The Seer sat back in her chair and smiled. She’d been invited by Thalos to his home in the mountains of Corfu. She’d said yes, of course. She loved the place, and any chance she got to return to her beloved Greece, she took.
Not that she could stay for long with the things happening among the shifters and other preternatural folk, but she deserved a break, and this long weekend was just the thing. In the ten months since she’d last seen Thalos, it seemed much had changed. For a start, that reprobate Spirakis was now living here too. Full-time, it seemed. He’d gone and fallen in love, and with the witch Marina, no less.
There were screams and splashes as Spirakis chased Marina through the waters of the pool Thalos had built. Or rather, had paid someone to build because some things never changed.
Ariadne played a game of tug-of-war with one of the three puppies that now lived up here with her and Thalos. She kept finding them on the streets and bringing them back home. And he let her. Hell, Ayina believed that male would let his female do almost anything if it kept her happy.
At that moment, Thalos walked out of the door to the house, carrying a tray of drinks. He placed it on the table next to Ayina and smiled at her.
She shielded her eyes with her hand and looked over at him as he sat opposite her. “I heard you’d sold the apartment block in New York.”
“How the hell…?” He shook his head.
“Not a vision, more of a prosaic matter of keeping my ear to the ground.”
He sighed. “You’re a nosy gossip, Ayina.”
Anyone else saying such a thing to her and she might be angry, but Thalos had always gotten away with too much. Part of her knew it was because he was one of her favorites. She’d always liked the bad boys. He’d grabbed life by the throat and had lived the hell out of it for centuries. And now that he’d found love, he did the same. Put his heart on the line and loved fearlessly. He didn’t play games or try to be all macho by hiding how he felt. Ariadne was his princess, and he’d put her on a pedestal so damned high, the gods themselves wouldn’t be able to touch her on it.
“What are you going to do with the proceeds? Invest in something else?”
He took a swig of his beer and nodded. “Yeah.”
She waited for him to tell her he was opening a casino or buying a yacht or something. But he smirked at her.
“I’m opening a dog shelter here on Corfu and a second on Crete. No-kill shelters that will find all the dogs good homes and keep the ones who can’t be rehomed safe for the rest of their lives. The rest of it, I’m giving to the charitable foundation Ariadne runs.”
He couldn’t have surprised Ayina more, and she found herself choked up with emotion for a moment. When she’d swallowed it down well enough to be able to speak without her voice cracking, she shot him a happy smile. “You make me proud, Thalos. When I turned you into a shifter, of sorts, I was told it would be a mistake. That the Centaurs were all wanton and immoral beings who’d never contribute anything of value. Sadly, some of your brethren proved this to be true. Others went mad from boredom and loneliness. But you two—” she indicated him and Spirakis, still splashing in the pool “—you survived, and then you found love. And there’s no greater thing on this earth than love. In the end, it’s all that matters.”
“Yes, it is.” He fixed her with a sharp stare. “And when are you going to find it for yourself, Ayina?”
His question shocked her, and she blinked twice before taking a drink of the wine he’d placed by her. “It’s not for me to have such things in my life.” She tried to keep the sadness out of her voice.
“Times are changing, Seer. Perhaps you should take what you want from this world.”
And with those words, he got up and walked over to his female. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her tightly, nuzzling her neck with his nose and smiling into her hair.
They were beautiful and in love. And for the first time in…perhaps forever, the Seer felt a twinge of envy.
She closed her eyes and let the sun warm her as she listened to Ariadne tell Thalos all about the new puppy. When the Seer opened them again, it was to see the two of them looking at one another with so much love in their eyes her envy disappeared as she let herself bathe in the joy they created around them.
The two of them made a perfect pair. So different but, in the end, so right for one another. It made her pleased to see in this world so full of pain.
Sometimes, she mused, love did win out. These two were living proof of that. She closed her eyes once more and let their happy chatter wash over her as the warm sun beat down on them all.
Thank you for reading this Zodiac Shifters romance.
A shifter’s mate is in the stars… Welcome to Zodiac Shifters, a collection of books with an astrological spin on love. From Aries to Virgo… discover all-new tales of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Zodiac Shifters features New York Times, USA Today, and other bestselling authors. Each month expect new releases based upon the twelve astrology signs. Happily Ever After… it’s our promise to you.
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If you want to learn more about the Seer and the wolf shifters then you can check out my Shifters of the Glen series: