Chapter 30

Thirty

A couple of days later,I took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen where Remi was cookin' up some breakfast.

As soon as I came in, he set his spatula down and turned to me, asking, "What's wrong?"

I stopped in my tracks. "How do you know somethin's wrong?"

He lifted a brow. "I can feel it." He tapped his hand over his heart, then gestured at me. "And you're all fidgety and acting nervous." He eyed me for a moment. "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything."

Even though I doubted there was anything I could say to make him change the way he felt, I was unsure about askin' for this.

After staring into those soft brown eyes for a small eternity and taking a breath, I said, "I know someone who can run your greenhouses."

He blinked at me, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Not what I expected you to say, but okay. That's great news. Why the hell are you so nervous about telling me that?"

I bit my lip and cringed for a moment before staring at the floor in front of me and puttin' my big boy pants on. "It's my cousin. And I know that maybe it's wrong because he's family, but I swear I'm not just sayin' it. He's really good with plants, and I figured, since you don't mind fae using our magic, that you wouldn't mind if he used his to help grow your plants or whatever. And like I said, I know he's family, so I'm biased, but he really is excellent at?—"

I was cut off by Remi's lips on mine. I'd been so focused on what I was saying that I hadn't even realized he'd moved across the kitchen to reach me. I melted into him and wrapped my arms around his neck. Remi pulled me into his chest, holding me securely in his embrace.

I'd never thought I'd find a place I felt safe and content on such a large scale, but in Remi's arms, I felt like I could live here forever, surrounded by his serenity and love.

Remi broke the kiss, and I chased his lips with mine, making him chuckle and kiss the tip of my nose.

When I blinked my eyes open, I found him staring at me with fond amusement written all over him. I glared. "What?"

His smile widened, and he kissed my nose again. I didn't know what the hell was so fascinating about my nose, but he sure did seem to like it a lot. "I'd be more than happy to hire your cousin."

It took a second for my brain to switch gears from, well, everything Remi and back to the conversation at hand. "Are you sure?"

He ran a hand through my hair and held the back of my head lightly, not letting me look away from his soft gaze. "Of course I am. I already know your cousin's good with plants, so he's perfect for what I'm looking for. I should've thought of him myself. And of course I'm good with him using his magic. Honestly, having someone with magic work on the plants is a best-case scenario for me because that means the plants will do well. That's been a worry of mine since it's so cold here."

"I thought that's what the greenhouses are for."

He nodded and started massaging my scalp. "They are, but I'm not really a plant person, so I have no idea what I'm doing. I didn't want to be stuck with the job myself."

"Didn't you tell me your entire family, like, lives inside of trees or somethin'? How are you not good with plants?"

We were scheduled to visit his family's home tomorrow, so I'd finally see it for myself. But from the way Remi and Tan described Remi's childhood home, it sounded like he lived inside a fairytale house that was literally made out of a livin' tree. I'd thought they were pullin' my leg at first, but they both insisted they were telling the truth.

He chuckled. "I've never had to care for them myself. My family has a bunch of earth witches and fae and other supes that take care of those things. My dad especially sees to the entire coven land and makes sure things are okay. The whole place is just… saturated in magic."

The more I heard about his coven land, the more curious I got.

When Remi kissed the tip of my nose again, I jerked back from my thoughts of our upcoming trip. He sent me a soft smile, released me, and walked over to the stove. "Sorry, I forgot about breakfast. Thank the Mother I turned the stove off before you distracted me."

I snorted and headed for the breakfast bar, climbing onto a stool there. "All I did was walk into the room."

He pointed at me with his spatula. "Exactly."

I snorted again, shaking my head. This man was absolutely ridiculous and always made me smile and laugh.

Definitely a reason I fell head over heels for him.

"Did you find out how James and the others are doing?"

After Luynore had asked me so many times where his men were, I decided to ask Remi myself. Turned out, Luynore was right about them not being in jail. Apparently, Remi had put them in holding cells inside his building. The rooms weren't actual holding cells, but Tan, Isa, and Savelle had warded the rooms so effectively that even Luynore hadn't been able to reach them.

At first, I'd been confused about Remi's actions, but then he'd explained that throwing them in jail meant they were still susceptible to Luynore's obligations, and Remi had known it wasn't their fault they'd broken into the museum. So he'd decided to hide them away to keep them and those around them safe. He didn't tell me so I couldn't reveal their location if Luynore asked.

It had been risky, but there was a good chance my mate had kept James and the others out of harm's way in the end.

After Luynore was killed and their obligations were released, Remi had gone to the king to talk about punishment.

They were doing some community service to work off their debts, but nothing would go on their records, so their jobs should be safe. I wasn't sure how I'd gotten out of doing that, but I suppose being Remi's viramore had a lot of perks. I felt bad that I'd gotten off so easily, but I was tryin' to let go of that guilt.

Remi answered, "Yes. James is fine. Happy to be free of Luynore, just like everyone else is. He seems a little pissed about the community service, but I also think that might be his face…?"

I snorted. "Definitely just his face." I walked over and kissed his shoulder. "Thank you for helpin' them."

He leaned over to kiss my nose and shrugged. "I wanted to because you wanted to."

And I suppose it really was as simple as that for him.

"Oh, on the subject of Luynore's people and jobs… I was thinking about asking your friend if he wanted to come work for me."

I blinked at him. My friend? "Who? Anton? I don't think he'll?—"

His laughter cut me off. "No, goof, your gargoyle friend. Terrell. He needs a job now, right? I thought that maybe I could ask him about becoming a security guard, if he's interested."

My eyes widened. "You are the best mate ever."

He snorted. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Take that as a hell yes. I'll give you his number."

"Perfect." He kissed the top of my head. "You ready to go house shopping today?"

I scooted into his side, humming when he wrapped his free arm around me. "Sort of."

"If this is about money again, you have to know that what's mine is yours, and?—"

"I know." I cut him off before he could go on a whole tirade about it like he had a million times in the past few days. "But you have to know it's going to take time getting used to it, especially because I'm still trying to find a way to contribute to the bills."

It wasn't logical for me to say I wanted to pay for half of everything because there was no way I could find a job making even half of what Remi made. And it wasn't fair for me to ask him to downsize just because of my pride. Especially when we had his family members popping in for visits every ten seconds. We needed all the extra room we could get.

Not to mention needing the space for his wolf to run. Finding a big yard in the city was going to be costly.

But just because I couldn't afford to pay half didn't mean I couldn't contribute by buying groceries or something.

Remi put down the spatula again so he could cup my cheeks. "May'ezza, that's not something you need to worry about right now." He kissed me to cut off my protests. "Yes, I understand you want to contribute, and I'm on board with that. But you can also take your time without having to worry about anything."

I blew out a breath. "Fine."

A slow smile spread over his face, and he nudged my nose with his. "Good." He pressed a soft kiss to my lips and murmured against them. "My little may'ezza."

"I still don't know what that means."

He jerked back to meet my eyes. "What?"

"May'ezza. I don't know what that means."

He blinked at me. "How… why didn't you ask me?"

"Well, at first, I didn't know if you were being nice or callin' me a whore or somethin', and I really didn't want to know if it was the latter."

"I don't know whether to laugh at that or cry."

"Laugh. Definitely, laugh."

He snorted and shook his head. "I can't believe you thought I was calling you a whore."

I shrugged. "Well? What's it mean?"

He chuckled and kissed me again. "Now I don't know if I wanna tell you."

I smacked his side. "Tell me."

"It means sweet beauty. It's a common endearment in Fae'lee that's close to sweetheart." He kissed the tip of my nose. "Sorry you didn't know what it meant this whole time."

"I could've asked or looked it up. I just… I dunno, I liked when you called me it, and I was afraid that knowing would mess it up."

"Does it? Mess it up, I mean?"

I smiled. "Nope. The meaning is as sweet as you are."

He snorted and kissed my lips again but pulled back quickly. "Shit. I forgot about breakfast again." He groaned and gave me a small push. "That's it, out. Get out of the kitchen before I burn the whole building down because I'm too distracted by you."

With a laugh, I swatted his ass as I walked out, my heart feeling warm and whole for the first time in my life.

A knock sounded on the front door, followed by a voice calling out, "Remi? Let us in."

I didn't know him well, but I definitely knew that voice—Ailin Ellwood, Remi's dad.

The door opened before Remi or I could answer it, and a pissed-off witch walked in, saying, "You took down Luynore without us? And you didn't even fucking bother to call and fucking tell us about it?" Before my viramore could respond, Ailin saw me and rushed over.

He looked so scary and intense that I backed up a few steps, but he caught me by the arms and held me in place, lookin' me over.

"Are you really alright? Tan said you're fine, but I just… shit, are you okay?"

I nodded with wide eyes.

Then the weirdest thing of all happened. Ailin pulled me into a hug and whispered, "Nothing's allowed to happen to you. Sorry I wasn't here. You're a part of our family now, kiddo, so I expect you to call me the next time you're in trouble."

Without warning, my eyes felt wet. No one had called me kiddo or anything like it since my parents were alive.

All I could do was nod.

"Make Remi put my and Seb's numbers in your phone if they aren't already. Actually, I'll send you all the Ellwoods. Oh, and you need to be added into the family chat too. Seb, you know how to do that?"

Remi's other dad was standing behind him with a fond grin on his face. "Yep. I'm on it."

Ailin finally released me and gave my shoulder a few awkward pats. "All good, kiddo?"

I nodded again.

"Good." He turned and headed into the kitchen, already yellin' at Remi.

Sebastian walked over and gave me a gentler hug. "I'm glad you're okay, but Ailin's right. You need to call us the next time you're in trouble. We take care of our family."

My throat felt tight, but he didn't seem to need a response because he smiled and went to reel in his mate.

The fact that they both seemed to mean it, that they both seemed to consider me a part of their family, was mind-boggling. And amazing. So fuckin' amazing.

I had a feeling that becoming a part of the Ellwood family would be as much of an adventure as becoming Remi's viramore had been.

And I couldn't wait.