Bite the Bullet (Bitten Book 5) (28 page)

I bit back a grin at the incredulous expression on Finn’s face at her words.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again,” I answered.

Kerry’s eyebrows arched and I realized she saw my statement as a challenge.

“Shit,” I murmured beneath my breath.

As everyone paired off with their mates, hugging and kissing, I wrapped my arms around Asher’s waist. “Were there any casualties?” I asked softly.

“A few,” he replied.

“Duncan and Luca?”

“They made it. Luca was injured, but he’ll heal in a few days. Duncan is fine.”

My body relaxed. “Thank God.”

Asher tilted my face up toward his and lowered his lips to mine. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“Me too.”

He kissed me again, deeper and longer this time. When he lifted his head, he murmured, “We can go to my home tomorrow. Then, as soon as you’d like, we can get your things from your apartment.”

I nodded. Any other day and I would have argued with his assumption that I would just move in, but after tonight I didn’t want to spend a single night away from him.

“God, it’s Christmas in a few days. I haven’t even gotten you a present.”

Holding me closer, Asher leaned down and whispered in my ear, “You’re the best present I could have gotten.”

I closed my eyes and smiled, laughing lightly. “You are such a sweet talker.”

We separated when I heard Calder say, “I’m taking you to the compound and calling the pack doctor.”

I turned my head and saw that Calder had knelt at Ricki’s feet and was palming her stomach. My eyes widened.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, walking around a debris pile toward them.

Ricki shook her head. “I feel okay, but, for once, I agree with Calder. I’d rather get checked out just to be safe.”

Kerry came closer. “I know I’m not a doctor, but I could check the baby for you,” she offered. “Or I could call the coven midwife.” When she saw the expression on Calder’s face, she lifted a hand. “Don’t look at me like that. Gwendolyn is a medically trained midwife and she has a practice in McKinney. It might be better to have a witch midwife check her out right now than wait hours for your doctor to arrive.”

Calder hesitated, but Ricki nodded. “If you don’t think she’ll mind, please call her.”

Kerry nodded, then paused. “Where in the hell is my phone?”

“I’ll get it,” Finn said, leaving the room quickly.

Asher and Conner walked over to Cornelius’ corpse. Conner squatted down and examined the body before turning to Kerry.

“How do we dispose of him?”

Kerry shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure. To be safe, I’d say take the head and the heart, burn them in two separate fires and pour them into two different running bodies of water.”

Conner’s eyes widened. “Do you think he could come back from this?”

“I’m not sure,” she answered. “But I don’t want to find out the hard way.”

“I’ll get my battle axe and a dagger from upstairs,” Conner told Asher. “I’ll be right back.”

That was our cue to leave.

I looked at my friends. “Ladies, unless you want to watch this, I suggest we go upstairs and have a drink.”

Ricki looked green at the idea of watching Conner and Asher behead a body and cut out the heart. “Good idea.”

“I’m going,” Donna said, moving over to Conner for a quick kiss.

“Me too,” Ivie chimed in. “I could definitely do without seeing an autopsy tonight.”

I made a face at her word choice, but she did have a point.

Kerry shook her head. “I’m going to stay down here. Just in case.”

“Do you want me to—”

“No, you go upstairs with those three. Right now, they’re probably still in shock. When it hits them what just happened, they’ll need you.”

I put a hand on her arm. “What about you?”

She smiled at me. “I’ll fall apart later.” Putting a hand over mine, she squeezed gently. “How about you?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered with a shrug. “I’m sure it’ll hit me later. Hopefully when it’s just Asher and I.”

Kerry smiled at me. “Those are words I never thought I’d hear you say.”

“What?”

Her grin widened. “That you don’t want to fall apart until you’re alone with your man.”

“And?” I asked.

“You never wanted to lean on anyone before, not even me or the other girls.”

“You think that?”

Had I really been that way?

“Sweetie, I’m glad you finally have someone you trust enough to lean on. You’re tough as hell and you need to be able to let go sometimes. Asher will help you do that.”

Conner returned in that moment, carrying an axe in one hand and a dagger in the other.

“That’s my cue to leave,” I told Kerry. “I’ll see you upstairs.”

I kissed Asher’s cheek on my way out the door.

As I climbed the steps, I noticed that I felt lighter than I had in a very long time, going back to before this insanity had begun.

I realized that the burden I’d thrown off wasn’t Cornelius and the Faction. The weight was lifted because I trusted that Asher would be there if I needed him.

I
let my
gaze wander over the reconstructed ballroom in Conner’s home, marveling at how quickly he’d gotten the construction crews to rebuild it. It was more beautiful than before.

A glass of champagne appeared on the table in front of me and I looked over to find Asher standing to my left.

“Thanks, babe.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek as he settled into the chair next to mine.

“What were you looking at?”

“Just admiring the work that Conner had done in here. I can’t believe he had it done in eight weeks.”

Asher chuckled. “A man in love can accomplish a lot when he puts his mind to it.”

Ricki lowered herself into the chair to my right with a sigh. “I swear, Calder is driving me nuts.”

I looked over at her. “Why?”

“He won’t let me do
anything
for myself,” she complained. “I was just at the buffet and he literally took the plate out of my hand because he said I shouldn’t have to get my own food.”

Though she was only five months pregnant, Ricki looked much further along. I was hesitant to ask her about it, but Asher explained that shifters had a much shorter gestation period than humans. Something about a faster metabolic rate.

“Ummm, are you gonna take my head off if I tell you I think that’s kinda sweet?” I asked, sipping my champagne.

Ricki stared at my glass longingly. “No, but I might bite off your hand for that champagne.”

“Ricki,” I drawled.

“I know, I know,” she sighed in response. “No booze until this pup is born.”

I couldn’t help myself. I grinned at her. “It’ll be worth it. I promise.”

She smiled back at me, massaging her belly. “I know. I’m just cranky because I either have to pee constantly or I can’t breathe.”

Calder approached the table carrying two loaded plates. I was pretty sure Conner and Donna decided on a buffet dinner at the reception instead of a sit down just for Ricki and the other werewolves in attendance. Those shifters could pack the food away.

When Calder set the plate in front of Ricki, she frowned at it. “Where’s my sushi?”

He sat next to her. “You can’t have sushi. The doctor said no raw fish.”

Ricki growled low in her throat. “I can’t have sashimi, but Donna told me that everything on the buffet was cooked so it wouldn’t be an issue.”

My eyes widened. This was a side of Ricki I wasn’t familiar with. Apparently, pregnant werewolves took their food
very
seriously.

Calder smiled serenely at her. “I’ll go get you some.” Then he was gone.

She turned to me. “See what I mean?”

I leaned toward her. “I think it’s sweet, hon.”

“I know,” she sighed. “It really is. I swear, every time I wake up in the middle of the night, he’s got his hand on my belly.”

“Then why are you being so mean to him?” I asked.

“Considering how uncomfortable I am already and that I have at least another four to six weeks of this, I’m getting my revenge on him for knocking me up.”

I had to laugh. “Okay, that actually makes a twisted kind of sense.”

Ricki grinned back at me. “I know.”

“Dance with me,” Asher whispered in my ear.

I told Ricki I’d see her later, got to my feet, and let Asher lead me onto the dance floor. Conner had Donna locked in an embrace at the front of the dance floor, but she didn’t seem to mind it one bit.

As Asher pulled me into his arms, I smiled up at him. “I feel like I haven’t had a chance to talk to you all night.”

“I feel the same,” he murmured, resting our joined hands over his heart.

“It was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?”

He looked down at me, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth. “Is that a hint?”

I shook my head. “Oh, no. If we don’t elope, I want the smallest wedding we can plan. Outdoors, just our closest friends, and then a picnic, dancing, and games afterwards. I’d want to keep it simple.”

“Are you proposing to me?”

I gaped up at him. “What?”

“You’re asking me to marry you, aren’t you?” he asked.

“What? No! Absolutely not.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, his mouth to my ear. “Because my answer would have been yes.”

I pinched him discreetly. “I may be independent and modern in a lot of ways, but if we’re going to get officially engaged, you have to do the asking,” I muttered beneath my breath.

Asher spun me out and then back into his arms. “Understood.”

“Good.” I turned my head and rested it against his chest, closing my eyes.

The last two months had been like nothing I’d expected.

Contrary to what Asher suggested the night of the final battle, we didn’t move into his house right away.

Instead we stayed with Conner and Donna through Christmas. We helped with the clean up that was left behind after the battle.

By the time that was done, it was two days before Christmas and Donna insisted we at least decorate a tree in the living room and spend the holiday with them.

Asher, in his usual perceptive manner, recognized that my friends and I all needed that time together, so he didn’t say a word.

The five of us and our mates spent a beautiful Christmas together. We ate delicious food, which had been cooked by Conner and, to my surprise, Asher. Apparently, owning a restaurant together meant you learned a few things about cooking.

We drank cocoa and watched holiday movies. It felt just like old times. Though we tried to remain cheerful, we were all shell-shocked. Too much had happened in such a short period of time. The adjustment period wasn’t over.

None of us had seen or heard from Rhys. Kerry tried to find him using spells and scrying in a mirror, but nothing worked. It was as if he’d vanished off the face of the earth.

As for me, I had nightmares about that night. Dreams about what could have happened instead of what did. Dreams in which everyone I loved died while Cornelius forced me to watch.

What I didn’t realize when I woke up from these nightmares, was that I was sharing them with Asher. Usually, I tried to turn over and go back to sleep, making an effort not to wake him. I knew from experience that they would eventually pass, and that there was little I could do to change that.

Finally, one night after a particularly bad one, he rolled into me and wrapped his arms around me. “I need you,” he whispered.

I clung to him, pressing my lips against his bare shoulder. “I need you too.”

“Are you having dreams?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Me too.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” I murmured.

When he told me what he saw, I went rigid. “That was my dream. Everything you described was exactly what I was dreaming.”

After that night, any time I had a bad dream, we would cuddle together, talking or just lying in silence, until we fell back to sleep.

Once Christmas was over, Asher moved me into his absolutely breathtaking Craftsman-style home. While it was gorgeous, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

Considering Asher’s style, I thought he would have an ultra-modern, sprawling complex.

My surprise at his home must have shown on my face or he felt it through our connection, because he asked, “Not what you expected?”

I walked through the foyer and into the living room, shaking my head. “Not exactly.”

He followed me as I moved from the living area to the dining room. “You don’t like it?”

I turned to face him, standing in the middle of his dining room, which was filled with warm toned woods and amazing natural light. “I love it. It’s gorgeous. It’s the kind of home I’ve always dreamed of owning.”

“But?”

I grinned at him. “I thought you’d have a house full of glass and concrete in the middle of the city somewhere. Not a turn of the century home in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the area.”

Asher smiled back at me. “I love this place. And I love concrete and glass too. I have a house in Aspen that resembles what you’ve described.”

“A house in Aspen?”

He chuckled. “Rather than have one massive estate here, I like having homes in different places.”