Stay

“Of course.” I took both of his hands in mine. “But only if you really want this.”

“Of course I really want this.” He fell down onto one knee. “Here, I’ll ask you again more formally.” He pulled out a breathtaking sapphire ring. “Be with me, Casey. Promise to be with me in every way for the rest of your life.”

I nodded, trying to blink away the tears. “Yes. I’ll marry you, mate with you, whatever we decide to call it.”

“Let’s just call it love.”

“I like that term.”

“Good.” His lips brushed against mine. “Because love is exactly what I feel for you. It’s what I’ve felt for you for months, and it gets stronger every day.”

“I feel the same way.”

His lips moved from my lips over to my neck. “You’re so beautiful.”

“You say that a lot.”

He left tiny kisses all the way down my neck as he started to unzip my dress. “Because you are.”

“And you’re handsome and have beautiful wings. Remember?”

“Speaking of wings.” He finished unzipping my dress, and it fell to the floor.

I started unbuttoning his shirt. “Yes?”

“I’d like to see yours right now.”

“Yeah? We haven’t done that in a long time.”

“It seems fitting tonight. I mean it was your almost coronation and our engagement.”

“And we don’t have to feel guilty anymore.” I pushed off his shirt and stepped back long enough to pull his t-shirt over his head.

“We never have to feel guilty.” He unclasped my bra and tossed it on the floor. His lips found my breast moments later.

I moaned as I slipped my hand down into his boxers. He groaned, pulling my panties off agonizingly slow.

I let myself transform, releasing my wings at the same time that his hand slipped between my legs. I sensed his transformation as I gently stroked him. His whole body temperature heated, including what I held in my hand. Everything got hotter, and I found I couldn’t resist him anymore. I pushed down his boxers, wanting nothing standing between us.

He picked me up and carried me over to the bed. He cradled my head in his hands as he gently kissed me. I was so focused on the kiss that I wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“Toby!” Being quiet wasn’t an option as he thrust into me with his full length over and over. My nails dug into his back next to his wings as I tried to hold myself together.

“I love you, Casey,” he breathed out.

“I love you too.”

He made me scream over and over as he pushed me over the edge, not once but twice. Sex while transformed was so much better, so much more raw and intense, and I was going to get to do it anytime I wanted to for the rest of my life. Toby shuddered finding his release. He cradled me in his arms, and we both retracted our wings before lying down on the bed.

“You’re amazing Casey,” he whispered against my ear.

“So are you.” I snuggled into his arms as deep as I could get. Toby was still my happy place, and he always would be. I was going to stay with him forever, and he was going to stay with me.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jared

Love is weakness. At least that’s what I always believed. It was a feeling that needed to be stamped out whenever possible. My belief had been slightly tampered after watching Allie and Levi together, but I tried to convince myself that was different. That was Levi. It wasn’t me.

But there are certain kinds of love that can’t be ignored and stamped out. There’s the love you can’t help but follow to the ends of the earth. There’s also loyalty and honor that both seem to overlap with love far too often for my taste.

Discovering that my brother was a traitor broke me, but it was nothing compared to finding out the truth about my father. Not only was he a traitor, but he sent away my mother—the only good person in my family. I said it; the only good one. Because I wasn’t good. Was I? I’d hurt more women than I could count, and I was done being able to rationalize it because they’d been willing. I’d still used them and hurt them even if they were using me in exactly the same way.

Levi pretended my family’s dark behavior didn’t change his opinion of me. He claimed it didn’t change his desire to have me in charge of security, but I knew that if I had any hope of redeeming myself, or my family name, I needed to step down. It was time for the Florence family to leave the Laurent’s in peace. Levi would always be like a brother to me, and my loyalty would remain tied to the royal family for life, but I was done serving them directly. He needed a better man to take that job.

It wasn’t as easy to leave as I thought. I’d stood outside Levi and Allie’s house for hours debating whether to tell him face-to-face I was leaving, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t step up and do the honorable thing. Instead I slipped a letter into the mail slot and took a slow walk back to my place. Or at least the place that would be mine for another few hours. Owen and I were both moving out. The difference was Owen was staying in the city. I wasn’t. Normally I would have flown. I would have enjoyed even the short moments of being airborne. But I didn’t. Walking seemed the more appropriate form of movement that night.

“You’re leaving.” Vera’s voice startled me in the dark. I was startled so much more now. My experience in the cave had messed me up more than I wanted to admit.

“Yes I am.”

“I’m coming with you.” She caught up with me, letting her pace match mine. Her long legs were shorter than mine, but I wasn’t walking fast.

“You don’t even know where I’m going.”

“You’re going to find your mom.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to her. “What makes you say that?”

“I could see it in your eyes yesterday. You’re not going to let this go if there’s even a tiny possibility that she’s alive.”

“Am I crazy?” I wasn’t sure why I wanted her opinion, but I did. A small part of me needed someone to tell me I was doing the right thing.

“Yes, but not because of this.”

I smiled for the first time that evening. “I can’t give it up.”

“And you shouldn’t. You should never give up on the ones you love.”

“I don’t love that many people.”

“You do love some. You love Levi, you love Allie, you love your mom. That’s how I know you can do this. You found, Levi, didn’t you?”