Kaci

The Montana wilderness was gorgeous. I hadn’t really noticed that during my first visit. Of course, back then I’d been stuck in cat form and literally starving. Which meant that Justus’s trial had at least two advantages over Faythe’s trial. For me, anyway.

For Justus, not so much.

The wooden porch steps creaked beneath me as I sat and stared out at the woods. The cabin at my back was the same one I’d stayed in with Faythe and her family after they’d found me in the woods. It was the same one they’d been staying in when Greg was murdered. I wasn’t with them on that trip, but it was hard not to imagine it as I stared out over the grounds where he’d been shot.

But this trip was about Justus.

About justice.

About moving past his trial so we could get on with the rest of our lives.

I hadn’t expected to be nervous. The votes were on our side. No matter what happened, Justus would live, and eventually I’d be able to convince everyone that they had no right to keep us from truly enjoying our marriage.

Eventually they’d let us be alone in a room together. Assuming Justus’s sentence didn’t get in the way.

It was entirely possible, according to Michael, that they would sentence him to “jail time.” Which basically meant locking him up in someone’s basement. Or they could take his claws.

Logically, I knew that taking his claws would be worse, because it was more permanent and would affect his ability to protect himself. But jail time would keep us apart…

The front door of the cabin squealed open at my back, and the scent of coffee wafted over me as the rapid-fire cadence of little Greg’s footsteps thumped toward me.

“Kaci!”

“Hey, munchkin!” Before he could trip down the steps, I grabbed him around the waist and hauled him into my lap. “What ‘cha got?”

“Fris-bee!” He clutched the plastic disk to his chest and struggled to free himself from my grip.

Laughing, I set him on the grass, and he toddled off with his toy.

“He found it in the coat closet,” Faythe said as she sank onto the step next to me and handed me one of the two mugs she held. “How are you holding up?”

“Waiting sucks.” I took a sip from my mug. The coffee was sweeter than I usually took it, but you don’t complain when your Alpha brings you coffee.

“I know. I remember.” For a few minutes, we watched Greg try to throw the Frisbee. Nine times out of ten, he hurled it straight at his own feet.

“Where’s the baby?” I asked, cradling the mug in both hands. I wasn’t cold, but the warmth was still comforting.

“Napping. In Marc’s arms. If we put him down in a strange bed, he wakes up screaming. My mom calls it ‘electric sheet syndrome.’”

“I know.” None of us had gotten much sleep in the two days we’d been in the mountains.

“This is what marriage is like, Kaci.” Faythe sipped from her mug. “Marriage is kids—if you want them—and messes, and sleep deprivation, and compromise, and seeing each other go to the bathroom. It’s cleaning up vomit at three am. It’s all-night fever watches, and coffee breath, and arguing over who was supposed to pay the electric bill.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s also making out on your desk when you think no one’s looking.”

Faythe’s brows rose. “Marriage for shifters is also being comfortable enough in your relationship to be okay with the fact that there’s very little privacy.”

“I know you’re trying to scare me away from Justus, but I want all of those things. Well, not all of them. But I’m willing to deal with the vomit and the open bathroom door if I get all the rest of it. With him.”

She sighed. “I’m not trying to scare you away from Justus. I just want you to understand what you’re getting into. The reality, not the whirlwind trip to Vegas and the huge ring. And I want you to understand that even if you stay married, there’s no rush for kids. You can and should still go to school first. As should he. You should figure out who you are as individuals—and as a couple—before you start making brand new people. Eighteen is really young, Kaci.”

“I know.” I fought not to roll my eyes.

“You may think you know, but—”

“Faythe.” I turned to fully face her on the step. “I hear you. Kids can wait. College shouldn’t. I’m agreeing with you, so you can stop trying to convince me.”

She nodded. Then she took another long sip from her mug with her brows furrowed. “It’s just that…I’m not sure how you could possibly be eighteen already. I swear you were thirteen yesterday. And if you’re ready to be married, then you probably don’t need a mother-figure anymore, so—”

“I still need you, Faythe. I just need you at a little bit of a distance.”

She smiled. “Well, you still have me. At a little bit of a—”

The door squealed open again, and I spun, sloshing coffee over my hand, just as Justus stepped onto the porch. The moment he saw me, he threw both hands in the air in a triumphant gesture. “Not criminally responsible for my actions due to psychological trauma!”

I set my mug down and threw myself at him.

He laughed as he lifted me in a hug. “You do realize they basically just said I was too irresponsible to be held accountable for my own actions, right?”

“That is not what they meant.” I dropped a kiss on his mouth, then let myself slide down his body until my feet touched the porch. “Does that mean there’s no sentence?”

Justus frowned. “What on earth is he doing?”

I followed his gaze to the grass, where little Greg was still trying desperately to get his Frisbee airborne. “Justus! Your sentence!” I demanded.

He laughed again. “One year of service as an enforcer, without pay.” As if he needed a salary. “It’s so that I’m ‘properly trained’ to triumph over my own impulses and urges.”

Unease settled through me. “Where?” What if they were sending him to the Northwest Territory? Or the New England Territory? Or anywhere too far for me to drive to every weekend?

Instead of answering, he turned to Faythe with an expectant look.

She smiled. “He’s replacing Brian.”

“At home?” I squealed. “You knew!”

Faythe shrugged. “It was Marc’s idea.”

“Thank you!” I dropped into a squat and threw my arms around her.

She laughed. “We figured the best way to keep you around a little longer was to keep Justus close.”

“Thanks, Faythe.” Justus tugged me up by one arm. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“What?” I frowned at them both.

“Yup. Here you go.” Faythe leaned back and dug a set of keys from her pocket, then dropped them in his palm. “Fill the tank on your way back, please.”

“Will do.” Justus led me down the steps toward one of the rental cars lined up in the driveway.

“Where are we going?” I asked as he opened the passenger’s side door.

“You’ll see.”

“I want to know now.” But he was already rounding the front of the car.

Justus got into the driver’s seat and started the engine, then he backed out of the driveway. “If I tell you, I’ll ruin the surprise.”

“I’m kind of okay with that, considering that my last surprise landed me upside down in a car in the desert.”

“This isn’t that kind of surprise.” But for the entire twenty-minute drive, he refused to even give me a hint, until we pulled into a parking lot in the closest little town to the cabin complex.

“A hotel?”

“Not just a hotel. The best hotel SmallTown, Montana has to offer.”

“It’s a Courtyard Marriot,” I said as he pulled into a space near the front.

“That is the best hotel SmallTown, Montana has to offer. But I hear there’s an available upgrade that includes a mini-fridge and an extra coffee pod.” He got out of the car and raced around to open my door before I could do it myself.

“Do I get to guess why we’re here?” I asked as he held the door open for me.

“If you need more than one guess, we might have a problem.”

I laughed, hoping he couldn’t hear how very fast my heart was beating. How loud my pulse was—at least in my own ears. “I’m assuming we’re here because everyone at the cabin has shifter hearing. And thinks we’re too young to be married.” Although we were clearly here with Faythe’s blessing, at least.

“That’s definitely part of it.”

“How long are we staying? I didn’t bring my luggage.”

“Everything you need is here.”

“Is that your way of telling me I won’t be wearing anything tonight?”

Justus groaned. “If you could just not say things like that until we’re actually in the room…” He held the hotel door open for me, then he led me to the left, toward the elevators, rather than right, toward the front desk.

“Shouldn’t we check in?”

“We’re already checked in.”

“Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander,” the clerk called.

“How does he know who we are?” I frowned. “Though maybe we should have a talk about how I’m still Kaci Dillon.”

“I don’t care what your name is.” The elevator doors slid open, and Justus walked me backward into it as he kissed me. Inside, he pushed a button on the panel, then pressed me up against the mirrored wall and kissed me some more. “When I made the reservation, I wasn’t sure whether or not my sentence would separate us. I figured this might be the only night we get together for a while.”

My heart slammed against my chest when the doors slid open, and he led me out of the elevator onto the fifth floor. “Unfortunately, there’s no honeymoon suite at the Courtyard Marriott, so we might have to make do…” He pulled a key card from his pocket and stopped in front of the third room on the right. “…with the whole floor.”

“What? Wait. You rented the whole fifth floor?”

He shrugged as he tapped the key card against the door handle, and the light flashed green. “I wanted privacy.” He turned the knob and pushed the door open just an inch. “Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “You don’t have to question everything, Kaci. I’m not going to hurt you. Ever. So please just close your eyes.”

I closed my eyes. A second later, I squealed as he lifted me off my feet, cradling me in his arms like a baby.

No, like a bride.

His back thumped against the door as he pushed it open, then he turned sideways to carry me inside. Through my closed eyelids, the light level changed. It looked dimmer, yet…flickery.

“Okay. Open them.”

I opened my eyes. Then I gasped.

The room was full of roses and…ribbons. I looked up. The ceiling was covered in red balloons. And candles flickered from every flat surface.

“Wait, those are…?”

“Battery powered.” Justus shrugged as he set me on the bed. “The hotel has a policy against open flame, so I had to use fake candles. But the romance is real.”

“Hell, yeah it is,” I said as he lowered himself to his knees and slid my shoes off my feet. “This is all the romance.”

He slid one hand up each of my legs until he found the button at the waist of my jeans. “Kaci, this is only the beginning…”