At lunch the next day, I met Noah at Miranda’s Brew, hoping that the cozier, more intimate environment might take some of the sting off of what I had to tell him. At the very least, it might discourage him from making a scene. We sat at one of the small tables so that we could face each other. Our
Andrew called me as I was closing up the bridal shop that night. Secretly, I had been hoping for more time to come up with a story to tell him about what had happened with Noah, but I supposed that I couldn’t avoid him for long. “Hello?” I answered. “Hi, Crystal,” Andrew said. “How’s it going?”
“Why was I…what?” I asked. “Why were you saying Bob’s name in your sleep?” Andrew repeated slowly. I blinked. Suddenly, the color escaped from my face. I knew that I had screamed for Bob in my dream, had begged him to stop, but I didn’t know that the words had left my mouth in real life. How w
We stayed up talking about the vampires in my dream until the early hours of the morning. I could tell that Andrew was still tense, but the more that we talked, the more that I let him into my world and my mind, the more he seemed to relax. By the time we returned to bed for a few hours’ rest, he wi
“It was Lady Clement’s annual masquerade.” I wasn’t fully versed in the goings on of werewolf’s higher society, but even I knew that Lady Clement was considered to be royalty—like a duchess—among us. Her annual masquerade was where the who’s who of the werewolf world gathered, which led me to one
As we walked down the hall, hand-in-hand, I could tell that Andrew’s mind was still on the fight. I leaned against him, hoping that the reminder of my presence would ease his worries some. Deep down, I knew that it would do nothing in the face of the rift between him and his daughter. “Shouldn’t
That night, Andrew took me to Il Segreto, a high-end Italian restaurant that specialized in guarding the privacy of its clientele. As soon as we arrived, the maître d’ made us surrender our cell phones so that we could not photograph other diners and took us to our own room in the back of the restau
After about thirty minutes of flipping through channels, I gave up and turned off the TV. I threw the remote on the cushion next to me and pulled out my phone, deciding to watch online videos instead. I immediately regretted it. Every social media outlet and tabloid was focused on the shooting,
That night, long after the last of the guests had left for their rooms, Andrew and I returned to the presidential suite to find that the staff had decorated it in preparation for our stay. All the décor, right down to the bed sheets, had been switched out for matching red and gold pieces. The light
Andrew’s eyes met mine as I approached the altar. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. He looked so handsome in his classic black tuxedo that I could hardly wait for after the reception to be with him. As I took my place across from Andrew, I handed my bouquet to Lily. The priestess bega
One month later, I stood in a suite at a private beachside resort, admiring my wedding dress. It hugged my curves in all the right places while still gently brushing against the ground like a low-hanging cloud. Crystals glistened in the room’s fluorescent lights, and the train flowed behind me effor
“Let’s continue this in the bedroom,” I said, breathless. Andrew nodded his agreement. I pulled Andrew to his feet as he stuck the ring box back in his pocket. Then I dragged him back to the bedroom, leading him by the tie. Not that he needed to be dragged; he would have followed me anywhere by th
Andrew texted me and said his flight was delayed by a few errands he had to run, so I waited. And waited. I waited for an entire day, and even began to worry that Andrew had changed his mind. Then I heard a knock at my door. I leapt off the couch and rushed to answer it. Stopping just short of the
Noah left the next day. I took him to the airport, we exchanged a hug and a brief farewell, and then I watched him walk through the gate. That was the last time I ever saw him. With a heavy heart, I returned to an empty apartment. All our furniture and my belongings—what little I still had—were the
Sensing the urgency in Noah’s voice, I leaned in closer. “What is it?” I asked, trying to suppress the anticipation in my voice. Noah’s grip on my hands tightened. “I’m going to study financial law in the human world.” I froze. My heart thumped hard against my ribs, so hard that I thought th
The nightmares did not stop. In fact, they got worse. By the end of that week, I was having at least one every night, and it was showing in behavior during the day. I could scarcely stay awake. At my new branch of Ever After Weddings, I had to sneak off into the breakroom whenever there were no cu
I dreamt of the Lunar Festival. Noah and I walked hand-in-hand through the stalls, enjoying the sparkling lights and the company of our new pack mates. Yet something was off. I could feel a chill in the air, a foreboding that I could not quite shake off. “We should get out of here,” I said, tryi