananas are good.” I pour myself some orange juice. “Chocolate chips are also allowed. You are also allowed to not make me breakfast every morning, I promise you I’m capable of making my own.”
He snorts and flips a pancake one-handed. “I was up and had to do something.” Zev’s not yet lined up another coaching job since summer ended. I assume he’ll end up working in the school system again at some point, but he’s taking the days as they come.
Fowler, meanwhile, has deconstructed the fan and is now using a butter knife to gesture at the interior. “I think it’s dust. I should be able to fix it.”
You can certainly try. “Just don’t break it, please.”
My phone rings. All three of their heads swivel toward me.
I scoop up the phone and read the screen. My pulse doubles as I pick up the call and put the phone to my ear. “Director Hannah,” I say, trying to sound casual and not like my stomach is now a vault full of angry bees.
Reverie is over. So why is she calling me now?
Zev drops the spatula. “That’s either very good or very bad.”
I wave him off and walk down the hallway to my bedroom. “Hello?”
Hannah clears her throat. “Grace! Oh, thank god I got you. I won’t keep you long—I know you’re probably decompressing after that wild summer, but I needed to catch you before you got back to classes. Are you still going to Old Harbor for your senior year?”
I blink. “Yes, so I’ll be in Boston at least through next summer. What’s up?”
There’s a silence, then a paper-shuffling sound. “I want you back next year.”
My brain does a full blue-screen. “For—?” I manage, then realize what she means and my knees go weak. “For Reverie?”
“For Reverie,” she confirms with a note of something in her voice I’ve only heard when she’s watching an audition that’s going way, way better than expected.
“We want you as our Princess again. I know it’s early, but you blew us away.
I had to call. Please say yes. I’m also hoping that Prince of yours will join us again, too. But I wanted to call you first.”
There’s an implication in her voice that I’ll tell Connor for her, but I’ll let Hannah make that call on her own. As for me, I don’t know what to say. I started my journey with Reverie as a background figure skater only in one number. I ended up in the Princess role by complete accident—and talent.
To get this offer a year in advance is… everything.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” says Director Hannah when I don’t answer. She laughs. “Well, I hope that’s a yes.”
“It’s a yes!” I say quickly before she takes back the offer. “Yes, of course. Absolutely. I’ll be there.”
“Good.” She clicks her tongue. “I’ll send you over the paperwork when it’s closer to season. Have a great senior year, Grace.”
“Thank you, Director Hannah.”
She ends the call. It’s only then I realize I have no plan for returning to the living room and telling the boys, and for a second I just stand there, phone still clutched, staring at the hallway wall. I almost expect it to slide open and reveal a secret passage, because nothing feels real.
I’m going back to Reverie next year after graduation.
Our pack has absolutely zero plans for the future other than staying together, so I’m not sure this impacts anything long-term.
It’s the best-case scenario.
I walk back in. Zev is stacking pancakes. Fowler is dusting the window fan’s blades with his shirt. Connor is watching them both and chuckling at the amount of dust Fowler is kicking up.
Zev looks up. “Is everything okay?”
I grin from ear to ear. “They want me back. Reverie, that is. As the Princess.” I shoot a look to Connor. “And I’m pretty sure they’ll want you, too. Who can deny this chemistry?”
“What, that’s amazing!” Zev says.
Fowler sets down the window fan parts and comes over to hug me. “You deserve it, Grace. You’re amazing on the ice.”
Connor comes over to hug me too, then dips me. “There’s no one else I’d rather skate with.” Then he looks up and rolls his eyes. “Except maybe these idiots again.”
My alphas laugh. Breakfast is had and enjoyed, and the way this morning is just perfect gives me a window into what our future looks like.
College. Graduation. Reverie.
Maybe scouts and more figure skating jobs. Whether that means Connor and I get to keep duo-ing roles or we skate separate, I don’t know. But as long as we’re together, it will work out. I know this.
We’ve already done the hardest parts as a pack. Anything else? We’ll tackle that too.
Fate made sure of that.
Thank you so much for reading Knot A Power Play! The previous book in this series is Briar’s journey: Knot In Overtime.