“You’re not going to believe this,” she said solemnly, “but I’ve lost my appetite.”
“I don’t believe that, and you’re not setting a proper example for your daughter if you let this fester.”
“These people lived with me, ate with me, played and fought with me, and all the while they plotted my child’s death. Argus never would have let her live. She was too critical to the success of his campaign. He had to cleanse the pack, and he would have started with her as soon as he put me down.” She tipped her head back, let her eyes close. “I don’t know how to come back from that. How to trust anyone who’s left. They came to me, ready to hamstring me back when they thought I had unlawfully killed a challenger. Remember? Why did I think taking them under my wing was a good idea?”
“We truth test them, just like you said. All of them. Every single one. Anyone who claims they want to stay but lies to me can kiss this pack goodbye. Savannah would be willing to bury them alive for you if it comes down to it.” The city had a real thing for entombment. “We will make your daughter safe by strengthening the pack, and that starts with you putting on a brave face and then stuffing it with food.”
“Okay,” she grumbled, caving to my logic. “I’ll eat one cake, but then I’m coming home.”
Lethe and I were missing the bottom halves of our dresses, and blood crusted us from head to toe. I had lost my shoes along the way, and Lethe had stabbed someone in the eye with her stiletto heel at some point, so we had to walk barefoot.
There would be a lot of photo manipulation happening in our wedding album. A lot. A whole lot. Tons.
“Do you remember how many cakes we ordered?” I looped my arm through hers, winked at Linus, my blood-speckled husband, then started down the hill. “You’re going to eat one slice from each, or I’m going to shove them down your throat after you terrorized that poor baker for months on end.”
“If that’s what you feel you need to do, I won’t stop you. Tonight is your night, and you get to do what you want.” She grinned, and it was lighter. “It could be like one of those timed hotdog-eating contests.”
“They dunk their buns in water,” I reminded her. “Can you imagine a waterlogged cake?”
An involuntary shudder rippled through my limbs as I envisioned such waste.
“I have a pretty great imagination when it comes to food, yes, but no.” She put on a brave face. “I would rather you dunked it in milk if I start flagging.”
Linus fell in step with me halfway down the hill, and Hood flanked Lethe.
“This will definitely go down as the wedding of the century,” I told him, threading our fingers. “Your mom should be thrilled.”
“It will be the talk of the Society.” He brought my hand to his mouth for a kiss. “That’s for certain.”
Craning her neck to see around me, Lethe caught Linus’s eye and grinned, her teeth pink and face streaked from her kill. “Welcome to the family, Mr. Woolworth.”
Mr. Woolworth.
Linus was Mr. Woolworth.
My husband.
Life, however messy, just didn’t get any better than this.