Chapter 218: Chapter 221

Chapter 221 *

Audrey Edwin kicked the door open-or at least, that’s what I thought he did, but my eyes were covered by his tie-with his boot, sending it crashing against the wall so hard I thought it might break something.

I gasped, clutching my mate tightly. “Edwin, what are you-”

Before I could finish, I felt myself being lowered to the ground, Edwin’s hands steady on my waist to keep me balanced. Then, with a gentle tug, he pulled his silk tie away from my eyes.

I blinked, adjusting to the light, and frowned when I saw the second ‘surprise’ that Edwin had been talking about all day.

“A... cereal box?” I asked, picking up the box of Frosted Flakes, which was adorned with a big red bow, and turning to him. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love cereal as much as anyone. But...”

My mate smirked and placed his hands on his hips. “Why don’t you try opening the box first, smarta***

With a quirked eyebrow, I flipped the lid of the box open and overturned it onto the coffee table. A moment later, several slips of paper fell out. Ten, to be exact.

I picked one up and nearly dropped it again.

Hidden inside the cereal box, the sly bastard, were ten first class tickets to Italy.

“Edwin,” I breathed, staring down at the scraps of paper in disbelief. “What... how...?”

He came up behind me, wrapping his warm arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. “They’re not scheduled until next year,” he explained. “I bought them in advance. But I wanted to do something special.”

I picked up another ticket, confused. “Ten tickets?” I asked softly, glancing up at him over my shoulder.

“Two for us, of course,” Edwin explained. “And four for your friends. Then one each for Claudia, Peter, Charles, and Eliza. I’ve booked a villa for everyone for an entire month next summer.”

I felt my jaw drop, and I turned fully in his arms. “A whole month? Edwin, this is... this is incredible. But it must have cost a fortune!”

He merely shrugged as if it were nothing. “It’s a drop in the bucket to me,” he replied with a small smile. “Besides, this... this is our family. I wanted us to have a vacation together. All of us.”

“Our... family?” I echoed.

Edwin nodded, his expression softening. “Yes, our family. Even your friends... They feel like family to me now. They love you just as much as I do, in their own way. So it feels like family?

I felt tears prick at my eyes, overwhelmed by the gesture. Unable to allow myself to cry, Lturned back to the tickets, running my fingers over each one in turn. An entire month in a villa in Italy, with everyone I cared about close by... It sounded like a dream.

A dream that was too good to be true.

“But what about Coldclaw?” I found myself asking. “Is it safe for us to plan something like this?”

Edwin, who was in the midst of hanging his jacket by the door, stiffened for a moment. The lines of his broad shoulders turned hard, his hand halfway to the coat hook.

18:07 Thu, Oct 10 @ Kiss G Chapter 221 ėས ༢ 71%▪

+5 “The tickets aren’t until next year,” he finally said, hanging his jacket and turning to face me again. His expression looked pained, but he managed a small smile. “Hopefully, by then, we won’t have any issues with Coldclaw anymore. But even if we do...”

He looked away, and I saw his eyes harden with determination. “I won’t let them get in the way of our family vacation, Audrey. I promise.”

Hearing that word again-family-filled me with a fierce sense of resolve. Edwin was right; we were a family. And family was one of the few things that I had ever truly, deeply wanted; aside from succeeding in fashion and being treated as an equal in this world.

And if anyone-rogues, Fiona, anyone-tried to get between me and my family, they’d have hell to pay.

“Well?” The sound of Edwin’s voice pulled me out of my reverie, and I turned to see him staring at me with a hopeful look in his eyes. “Do you like it?”

I nodded quickly, crossing the room to throw my arms around his neck. “I love it,” I murmured into the tender skin of his throat, savoring his scent. “Thank you, Edwin. Thank you.”

I felt my mate’s shoulders slump somewhat with relief. He wrapped his arms around my waist and tugged me close, dipping his head to press a gentle kiss to my lips. Already, I was aching to feel him again when we pulled apart, thinking about that day in the archives.

“I meant what I said, you know,” Edwin said gently, his finger tracing my cheekbone. “We’ll take care of Coldclaw. Sooner rather than later.”

Lbit my lip, considering. “Do you really think that they’ll believe that I shifted?” I asked. “And stay away?”

Edwin’s face fell somewhat. Wordlessly, he scooped me up into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist as he carried me to the sofa. I was still wearing my graduation gown, a baby pink dress underneath, and I shivered a little as one of the large sleeves of my robe slipped off my shoulder.

“I want to say yes, especially once we catch Fiona and bring her back here,” he mused, those gray eyes of his wandering the bare skin of my shoulder. “A shifted Silver Wolf is quite powerful. And even Coldclaw isn’t stupid enough to try anything.”

I couldn’t help but frown at that. “It feels like you’re assuming that they won’t do anything. We don’t know that.” “You’re right.” He sighed and leaned back on the sofa, although his hands lingered on my waist. “But right now, all we can do is hope and try to get Fiona back before she can stir up more shit. See what she knows and go from there.”

“Can’t you, I don’t know, send some scouts out or something like that?” I asked. “There has to be more that you can do.”

Edwin huffed as he pushed the graduation gown first off of one of my shoulders and then the other. “Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Trust me, we’ve tried; Coldclaw territory is a rogue territory, which means that it’s off the grid. And that makes it hard to get any decent tracking done.”

He paused, then added. “Plus, rogues are tricky. They’re good at evading even the most determined of Alphas and it’s almost impossible to even know how many of them there are out there.

I sighed. “I hope Peter and Charles find Fiona soon, then. She might be our only hope to learn more about Coldclaw’s plans.”

Edwin nodded. “Exactly. But until then, it’s best to keep you safe and try our best to make it out like you’ve shifted, that you’re not as vulnerable. And then, when you really do shift...”.

He paused, running his finger up my arm and then hooking it beneath the strap of my dress. Carefully, as if afraid to scratch my skin, he tugged the strap down and let it fall away to reveal the fleshy upper mound of my breast. I shivered again and bit my lower lip to keep myself from grinning like a madwoman “And then?” I whispered.

Chapter 221 ། ė ས ི 71%

0 For a moment, something passed over my mate’s face. I could see it in his eyes, that gray stormcloud over the ocean. Curious, I reached down our bond to sense what it was that was troubling him.

But as if suddenly realizing that I was probing around in his mind, Edwin smiled and forced a wave of ecstasy across the bond that had me instantly arching my back and letting out an involuntary moan.

Edwin smirked as I clamped my hand over my mouth. “Everything will be just fine, Audrey,” he said, leaning forward to nip at the exposed skin of my breast. “No more worrying on your graduation day. Tomorrow, perhaps, but not today.”

I couldn’t argue with that—especially not when his lips were so delicious against my skin.

Not when his hands were pushing aside the fabric of my dress and grazing across my chest and waist and hips.

Not when he was tugging my dress up and over my head.

And not when he was pinning me down to the soft cushions of the couch beneath him.