Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (24 page)

She’d been apprenticing as clan healer with
Wyked and Fate’s Uncle Hanai. She’d started off in community
college studying nursing. Then she’d had occasion to watch Hanai
deliver a clan baby, and she’d been entranced with the idea of
holistic healing the way that Hanai healed. He used herbs,
minerals, and other natural remedies to help the clan. She’d spent
many long hours talking to him and looking through the volumes of
healing guides he had in his trailer. Becoming an apprentice to him
had made perfect sense to her, and it had helped her to make a
larger, more important choice for their future: whether they would
stay in Ashland or join the clan and travel the country.

She and her twin mates were forbidden by clan
law from becoming mates in the physical sense until she turned
twenty-one, which was eighteen long months away. After she turned
twenty-one and she was able to mate her guys for real, then they
would have to make a decision on whether to stay or go. She’d
waffled on the idea for a long time. Either way, someone would be
hurt – her dad and brother if she left, her in-laws if they stayed
– but she’d opted to do the best thing for herself and her family
and that meant becoming nomadic. Someday Hanai would retire, and
Jilly would take over. In the meantime, she had a crapton to learn,
and Hanai, while a wonderful uncle and friend, was a serious
teacher and expected great things from her.

“I promise not to pout when you say it’s time
to go,” Jilly promised, going onto her toes to kiss Fate.

“I like when you pout,” Wyked said, waiting
for his kiss, which she willingly gave, “it means I get to kiss you
until you’re happy.”

She rolled her eyes with a laugh. Fate opened
the door, and Jilly stepped into the foyer. The sound of rushing
feet coming their way made her give the gift to Fate and brace
herself for the onslaught from her niece and nephews. Five-year-old
twins, Eliot and Evan, rushed at her, with their three-year-old
brother, Cameron, close on their heels. The littlest one, adorable
Sophie, toddled after her big brothers, her chubby baby legs moving
as fast as they could.

Jilly squatted and held her arms out to the
children, and they rammed into her, nearly taking her to the ground
if it weren’t for Wyked’s steadying body behind her. She kissed
each cheek and smiled as they made room for Sophie who wiggled her
way in between her brothers and made kissing noises at Jilly.

“Hi, pudding pop,” Jilly said, giving Sophie
a big kiss. “You guys are getting so big!”

“You see us all the time,” Eliot reminded
her.

“I know. I think you grow a foot every time I
see you!”

Wyked helped her up with a laugh. “In another
few years they’ll be too big to do that to you. It’ll be like
getting hugged by three semis.”

“It already feels like that.”

She picked up Sophie and followed the young
boys into the large family room which was brimming with pride
members, who were welcoming Brileigh to the pride. Jilly’s father,
John, shared his mate Rue, with his brother, James. When they mated
together, Jilly got not only Eryx, Ethan, and Alek as step-brothers
added to her own brother, Henry, but she also got a step-brother in
Rue’s son, Domino. She didn’t think of them as her step-family,
though. She thought of them simply as her
family
.

“Hey, welcome!” Alek said from where he
hovered near his mate and their precious little one.

After setting Sophie down on Callie’s lap,
she made her way to him, stopping to hug and kiss her family and
pride members along the way, until she reached the trio and their
baby. Handing the gift to Jericho, she hugged Alek. “Sorry we’re
late. We were upstate gathering supplies and got stuck in
traffic.”

“No worries,” Alek promised.

Lachlyn smiled at Jilly from where she sat on
an overstuffed recliner. “You want to hold her?”

“Of course!”

Jilly accepted the sleeping little bundle
from her sister-in-law and held her breath as she gazed down at
her. She and her mates had visited Lachlyn and the new baby in the
hospital when she was born. She couldn’t believe how much she’d
grown in just a week. “She’s beautiful,” Jilly whispered.

“Runs in the family,” Alek said.

“Not to be rude, but I have to pee. Like
right now,” Lachlyn said. Jericho helped her up from the chair, and
they disappeared from the room.

Jilly looked at Wyked and Fate and wasn’t
surprised to see the look on their faces, as if they were
envisioning her holding their own cubs in the future. “We’re
halfway there,” she said to them.

“What?” Wyked asked.

“To being mated.”

“We’re already mated,” Fate said.

“You know what I mean.”

Wyked wiggled his brows. “I would so like to
say something very naughty right now, but since you’re holding a
baby, I’ll be good. For now.”

She chuckled softly and brushed her lips
across baby Brileigh’s head. “You are going to be so well protected
and loved in this family, little one. I’m sorry I’ll miss you
growing up, but no matter how far away I go, I’ll always have your
back. That’s what family does.”

For just the briefest blip of time, Jilly
thought about her biological mother, and wondered – not for the
first time – if the female had ever held her and lovingly looked
down at her. Of course she knew that was a romantic fantasy. Even
though her biological mother had been poisoned and cursed and
wouldn’t even recognize Jilly if she saw her, she’d always hoped
someday that things might be different.

She rocked slowly back and forth, watching
Brileigh slumber, wishing for the moment to stay that way forever
but also desperately hoping for the time to speed up. Each day that
passed brought her closer to leaving with the clan, closer to
saying goodbye except for yearly visits when the clan would pass
through on their travels and stay for a while. So much time would
pass between those visits, and her heart broke a little bit. She’d
miss a lot. More than she could even imagine. But looking up at her
mates as they lovingly watched over her, she knew she also wouldn’t
change anything about her destiny.

If Wyked and Fate hadn’t kissed her, biting
her lip and their own and mixing their blood together, she would
have remained an emotionless, unattached female. She never would
have known what it felt like to love, to have family, to live each
day with a crazy group of people who loved her no matter what. She
never wanted to go back to that emotionless time. She was happy to
stay in Ashland, and in this moment, she decided she would savor
every day with the pride so she’d have lots of good memories when
it was time to leave.

Fate, who always seemed to know just what she
was feeling, slipped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her
temple. “You’re worth the wait. When we get to start our lives
together, these three years are going to seem like a drop in the
bucket.”

“You guys are worth it, too,” she said.

Turning to Alek, she handed him his daughter.
Brileigh was promptly lifted from his arms by Rue, their
step-mother, who said to the baby, “I can’t wait to spoil you
rotten.”

“You already have,” Lachlyn said. “You,
James,
and
John.”

“She’s the newest addition,” Rue pointed out.
“And a total bundle of love.”

Domino called from across the room, “You
better spoil my kids as much as you’re already spoiling the others,
Ma.”

Rue stuck her tongue out at her son, and he
laughed. Giving a wink to Jilly, Rue said, “I promise to spoil
all
the grandkids.”

Wyked joined her and Fate as Alek handed
Lachlyn the gift Jilly and her mates had bought for them. She
ripped the paper from the box and lifted the lid, revealing the
adorable pink ruffled dress, complete with matching bloomers.

“Oh, Jilly, it’s perfect!” Lachlyn said.
“She’s going to be such a girly girl.”

Jericho said, “You better hope she doesn’t
end up being a tomboy like you, sunshine.”

Lachlyn smiled. “I’ll just have to go nuts
with all the frilly stuff before she can actually talk back to
me.”

“That’s a good plan,” Alek said. “Plus, we
can use the photos for embarrassing family get-togethers in the
future.”

“Thank you so much for the beautiful dress,”
Lachlyn said.

“You’re very welcome.”

She watched her dad and James ooh and aah
over Brileigh. It was so wonderful to see her family enjoying the
addition of a new member. It wasn’t only the Fallon clan that was
growing, but also the Ashland Pride.

“We’re going to need a big mobile home,” she
said, turning to lean against Fate. Wyked stepped behind her,
resting his hands on her hips.

“Oh?” Fate asked.

“For lots of kids,” she said.

Wyked chuckled. “I love how you think,
kitten.”

As she rested in the embrace of her mates,
she watched the party. The pride was so different from what it had
been when she’d returned before her eighteenth birthday. Then,
Grant’s and Aaron’s kids had been the youngest in the pride. Now,
all the mated groups in the pride had kids, and the boarding house
had become a hive of activity. She would miss it, but she couldn’t
wait to move on to the next chapter of her life.

With Wyked and Fate by her side.

The End

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