Chapter 32
Elijah
We’re shown to our table. It’s the one closest to the café. There are fairy lights hanging above us, and pink and red hearts hanging from strings. There are pink balloons in the shape of hearts and gold glitter paint on everything.
I can’t see anything but her.
“Congratulations, matches, your third date is going to be a dessert tasting, brought to you by Be Seaing You restaurant and Sandy Heart Café. Samples will be given out to all the wonderful guests who came to witness this event, but we hope that you stay for the Smitten Knot Bitten Valentine’s Day party tonight,” Lorelei calls out. “To finding love!”
The crowd calls it back to her.
A beta with a violin comes out and plays Franco’s favourite song.
“Wow, that went all out, didn’t they?”
A server, who is just Paul from the other side of town, carefully lowers plates onto our table.
“Thank you, Paul,” I say.
He grins at me.
“How is your sister?”
“She’s good. Rooting for you guys.”
Sofia laughs. She’s ours. She’s really going to be ours. My head is reeling.
“Tell her I said hi.”
Paul waves and walks back the way he came.
“Can we get a photo for our social media page?” Sara asks. She’s dressed in a red dress and looks so happy.
Devon and I get up and walk around the table, leaning in and smiling.
“I want a copy of this photo,” I say to her.
“Oh, you guys look so beautiful together. I am so happy for you,” Kylie gushes. “Sofia, you came back at the right time.”
“Thank you,” Sophia murmurs and glances at me. I reach out and cover her hand with mine.
She smiles slightly. “I can’t believe your mum managed to match you up. She’s incredible.”
Before I can reach for the plate with the cakes I want to get Sofia to try, Lorelei comes over. “Congratulations.”
She’s wearing gold and looks incredible, but I can see she is really happy for us, and that makes it all a little easier to breathe.
“I heard you matched us,” Mack says.
She sniffs. “I did not. The stones got mixed up. I had Sofia paired up with the Harris Pack.”
“Harris?”
“The grumpy alpha that was paired with Asher. At the last minute, I’d changed my mind and switched the stones. But something rather magical happened, and they got switched back by some miracle.” She looks at me.
I grin back at her. “It was fortuitous.”
“Oh, really?” Sofia gapes at her mother. “Why?”
Mum smiled. “I thought this might be too painful. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m glad it did. Fate or destiny.”
“Sully,” Devon, Mack, and I say at the same time.
“Huh, maybe there is something to him being a Pack Maker after all. Anyway, eat, drink, have fun. When you are ready, you can go, but make sure you are back here for the street party.”
“What street party?” Sophia hisses at us, but Lorelei just kisses her cheek.
“The one we organised tonight. So, be here.”
Sofia groans.
When Lorelei leaves, I grab a plate, carve off a bit with a fork, and hold it out to her. You’d think I'd just offered her the moon. She leans forward and takes the offering.
“Wow, that’s good.”
“I made it. I made most of the cakes, I didn’t know they were for today or here.”
Sophia’s eyes get big. “Oh, I didn’t realise.”
“Realise?” I ask sharply.
“I have a baker. You’re going to make all my dessert dreams come true.”
Devon dissolves into chuckles, while I just smile at her, utterly charmed.
“I will do that happily.”
“Oh, no, I’m not sharing this,” Mack says and grabs his plate of cake and turns away from us. He moans and leans back.
“Nope, if something makes you sound like that, I want to try it,” Sofia says and grabs for his fork.
Danger whines.
“Sorry, little D, you can’t have any cake. But I did bring you a treat. Roast chicken, made by yours truly when I couldn’t sleep last night,” Devon says and starts feeding the pup.
I clear my throat and pull out a box. “I have something for you.”
Sofia stills, looking at the box, her eyes getting huge.
She reaches out and takes it. “Eli, you shouldn’t have.”
“Of course, I should have. But there are two parts. One part is from me, and the other from Mack.”
She opens it.
“The first is the key to the lighthouse. Your key, that is, because…move in? That is from me because I can’t do another night away from you.”
She takes it out and turns it over. I watch carefully as she swallows several times.
“Yes.”
She says it so quietly that I almost think I imagine it.
“You will?” I shout.
“Yes!” She laughs. “I will. Today. Tonight. Forever.”
I lean across the space and kiss her. “You make my dreams come true,” I murmur before I sit back.
“The second part is this,” Mack says softly.
He pulls out his mother’s ring and holds it out to her.
“I contemplated giving it to you when we had our bonding ceremony, but today feels more like the start of our life together. This was my mother’s ring.
She was a wonderful person, and I know she would have loved you.
She wanted me to give it to the omega who won my heart,” Mack whispers and tears up.
I put a hand on his back, gently stroking in wide circles.
He slides the silver ring with its ocean blue sapphire onto her finger. It fits perfectly.
“I’m going to do right by you, Sofia. I’m going to be the best alpha. You will be happy, and you won’t regret this decision,” Mack says.
“Of course, I won’t.”
I notice the silence around us and twist in my chair, checking.
“What is it?” I say under my breath to Devon, noticing his distraction.
“Don’t know, but someone is causing a disturbance, and it’s heading this way.”
White draws my eye, and I look up and find Sully sitting on the railing, glaring at the commotion. The seagull is starting to really freak me out, not that I would admit it to anyone.
“Paul?” I call out. He turns, his face red and unhappy. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. You just eat your cake. It’s nothing for you to worry about at all.”
What? The way he said that makes it sound like we should be extremely worried.
Mack stands up. “Perhaps I should go see.”
“No, if they needed you, they’d say,” Sofia says and takes another spoonful of cake. She moans, and all three of us forget the distractions for a second.
It doesn’t last long. Someone starts shouting. I hear Harry roar back.
Someone else shouts, someone I don’t know, and I hear the words, she cheated. What does that even mean? I stand up, too, and notice that the newly matched alphas from several tables have done the same. Alpha instinct is impossible to deny.
“You have to go!” I hear Lorelei say loudly.
There’s more conversation; a bigger mass of crowd is moving this way. I glance at Devon, who slowly gets to his feet, his eyes narrowed on whatever is coming.
Of the three of us, Devon is the more aggressive and stronger alpha, and I know he won’t tolerate a threat to her. None of us will, but Devon won’t even let it look at her.
Danger starts to growl.
Sofia’s spoon drops to the plate with a clang.
“Danger? What is it?” she asks, and I see resignation before she puts up a mask and hides it.
He pulls back on the lead, struggling hard.
Sofia springs out of her seat and catches him just as his harness pulls off his little body.
“Hey, hey. I got you. It’s okay. What’s wrong?”
Danger whimpers and buries his face in her neck.
Devon, Mack, and I go on full alert. What has taught our puppy to be that afraid?
I put myself between her and the threat and brace.
“Take your hands off me.”
Sofia’s gasp draws my attention. Her head shoots up; her face goes pale.
“No!” she moans.
To my surprise, she bolts, but Mack is faster. He grabs her around the waist and lifts her off her feet, carrying her into the cute Valentine’s Day decorated café. I follow on his heels. As soon as he lets her go, she races for the door, but Devon is there blocking it.
“Talk to me,” he demands.
“No. I have to go.”
“No, talk to me, and then we’ll go. All of us together.”
“This was a mistake. I should have known better. Oh, god, I’m sorry.”
She couldn’t have hurt me worse if she tried, but I shove all that aside because I know she loves me.
“Sofia, just talk to us,” I plead with her.
She peers out the window and whispers something to Danger.
“You have to promise me, no matter what happens, you won’t let anyone else take Danger.”
“What?” Mack asks, confused. He walks towards her, but she backs up, her eyes wide.
“Promise me!”
“I promise,” I say in the silence.
She slumps, but the door opens, and in flood, a whole heap of people we know, all family and friends, burst inside.
“Sofia Sol, what is going on? Why is there a pack out there saying that they are your alphas!”
There’s a ringing in my ears. I can’t hear anything but those words over and over. My lungs ache until I remember to breathe.
She has a pack?
Devon whirls towards the door, his expression and bond inside like thunder. He’s going to kill them.