Page 97 of Wild Fires

I didn't think he could possibly understand how much I wanted that, no, needed it. I craved a family again. Mine had been ripped from me at such a young age, but I was old enough to remember how happy we'd been and all the good times we’d had.

“I want a life and a family with you. Someday,” I confessed. “I'm happy to just keep practicing for now.”

He kissed me again and grinned.

“We still have some things to work out.”

He hit just the right spot and I cried out in pleasure. Why the hell were we talking right now? What had we been talking about? Oh yeah, I vaguely remembered.

“I'll never be perfect. Therefore, we'll never be perfect, so there will always be something to work out.”

My words were coming out breathier by the second.

“I don't need perfect, Gracie. I just need you. Will you have me?”

“Pretty sure I'm giving myself to you right now,” I muttered.

He laughed. I was on my way to seeing stars and he was laughing?

“I love you, Gracie Montgomery Davenport.”

I gasped as he added his last name to mine, and then I felt the bite as he sank his beak into my neck.

“Yes!” I cried out, calling on my raven to bite him back before he could change his mind.

In that moment, my whole world shattered around me as I came in an Earth-shaking orgasm and felt him let go too.

I clung to him with tears streaming down my face.

Mine! my raven cawed.

For one perfect moment I was entirely at peace, a level of perfection I never dreamed I'd achieve. It felt oddly like resurrecting. I was shedding Gracie Montgomery and being reborn as Gracie Davenport. And it made me feel whole in a way I couldn't even put into words.

As my beak receded and he broke his grasp on me, allowing me to slide down the wall until my feet hit the floor, I just stared at him in complete awe.

“You’re stuck with me now.”

“Always and forever.”

“I love you, Ryan.”

“I love you too, Gracie.”

He picked me up and gently carried us back to my bedroom.

Our bedroom, I thought.

“Wait,” I said. “You can't do this to me again. We have forever to be together. We are going to that party tonight.”

He chuckled. “I know. I just need to get dressed first and you might want to fix your hair and touch up your makeup.”

“What, you don’t want everyone knowing you came home and ravished me tonight?”

“Oh, I want the whole world to know that. I'm ready to fly around and scream it from the sky so all of Ravenden knows that you are mine.”

I sighed. “I am, aren't I?”

“Yes Mrs. Davenport. Now, final call, go or no go.”