11. Terra

"Rylan. Don't you think you're being a little hard on her?"

My mate shakes his head. "No way. She's the one who asked for this!"

I look at Ember, who is standing across the makeshift boxing gym that Rylan just finished constructing. She's glaring at Rylan, her amber eyes flashing, and a really nice bruise peeks at us from her cheek.

"I'm good, Terra! Come on, Rylan. Don't go easy on me!" she barks as she slams her boxing gloves together.

Rylan shrugs. "If Terra says no, Terra says no."

"Boring," Ember huffs.

I wave at her. "Um. Hi. Hello. Why don't I get you some ointment to put on your face there?"

"Oh, this?" Ember touches the rapidly spreading bruise before she shrugs. "It'll be gone in about an hour."

Normally, I'd say no, that it would probably be purple for at least a day. But with Ember…

I shake my head. "Fine. It's your face. If you want to walk around looking like a blueberry, that's on you."

"As long as I'm the hottest blueberry you've ever seen!" Ember shouts back.

Rylan raises his eyebrows. "Since when are blueberries sexy?"

"Since Ember decided they would be." I wave my hand at her, mentally categorizing how many jars of bruise cream I'm going to have to make once the rest of the pack sees Ember's bruise. Unfortunately, since Ember is kind of a celebrity now, I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot.

The story of how she laid out the crocodile shifter has spread far and wide through our pack. Since Rylan spent the month prior to their epic fight training her, he's gotten quite a few requests to be trained in the "Ember method."

Which, interestingly, has led to another dream coming true for Rylan…

He opened his own gym. We finished construction on it two weeks ago. We opened ten days ago. Since then, there's been a steady flow, if not a large one of people coming in the doors of the gym to train with my wonderful mate.

I think that word is getting around, too, because Rylan's boxing gym is slowly gaining popularity, especially among the younger wolves. The foxes are also coming here more often, in particular Mia's brother Josh.

It's kind of a nice outlet for them, I think. There's been some pack tensions around the foxes, but having Josh and some of the teenage wolves be able to beat the shit out of each other in a controlled way seems to be working to quell them.

Thorne is supposed to come in later today, but as always, Ember's request to train is a priority. She sighs and takes herself out of the ring, unlacing her boxing gloves.

"I still wish that Thorne would just put Chet in here and let us all have a swipe at him," she growls.

"That feels very inhumane, especially because Thorne is very anti-fighting," I respond primly.

Thorne's experience in the Denver fight ring has led him on what one might call a crusade. He found out that, apparently, some of the shifters forced to fight in the ring are coerced, or kidnapped, or are like Rylan… people who have been unfairly exiled. He's working on a petition process where they can ask Oakwood for asylum, but it's pretty unpopular, both with the Bureau and with the pack.

Still. Thorne is Thorne, and the alpha's word is law.

Chet's banishment has to be good enough for us, I guess.

Rylan swoops in and tugs me close as he lays a kiss on my forehead. "You look beautiful today, Terra," he murmurs.

"I do?"

"Positively glowing. Did you perhaps get some morning exercise in?"

I swat at his hands. "Oh, you know I did."

His blue eyes darken. "Perhaps you'd be interested in working out again after this?"

"We just got here like an hour ago."

"And I'm just yearning for another… exercise session," he growls as he bites at my neck.

I giggle. Since Rylan moved into my apartment, it's been pretty nonstop. We're making up for lost time, though. Time that we might never have back, but I'm happy to experience now.

"You guys are gross. You know that, right?"

"When you have a mate, I'm going to say that you're gross," I toss back at my friend.

Ember's eyes flash again. It seems like her temper is very close to the surface lately.

"I don't want a mate," she announces. "At least, not like you. I'll get one so that I don't have to lose my ability to shift, but it's going to be just for the magic. Not for anything else."

My heart squeezes a little. "Em…"

She freezes. A little frown crosses her lips. "Did you guys hear that?"

We both listen, but all I can hear is the wind scraping against the roof of the newly-built gym. I shake my head. "No."

Ember frowns at us. She tosses her boxing gloves over her shoulder. "I'll be right back."

"Thorne is coming in twenty minutes if you want to see him!" I call after her.

"I don't!" she says back. I hear the door slam, then sigh.

"She's okay, right?" Rylan asks.

I shrug. "Who knows. I think she's fine. Ember is… Ember. She's kind of a force of nature."

"I get that," he chuckles. "But still. I worry that the time in the arena… changed something in her."

I know what he's talking about. Since she came back, Ember is… different. Tougher. Angrier.

She seems like she has something to prove, even more so than before.

I turn and tuck my nose in Rylan's shoulder. "I think that if she needs help, she'll let us know."

"Hmm. I see," he murmurs. I feel his lips touch my forehead.

I sink into him. It's moments like this that I love the best. Little things, touches and words and moments together that I didn't have while he was exiled.

I look up, my chin on his chest. "I love you, Rylan."

"I love you, Terra."

"What do you say we hit the showers before Thorne gets here?"

His eyes gleam. "I thought you'd never ask."

Rylan scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder, and I laugh as he hauls me to the shower.

This is what I wanted.

Me. And my mate.

Together.

Forever.