Chapter 13

After all the shit that had been happening lately, we decided we needed a little break. We needed a little normal in our lives and some time to just relax with our family and friends, especially because some of our pride were still settling in with us.

Wren was definitely the quietest member of our group, but they no longer seemed as shy or as uncomfortable with everyone. Since they’d been hanging out with Logan and Haiden so much lately, they seemed to be coming out of their shell a lot, which I was grateful for. I wanted them to feel safe with us. To truly find a home here within our pride.

And since it was Wren’s birthday this week—the kid was turning nineteen—we decided to celebrate. At first, Wren seemed really nervous about having the focus on them, but they’d also seemed pleased that we wanted to celebrate them. They’d never had a birthday party before, so they were sweet and shy about it. They were so damn adorable.

And now that we were in the middle of the party and they were surrounded by their friends, they looked happy. It was like the kid was glowing. It made me smile every time I looked at them.

“They’re having a great time, don’t you think?” Jude asked me, obviously staring at the same thing I was.

Wren was sitting at the fire pit with Logan, Haiden, Lilibeth, and a few of their friends, including the tiger shifters, Griffin and Reid. Griffin was the one who’d told us that Wren saved them when their safehouse had been attacked all those months ago, and Reid had been there as well. But I don’t really remember talking to him that night since my main focus had been on saving Wren’s life.

They’d both come over to the pride house a couple of times since then, and seemed like good kids. I was happy to see them here today because they both made our little Wren laugh a lot. It was sweet, and I loved seeing them let loose like that.

“Yeah, they really are.” I shot my dyad a small smile. “I was worried they were upset that we wanted to throw something so big.”

Jude was quiet for a moment, still staring at our young magi friend. “I think they’re just not used to having people at all, you know? They told me that they’ve never celebrated their birthday before they knew us, which… I’m pretty sure most magi are in the same boat. It’s not like we did birthdays at the compound.”

“True.”

That made me so glad we’d been buying Wren birthday gifts since they came to work at the TRD a few years ago. Although it made me wonder if we should’ve done more. Should we have thrown them a party before this year? I mean, this was the first year they were an official member of our pride, but maybe we should’ve?—

Jude knocked my shoulder with his arm. “Stop it, bubba. They’re happy. They were happy every year with their gifts, and they’re obviously happy right now.”

I watched as Wren threw their head back in a loud laugh, and I could do nothing but smile at them and let go of my worry. They looked so precious. Jude was right. They were happy. Despite all the shit going on in the world, we were able to give them this night of happiness where they could see just how many people cared about them.

Jude put his arm over my shoulders and kissed my temple, and I leaned into my dyad, allowing our magics to mingle happily.

Later on, we sang Wren happy birthday, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen them so red. I snapped a couple pictures as they blew out the candles. Everyone clapped and cheered.

River took pity on them by pushing them aside and cutting the cake.

I managed to move through the crowd to reach Wren and pulled them into a tight hug.

“You doing okay?” I whispered into their ear.

They squeezed me back and nodded. “Yes. I’m having a great time.”

“Good.” After one more small squeeze, I released them. “You ready to open presents after cake?”

“Do I have to in front of everyone?”

I shook my head. “Not if you don’t want to. You can do it after everyone leaves or just with a couple friends later on. Whatever you want to do. It’s your party.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want anyone to be upset.”

“I’m sure. Do it later, after everyone leaves.”

They sent me a grin. “Thanks.”

I kissed their temple. “No problem, kiddo.”

Before we could say anything else, Charlie grabbed their attention by handing them a piece of cake and saying, “Griffin saved you a seat.” He pointed toward the family room.

“Thanks, Char,” Wren said before taking off in that direction.

Charlie shot me a grin and held up an absolutely humongous piece of cake. “Don’t worry, I snagged you a piece.”

I took it eagerly from his outstretched hand. “Thank you.”

“Only the best for you, my friend.”

I snorted and pointed at him with my fork. “Where’s your piece?”

“I gotta go back to grab one.”

I froze with a bite halfway to my mouth. “This was supposed to be for you, wasn’t it?”

He shrugged.

“You gave me your cake.”

“That’s what a bestie does, isn’t it?”

I laughed and bumped him with my shoulder before I followed him over to Ash and the cake table.

Wren had a wonderful time,but I was kind of glad the party was over because I was exhausted and ready to climb into my comfy bed with my mate.

But first, we had to clean up. Ugh.

“Why do I always get put on trash duty?” I asked no one in particular as I picked up yet another dirty napkin. So gross.

Luce answered anyway. “Because you’re good at it, and we get to laugh at how disgusted you get by picking up other people’s trash. The faces you make…”

I squawked indignantly, then huffed out in annoyance because, well, that was fair. After checking that no little eyes were around, I flipped her off. “You’re only saying that because you got upgraded to kitchen duty this time.”

She grinned widely, and Eva interrupted us, saying, “Yeah, and she better get back to work before she gets downgraded again.”

Luce’s eyes went so wide you would’ve thought Eva had threatened her with her life.

“You heard her. You better get back to work, Luce,” I said, then ran, laughing, as fast as I could out the back door before she could retaliate.

“You better watch yourself, Madeo Ono-Nai! I know where you sleep!” she called after me with a laugh, making a chuckle work its way out of me.

Then I glanced around the yard and sighed. There was trash everywhere. People really were gross. And rude.

But at least we had lights strung up out here so it was easier for me to see everything. Much better than using a flashlight. I decided to walk around the pool and grab all the cups, plates, dirty napkins, and who knew what else that people had left on the ground and fence posts all the way around.

As I picked up the millionth disgusting napkin, I glared at the house and couldn’t help but wonder if Luce or anyone else was watching me. They better not be recording me. I knew exactly how crazy and ridiculous I looked and sounded, muttering to myself the whole time and making disgusted faces. Seriously, so freaking gross.

As I neared the pool house, I thought I heard a noise, so I froze.

There was a sort of… moan or something? Or was it a groan? Had someone hurt themselves?

When was the last time someone checked on the kids? Had Teo or El snuck out of the house and climbed up into the treehouse? Had one of them gotten hurt?

Since I didn’t want to climb a ladder in the dark, I went around to the other side of the pool house where the set of steps that led to the treehouse were.

I was about to put my foot on the bottom step when I heard the noise again. Only, it didn’t sound like it was coming from the treehouse. It sounded like it was coming from the ground a few feet away.

I leaned around the large staircase that Dare and Cos had built and froze.

Holy shit.

Holy. Shit.

Holy. Shit.

Wren was kissing someone.

Wren. Was. Kissing. Someone.

A strange sound came out of my throat. I tried to stop it, I really did, but it came out anyway.

Wren and, of all people, Griffin, jumped apart as if they’d been electrocuted.

Both of them turned to me with wide eyes.

I lifted my hands in surrender, almost dropping my trash bag, and said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Don’t mind me. I’m just… picking up trash. Ha, ha.” I waved the bag around for emphasis, dying on the inside a little because I didn’t know how to escape this very, very, very awkward situation. Goddess, kill me now.

“No, um, you didn’t interrupt us,” Wren said quickly—too quickly.

I lifted a brow because really? That was how they were going to play this?

They stared at me, still using those big innocent eyes, for a few seconds before blowing out a breath and looking at the ground. “Okay, so… I guess you did interrupt us, but…” They trailed off and exchanged a look with Griffin. “We, uh, don’t want to tell anyone yet.”

I blinked at that, then narrowed my eyes at Griffin. He didn’t want anyone to know he was dating or hooking up—or whatever—with Wren? Why the hell not? Was he just taking advantage of them? Wren was the sweetest person in the whole world and deserved to be loved and showed off for the whole world to see and?—

“Mads,” Wren hissed, and the way they said it made me think it hadn’t been the first time.

“What?” I growled out, sounding more like a shifter than a mage.

Wren huffed. “Would you stop trying to murder Griffin with your eyes? He didn’t do anything wrong. We just… this is the first time we… and we haven’t even talked about… anything yet. He’s not trying to, like, hide me or whatever crazy thoughts you’re having. So can you just… let us figure out what we’re doing before you go blab to Lo and Hay? They’re going to rub this in my face because they think I have a crush on Griff, and I said?—”

“You have a crush on me?” Griffin spoke for the first time, sounding surprised and pleased.

Wren went even redder than they already were—apparently, they were capable of blushing even more than they had earlier “Um… yes.”

Griffin stepped closer to them, grabbed their hand, and smiled. “I’ve been crushing on you for a long time. I really, really like you, sunshine.”

Oh my goddess, sunshine. That was so cute it hit me right in the heart—stupid sappiness!

“You do?”

Griffin laughed. “I wouldn’t have kissed you if I didn’t.”

“I really like you, too.”

Goddess, they forgot I was standing here, and if I moved now, they’d probably see me again and possibly want to talk or pull me into… whatever that was. How do I get away from this?

I very slowly put one foot behind me, backing up a tad.

Griffin’s smile widened. “I want to be your partner, if you’ll have me?”

“Really?” Wren sounded breathless.

“Yes. What do you think?”

“So much yes.”

Griffin let out a small laugh and stepped closer to them, hands going to Wren’s waist. “I don’t want to keep you a secret, but I’m fine with waiting until you’re ready.”

“I’m… I’m fine with telling people.”

“Yeah?”

“I like you so much.”

Griffin let out another happy laugh, and I slowly started to back away because I really didn’t want a front seat to whatever this was. Feelings. Blech.

Wren shyly asked, “Does that mean you maybe want to…”

And I turned the corner before I could hear the rest. Then I walked as fast as I could back around the pool and over to the fire pit. I needed to clean up the area, but holy crap, I really wanted to go back inside and talk to Cos about this.

I wouldn’t tell Haiden or Logan, obviously, but my mate would keep this to himself, and I had to tell someone.

I’d never cleaned up anything so fast in my life.

I threw the trash bag in the big garbage can in the back, then rushed back into the house and straight into the bathroom to wash my hands—because people were gross—then ran into the family room where Cos was.

Unfortunately, half my pride was there, too, so I couldn’t just blurt it out.

Cos turned to me with a raised eyebrow, got a look at my face, and stood. He walked over to me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along. I didn’t complain at all as he pulled me up to our room and shut the door.

“I saw Wren kissing Griffin,” I blurted out in a rushed whisper the second the lock clicked.

He stared at me for a beat. “Oh-kay.” He said it slowly, like he didn’t understand why I was acting like this.

“I can’t tell anyone else, so you can’t either because this was their first kiss or something. I feel terrible that I interrupted, but they didn’t even remember I was standing there after a second and they just…” I lifted my hands with my fingertips squeezed tight to my thumbs and pushed the ends together, miming them kissing.

He stared at me for another beat before a bubble of laughter burst from him.

I glared, and it only made him laugh harder.

He walked toward me and pulled me into his chest, nuzzling the top of my hair. “You’re adorable.”

“How dare you,” I growled out, although there wasn’t any heat in it.

He chuckled. “You looked like you were about to burst at the seams if you didn’t tell someone.”

“I… was.” I wrinkled my nose because that was ridiculous.

“Do you feel better now?”

“No.”

He barked out a laugh. “Liar.”

I huffed. “Fine. Sure. I feel better.” I leaned back to look him in the eyes. “But… can you believe it?”

He shrugged. “They seem close, and I had a feeling they liked each other.”

I gaped at him. “You did?”

“Yeah.”

I smacked his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why would I bring that up?”

“Because… because…”

He smirked. “Because you’re the most oblivious person to people having crushes, so you need help in that arena?”

I smacked him again. “I am not.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I knew Jude, Kulani, and River liked each other.”

“Only because you could feel Jude’s emotions, and you still weren’t positive about the other two.”

Since I couldn’t argue with that, I leaned back enough to cross my arms over my chest and glare at him.

He looked amused and satisfied with himself as he held onto my hips. Even though he was being a jerkhat, I didn’t want to pull away, either, so I allowed it.

He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. I held onto my glare, and it made him chuckle before he kissed my forehead and pulled me back in. I grumbled but allowed this, too, and wound up with my cheek pressed to his hard pecs.

“You could at least pretend to be surprised.”

He snorted. “Oh, Mads, I can’t believe Wren and Griffin were kissing!” He said it in a high-pitched mocking voice.

I punched his arm lightly.

He laughed.

So I punched his arm again, although it was more like a tap since I didn’t put any force behind it and I was in an extremely awkward position, anyway.

“Such a violent mage, I have.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.” After a few minutes, I asked, “Do you think we can get away with going to bed right now? Or should we go back down to make sure everything’s good to go?”

“All the food’s put away, the trash is cleaned up, and the kids are already in bed. I think we’re okay.”

“Aren’t there still people in the house? Wren’s friends or whoever?”

“Last I checked, they were all checking out Logan and Haiden’s video game set up. I think they’re planning on bringing stuff down to the family room. They’ll probably be playing games all night. No reason we need to be there with them. If they’re staying the night, Wren, Lo, and Hay can figure out where their friends are sleeping without us.”

I nodded. “Okay. Then take me to bed, kitty cat.”

He used his palm to gently lift my face. His nose brushed against mine as he leaned in and pressed the sweetest kiss to my lips. I sighed into him and started walking backward toward the bed, pulling him with me and smiling against his mouth.