Chapter 25

After I’d given my statement about a million times, Director Dipshit had taken my advice to check into the Supreme Rose’s father. Turned out, he’d also been a witch and was the original Supreme Rose, and had been the one to start the entire Red Cloth cult over two decades ago. Apparently that position had been passed down, but as of right now, it didn’t look like anyone had taken Rubin Telum’s place, but that was something everyone was on the lookout for.

It seemed that without the Supreme Rose and Anderson around, most of the Red Cloth’s force was having trouble hiding from us. It helped that news of my, uh, explosion taking out the entire witch force that attacked our home had gotten out. The news also talked about me killing both the Supreme Rose and Anderson, who they’d deemed as the second-in-command. A bunch of witches ran scared and had been captured by the TRD, and for once, a few of them ran their mouths.

We had some names, and from those names, the TRD was able to hunt down other witches. And so the pattern went until we hadn’t seen a witch attack in over a week.

Of course, I didn’t have anything to do with the capture of all those witches. Neither did my mate or any of our teammates. Jude and I had been forced to stay in the hospital for a week, and Ben and Harriet were only coming home today.

I’d been home for three days already, and I was going crazy with not being able to do anything.

Part of me liked being waited on all day long, but most of me was really sick of being lazy in bed or on the couch.

“You’re not being lazy, Mads,” Cos said with a sigh, obviously sick of telling me this. “You’re recovering from a deadly injury. There’s a difference.”

Since I was oh so mature, I stuck my tongue out at him.

He surprised me by reaching forward quickly and trying to grab said tongue.

I slapped his hand out of the way, yelling, “Hey! Gross. And rude.”

He snorted. “It’s rude to stick your tongue out at people, so I think that was fair.”

I flipped him off instead of sticking out my tongue this time, and he snickered, which made me chuckle.

“You, like, read my mind again,” I said after a minute. Not that he’d been hearing my thoughts, but he kept picking up on what I was thinking about, and I’d been doing the same to him. “About me thinking I’m lazy.”

He waved me off. “Pretty sure any one of our pride mates could’ve guessed what you were thinking about.”

I lifted a brow. “Maybe, but you knew what I was thinking about.”

He nodded his head in acquiescence. “True.” He hesitated, then after a few long seconds, asked, “Does it bother you?”

My brow furrowed. “Does what bother me? That everyone knows what I’m thinking? I mean, no. Not really.”

He waved me off. “No, baby. Does it bother you that I actually know what you’re thinking?”

I stared at him in disbelief. “If you’re so good at reading me, how can you not know what I think about that?”

He didn’t respond, just kept staring at me.

“No, kitty cat, it doesn’t bother me. I actually kind of like it. Especially when I’m the one who can read you like a book. I… I like it.”

His entire body seemed to relax, and he leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on my lips. I wanted to deepen the kiss, but we were in the family room with several pride members around us while we waited for Ben and Harriet to get home.

Cos was going to go pick them up, but he was very hesitant to leave my side—I was hesitant to let him—so Haiden, Logan, Dare, and Zara told him in no uncertain words that they were going to get them and he was staying home. After he called Ben and Harriet to make sure they’d be okay with that, he agreed more easily than I’d expected.

Because he was still freaked out by what happened.

I didn’t blame him. I was freaked out, too.

But my poor mate had been having nightmares and waking up crying and holding me to him tightly like he was afraid I would disappear… like he was afraid I hadn’t really come back to him.

Reaching over, I picked up his hand and lifted it to my mouth to press a kiss there, then I laced our fingers and placed our combined hands in my lap. He offered me a sweet smile in return, and I was happy to see no hint of his nightmares haunting him in the daylight. They did do that some days, but I was hoping it would start happening less and less. Hopefully.

I didn’t really know what to do for him other than to hug and hold him and try to touch him as much as possible to reassure him I was still here. Time was probably the only thing that would help.

There was that stupid time thing again. Ugh.

But at least now we were on this side of it. We were safe. Our enemies were long gone and weren’t coming back. Our country was working on equality between all species.

I mean… it was… really good.

Well, okay, no. It wasn’t good. Not yet. But it was sure as hell on the way to being good.

We’d fought for our freedom and won.

We’d fought our enemies and won.

We were here. We were together. We had our pride.

So… we won.

We won, and now we’d get to live our lives the way we wanted to.

The front door opened, bringing me out of my musings.

Cos smiled at me, stood, and pulled me up even though I was perfectly capable of standing on my own. But I let him because he needed to feel like he was taking care of me, and I… I needed that, too.

Ben came in first, and I was so happy to see him on his feet. He was moving slowly and had a big bandage on his neck, but he was moving. We’d put the dog outside for the moment, with plans on letting him back in after everyone was settled. I was sure at least a couple of the cats would come to explore soon.

Cos and I rushed forward to beat everyone else there, and when we reached Ben, I didn’t hesitate to pull him into my arms.

“It’s so good to have you home, brother,” I whispered.

He and Scarlett would be staying in the big house for a few weeks while Ben recovered. It hadn’t taken a lot to convince them. They wanted to be here with us as much as we wanted them here. Everyone wanted to help take care of him… and Scarlett. She might not have suffered many physical blows, but she’d definitely suffered emotional ones.

We all had.

“Glad… to be… here.” His voice was raspy and sounded unused and like it was difficult to talk. Because it was. We hadn’t been sure if he’d even be able to talk again, so hearing his voice made me let out a choking noise.

I leaned back to stare at him. “You spoke.”

He smiled. “Surprise.” He cleared his throat. “Can only… a little… for now.”

I nodded and pulled him back into a hug, then I kissed the side of his head and let Cos have a go at him while I pulled Scarlett into my arms.

“Good to see you, baby sister.”

She snorted at that. “Likewise, big brother.”

I released her, and we shared a grin before Jude stole her away in a big bear hug. He winked at me over her shoulder, and I smiled before turning to one of my dearest friends.

Harriet stood beside Lilibeth, her shoulders a bit hunched over, a hand wrapped over her stomach. I could tell she was in pain from the trip here, but when her eyes met mine, she smiled.

I smiled back even as tears formed in my eyes. “Harriet,” I breathed out.

“Hey, Mads.”

I walked over and pulled her into the gentlest hug I possibly could. “Goddess, it’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to be seen.”

That made me snort even as a tear fell. I hugged her for a full minute before I whispered, “I’m so fucking sorry, Harriet. So fucking sorry.”

She seemed to startle, and she pushed me back to look me in the eyes. “What in the world for?” She stared at me for a moment, then huffed. “Madeo Ono-Nai, it wasn’t your fault, for crying out loud. You can’t control another person’s actions, Mads. None of this was your fault. No one blames you, okay? Not even a little bit.”

I sniffed and nodded, even though I wasn’t so sure about that. My chest felt tight with emotion—some of it was leftover anxiety over what happened and waiting for Ben and Harriet to come home, but some of it was the warmth I felt from her words, and the fondness for this sweet human.

Who would’ve thought I’d ever have not one but two humans who I not only liked but that I loved and considered family?

“Thanks, Harriet.”

She tsked and pulled me back into a hug. “Hush, you, and walk me to the couch. We can watch movies and make everyone else serve us for the rest of the day.”

I laughed. “That sounds like a brilliant plan.” I pulled out of her hug and turned to Ben. “You in?”

He smiled and nodded, giving me a thumbs-up, clearly unable to use any more words at the moment.

The group of us walked into the family room and settled in. Ben and Scarlett got a big armchair. Since it was made for shifters, they both managed to squeeze in. Poppy didn’t hesitate to climb into my lap while Licorice came over to demand pets from literally everyone in the room, and Mango lay on the couch behind me. Cos wrapped me in his arms with Tater Tot sitting on his feet, and Harriet sat beside me and held my hand for a little while. Halfway through the first movie, she moved over to sit with Lilibeth, and Jude joined me on the couch, bringing Dorito with him. He pressed his shoulder to mine, and I pressed back as our mates gathered around us.

Even though I’d been so antsy and ready to get out of the house earlier, with my entire family, my pride, surrounding me, I felt secure, loved, cherished, safe, and… home. And I definitely wanted to stay here with them as long as possible.