Gotta Have Faith Read online

  “He cheated on me! He deserved to live in that basement forever!” Lorelei defended, her eyes back to blazing.

  “I did not, you crazy, magic-wielding daughter of Satan!” Winston cried from the duffel bag, still on the floor outside the door.

  Lorelei was on her feet in an instant, her eyes scanning the room for the fairy. “You did so! Verrily Montclaire confirmed it, you little infidel!”

  Brock let Faith go and dropped to his haunches, unzipping his duffel bag and holding his palm flat for Winston to hop into it. He held him up so he could see Lorelei, but the fairy clung to his index finger, swaying back and forth. “Keep her away from me, Brock! And Verrily Montclaire is a liar, you she-devil!”

  Darius narrowed her eyes at Lorelei. “You left this man…er, fairy in the basement because you thought he cheated on you? How many times have we told you, you can’t use your powers to suit you! We’re good witches, Lorelei, and I swear, you’re never leaving your room again!”

  Winston clutched Brock’s finger. “She did. She’s mean and downright scary!”

  Brock plucked Winston from his finger and held him up by the neck of his vest. “You said Lorelei’s sisters were all scary. In fact, I think ‘beak-nosed’ was what you called them, wasn’t it? I’m beginning to doubt your ability to assess scary, friend. Though, I will admit, all that glass breaking and thunder crashing has its scary properties.”

  “Don’t let her near me, Brock! I’m not going back to that basement!” he chirped.

  Darius plucked Winston from Brock’s fingers, holding him under Lorelei’s nose. “Apologize. Now.”

  Lorelei gave them yet another one of her eye-rolls, the ones she clearly wasn’t short on. “Fine. I’m sorry, you lying, cheating douchecanoe.”

  Winston growled at her, his legs swinging to and fro. “Back off, you viper! I never cheated on you. I loved you, Lorelei.”

  Lorelei’s pretty face softened. “You did?” she squeaked.

  Darius let go of Winston, his wings instantly flapping to keep him airborne. “Why don’t you two go and talk about this while I make things right?”

  As Lorelei giggled on her way out the door and Winston buzzed around her head, Faith grew concerned. She didn’t want more lives to be endangered. “How are you going to fix this, Darius? Doesn’t Brock still have to give up his immortality so you can lock it up in some keep? And even if you do break the curse, you’ll risk your lives doing it.”

  Darius’s smile held a hint of conspiracy. “Nah. It’ll be fine. I’ll cloak Brock, so the only people who can see his former image will be you and your children. No one ever has to know that your grandsons won’t experience the same trials and tribulations your sons Max and Derrick did on their mate journeys. To any outsiders, it will just look like it does right now. It’ll probably be hard to explain Brock’s appearance to your neighbors and the rest of the pack. But you’ve given them all a home here in Cedar Glen. I hardly think anyone would betray you once you explain.”

  Faith laughed, so incredibly happy despite the million and one questions she had about fairies and basements and cloaking spells. “That’ll be one helluva pack meeting.”

  “What’s important here is the council,” Darius reminded. “The council will think the curse is still in effect, and on the off chance your boys do have grandsons, if you promise to whip up a doozy of a story about how death-defying their mate journeys were, I think we’ll be golden.”

  Brock tilted his head to the side. “But how can I be immortal if my immortality is what you need to complete the curse?”

  Darius threw her head back and laughed a throaty chuckle. “You don’t think I’ve been doing this for centuries without taking immortality, do you? Not to worry; they were scumbags who deserved it, so, I have quite a cache of immortality to spare.”

  Brock looked down at Faith, his lips curving into a warm smile. “So we do this?”

  “And have a long talk later?” she asked, her words amused.

  Brock dropped a kiss on her lips. “Uh-oh. The talk.”

  She laughed, resting her cheek on his chest, listening to her husband’s heartbeat. Her husband who was home. “You didn’t really think I was going to let you just sweep back in here like you’d never been gone for five years, pretend you were a stranger and not talk to me about it, did you, Eli Kanye Winston?”

  Brock winced. “About that—”

  Faith pressed a quick kiss to his lips to quiet him. “Later. First, go get your immortality back, human.”

  Pulling her tight to him, he stroked her back, resting his chin on top of her head. “I love you, Faith Adams. So damn much.”

  Happiness engulfed her, making her heart clench. “I love you, too. Just as damn much.”

  Darius cleared her throat. “I hate to take you away from each other, but we have some work to do.”

  Sweeping one last kiss over Faith’s lips, one that left her knees weak, he let her go and turned to Darius. “Hey, one thing?”

  “Hit me.”

  “About those tears of Aiden. How do you plan to get those?”

  Darius laughed low as she led Brock out of their daughter’s bedroom. “Hah! Let me tell you the story about how I made a warlock cry…”

  Staring at Brock’s back, Faith’s heart constricted again. Brock was home, and the curse would be broken, ensuring any male grandchildren’s mate journeys wouldn’t be fraught with peril in the way their fathers’ had been.

  And Brock.

  He was home.

  Tonight she would lie beside him in their bed, hold him close, listen to him breathe after five long years.

  They had so much to make up for.

  And she planned to do a whole lot of making up.

  Epilogue

  As Faith stared into Brock’s eyes two weeks later, while another snowstorm raged outside the small church in their town and every vampire in Cedar Glen watched from across the street so as not to turn to ashes during the ceremony, she renewed her vows to her husband right alongside her two sons.

  Both Martine and JC, Derrick and Max’s respective mates, had come up with the idea to have a triple wedding.

  She’d pooh-poohed them, insisting that each of her potential daughters-in-law have their own special day, but Martine and JC, along with both Derrick and Max, had persisted until she and Brock gave in.

  And now, here they were, two weeks later, saying “I do” in a town celebration whipped together by Martine, who planned to reopen a new bridal consultation business right here in Cedar Glen.

  As the wedding officiate pronounced each of them husband and wife, there was a roar of cheers from the pews of the church when he said, “You may now kiss your brides!”

  Brock swept her up in his arms, kissing her soundly, his lips parting hers with the same skill they had for centuries.

  They made a run down the aisle and out into the snowstorm toward the VFW hall, where Martine had spent hours planning so it would be worthy of a celebration of the Adams family all together at last.

  Brock shook his head free of the snow and pulled her into the coatroom, wiggling his eyebrows. “So Mrs. Adams, you wanna take our new titles for a test run?”

  Faith leaned into him, fitting herself to his length. “Didn’t we just do that this morning?” she teased, remembering the way his mouth pleasured her.

  “Yep. But now we’re married.”

  “But we were married this morning.”

  “Ah, but we weren’t married twice.”

  Reaching up, she pulled him down for another kiss, unable to get enough of him to satisfy the length of time he’d been gone. “We have guests coming, werewolf. A town’s worth of guests, mind you. Also, our children just tied the knot. So behave.”

  Slipping his arms around her waist, he gave her that look. The one that said he wanted her more than he wanted wedding cake. “Fine, fine,” he muttered, yet he cupped her breast through her wedding dress, trying to entice her with his big blue eyes.

  She l
eaned back and shook her head with a blissful giggle. “Oh, no. I know that look, Adams. Not happening.”

  He chuckled, the deep rumble of it satisfying and warm. “It would seem you’d know me even without the look.”

  “If you’re referring to your Eli ruse, I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure after you used the expression ‘chew the fat’, but I was very suspicious. I’ve never heard anyone use that but you. But I knew for sure the minute you pulled me into your arms. Which is why I let you have your wicked way with me.”

  “You mean like this?” Brock asked, pulling her close again.

  She sighed with happiness. “You know exactly what I mean. Now, are you still smarting because I didn’t tell you I knew you weren’t some guy named Eli? Are you going to go on and on about protecting me from scary Lorelei?”

  He mocked a hurt face with one raven eyebrow raised. “I was protecting you. At least, I thought I was. I was being chivalrous.”

  Faith forced a shiver down. She never, ever wanted to be without him again, whether he thought he was protecting her or not. “Don’t ever be that chivalrous again, knight in shining armor. Got it?”

  “Got it. Now about this morning…” he murmured against her throat.

  “Oh my God. You two are like teenagers,” Derrick teased on a laugh when he poked his head into the coatroom. “Knock it off, and get your butts out her and help us greet our guests.”

  Max’s head appeared over Derrick’s, his smile wide. “You two need a keeper. Now, c’mon, we have guests.”

  Brock reached for his sons, pulling them both into his embrace, joined by Avery and Nat. “I love you guys,” he said, the words still hoarse and shaky.

  He’d told them each a hundred times since he’d been back, but late at night, when it was just the two of them, he’d confessed his worry to Faith that he’d never be able to say it enough to fill in the five-year gap.

  He and Derrick had spent several nights just talking about it, Brock patiently listening to his son’s fears. Fears he finally opened up about. He’d sat with Max, too, and gone over everything that had happened since Max had become pack leader, giving him advice and proud pats on the back at how the pack had thrived.

  He’d rocked on the porch swing with Avery in the freezing cold for hours, just holding her and catching up on her life

  He’d taken Nat on midnight runs once he’d readjusted to his werewolf form, a ritual they’d shared often before he’d left.

  He’d spent some time with Hector and Beau, too, petting bunnies in Hector’s barn and reassuring him he’d keep the “no bunny hunt” rule in place.

  And Brock had made it a point to get to know his daughters-in-law, spending afternoons with each, getting to know them both.

  But the nights were Faith’s, and they were filled with all the amazing things only Brock could fill them with.

  And it was bliss. Her life no longer fractured and only half-lived.

  “Hey, buddy! How’s it going?” Winston flew in, his wings a sparkling flap of blue.

  Brock’s smile was broad when he pulled out of his family’s embrace. “Win! Good to see you, pal. How goes it?”

  Winston positioned himself in front of Brock’s eyes. “I’ll tell you all about it over cake. There’s gonna be cake, buddy! I can’t believe how excited I still am over cake.”

  Brock chuckled. “It’s chocolate, too. Just as you like it, if I remember you waxing poetic about it during our captivity correctly.”

  Winston shot a small finger in the air. “Speaking of captivity—Lorelei’s here, too. C’mon, and I’ll tell you all about how I tamed my little spawn of Satan!”

  Brock looked to Faith momentarily, their eyes meeting and locking, his asking if she didn’t mind.

  She blew him a kiss and waved he and Winston off with a grin. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  As everyone cleared out, she forced back her tears of joy by closing her eyes and sending up a silent prayer of thanks.

  And for the first time, she realized why she’d fought so hard not to let go of Brock’s memory.

  Because all of this had been waiting for her, and somewhere deep down inside, she’d known letting go wasn’t right.

  And now she knew why. Because holding on meant all of this joy welling inside her. It meant this vast sense of completeness that filled her soul.

  And she was never going to let it go again.

  The End

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Dakota Cassidy is the nationally bestselling author of over thirty books. She lives in the gorgeous state of Oregon with her real life hero and her dogs, and she loves hearing from readers!

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Join The Tiara Diaries