Chapter 5: Love Letter

Garnet POV

Jiro stiffened and stood up when his two youngest brothers scampered into the dining room.

Garnet had never had younger siblings, not ones that lived beyond newborn pups. Her mother had borne a baby boy that died after four months and a girl that died when she was barely a day old. Cyran was a few minutes younger, but he never acted like it. She loved children and wanted one of her own. Or she used to want one.

Jiro had grown up with these two bundles of energy. She wasn’t sure what to make of them beyond their heroics rescuing Lilia and the way Dirge had hugged her just now, but already those two facts told her as much as a library could. They braved Cyran and his warriors to save Lilia and stop a great evil, and Dirge’s hug was pure innocence and love. Plus, Patch’s eyes sparkled with wit and mischief, like Cyran before something stole his soul.

Jiro crossed his arms. “If it’s a message from Dane asking us for news–”

Patch rolled his eyes. “I pity the Crimsontails. You’ll bore them into behaving within a week.”

Garnet clapped her hand over her mouth, shocked, and Jiro glared at him. “Show a little delicacy,” Jiro said in a stern voice.

“I’m all about delicacy.” Patch boasted. “I didn’t call you a crushing bore.”

Dirge elbowed him. “I don’t think that’s what he means.”

Garnet knew what Jiro meant, and she reached out to grip his hand in gratitude. She didn’t need him to wrap her in gauze and a butterfly cocoon, but his kindness meant everything.

Patch’s eyes went straight to their joined hands and he grinned. The kind of grin that promised a surprise. “I promised you a message, and here it is.” He unrolled a scroll.

Panic filled Jiro’s eyes. “Patch, give that here!”

Patch scooted to the far end of the room and held the scroll in an iron grip, then cleared his throat and read aloud dramatically.

“Dear Garnet,

I want to ask about the situation in your pack, but other thoughts keep getting in the way.

Last night, I dreamed about you. I dreamed that a letter arrived from you, brought by a Pegasus (I’ve never even seen one.) When I opened the letter, you leapt out of it, with your arms open wide. We both climbed on the Pegasus’ back and flew away. We soared over the pack lands, and it was strange how the lines on the map blurred. We were laughing at how small everything looked, like toy houses and toy wolves and little figures of people–humans, elves, orcs, goblins, dragons … they all looked as tiny as dwarves and gnomes. You asked the Pegasus to take us to lands we’d only read about. Instead, it soared far above the clouds, until we were in the stars. We weren’t even scared. We held onto each other and kissed. The Pegasus took us to a palace in the heavens. You got nervous for the first time because the palace was pure white, shining brighter than the moon.

“We both knew that the palace belonged to the Moon Goddess, and we were being taken to meet her. I couldn’t believe that of all the shifters in the world, you and I had been chosen together. We passed through a blinding light. But then suddenly we lay in a meadow full of flowers, back in our world somewhere, as far as I could tell. Your skin glowed like the moon palace, and your hair was as bright as the sun. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing you and I thought that even being in the heavens near the goddess couldn’t compare to this. You told me that you wanted to forget the world and lose ourselves in each other …”

Patch paused a lengthy, theatrical pause.

Garnet didn’t see Jiro’s reaction, though the flood of heat coming from him was probably embarrassment. Her own face must look like a living flame. Yet she stood statue-like, hypnotized by the depth of his feelings, his longings. He must have consulted a bard to write that. But no, he would write it himself.

“Is there more?” she asked.

Patch made an exaggerated frown. “Alas, no. I think his pen ran dry.”

“He ran out of ink,” Dirge said at the same time, reaching Patch’s side.

“That’s what I just said,” Patch said, shoving his little brother.

So, Jiro had written that letter and then hadn’t finished it. Why? Although in her mind, the letter was perfect as it was. Almost too good to be true.

Jiro stalked toward his little brothers, all passion and pride, his arms swinging and his fists clenched. “If this is Operation Romance, I didn’t get a reminder about that meeting.”

Garnet laughed spontaneously. “Operation Romance?” These Cresta brothers were truly different.

“Not for ME. For Kyon, to help him with wooing Azandra,” Jiro muttered, holding his temper in check. “All three of us conspired.”

Patch chuckled. “Blame yourself, spymaster. Our strategy was so nice, we did it twice.”

Ah. So Kyon, with the soulful eyes and big, protective presence, needed his brothers’ helping paws to win over his mate. “That’s so sweet and endearing,” Garnet said.

“And as much as Kyon was struggling, Jiro is hopeless,” Dirge said with the frankness of a child.

If her face was a living flame, Jiro’s was like a full sunset. “And now I know how Kyon felt.”

“At least we didn’t make him destroy Azandra’s ceiling,” Patch said with a shrug.

“And ruin her experiments,” Jiro snarled.

She had to hold back her laughter. Poor Azandra! At least the brothers did everything with a good heart. The story made her want to hug all of them close, and she did, pulling all three of them in.

When she released them, she said to Patch, “I think you two have embarrassed him enough.”

“Please don’t curse me like that,” Jiro said with one hand covering his face. “They frequently outdo themselves when it comes to humiliating family members.”

Mentally, she shook her head, thinking that he had no idea what humiliation meant. Her wolf snapped at her to stop sulking like a pup.

Regretting her thoughts, she gripped his hand. “Well, they can either do that or they can come with us. We have some news to share with the family, and with Beta Barrett.”

“News?” Dirge and Patch asked in unison.

Garnet winked, feeling her own playful side emerge. “You kept us in suspense.”

Jiro uncovered his face and gave his brothers a wicked, playful grin. “Allow us to return the favor.”

* * * * *

Jiro POV

No one would let him live down the fanciful words he’d written in that letter, meant for Garnet’s eyes alone. He cringed. Had he really prattled on and on about some dream of going to see the Moon Goddess on a flying horse? He wasn’t ashamed of the feelings he’d revealed, only that it all sounded silly, considering the gravity of the situation with the Crimsontails. He’d been thinking of writing that to her in a letter. Fenrir’s guts! What must she think of him? Maybe she didn’t think about it at all with her pack about to tear itself to pieces.

Calm, he told himself. He had to be the calm, collected brother everyone expected, the unflappable Jiro, and The Alpha.

As he walked hand in hand with Garnet, following Patch and Dirge, he thought about strangling both of them. Fortunately for them, clever Garnet had managed to pat Patch on the back and steal the letter, but she held it as possessively as if it were a king’s ransom. It was meant for her, after all.

“Dane wants us all to gather in the Great Hall,” Patch said as if he hadn’t just dropped a pile of stinkweed during a moment that required delicacy. “Beta Barrett too. You just KNOW he’s relieved he doesn’t have to be the top wolf.”

Garnet talked more easily than Jiro. “As he’s been saying since we … since I was a pup.”

Jiro squeezed her hand, aware she’d been about to mention Cyran. He didn’t have much to add to the conversation. His mind was full of the news they had to share, and how his brothers, Lilia, Ravyn, and the others might react. You could never tell about Tulaska, but she had confirmed the mate bond in record time, compared to how she dawdled when approving Dane’s and Kyon’s mate bond. Why had she been so quick this time? He needed to ask her.

The brilliant light in the Great Hall brought him out of his reflections, and he took a moment to focus on Dane, Lilia, Kyon, Azandra, Ravyn, Tulaska, Barrett, and two of the Crimsontails he didn’t know, as well as Anneliese and Azandra’s parents. Aunt Ilya and Cousin Reinald rounded out the eager audience.

Kyon and Dane immediately approached, with their eyes glowing. Their penetrating gazes shook his body to the core, and Garnet shivered so hard her teeth chattered. His brothers KNEW. They knew about the mate bond. Patch and Dirge looked at them, and then the light dawned on them as well. They clasped each other’s hands and howled.

Tulaska grinned, taking in Garnet and Jiro and nodding thoughtfully. “About time,” she said in her usual mysterious way.

It had only been a month since they met. What did Tulaska mean?

Lilia rushed forward too, followed by Azandra. “Do you two have something to tell us?” Lilia asked, her hands open, signaling acceptance.

Garnet looked at him with eyes that were soft and yielding. “Do you want to?”

He swallowed, tasting the faint tang of Garnet’s blood in his dry throat, and licked his lips. A second later, he felt a goblet being pressed into his hand. It smelled like wine, not cider.

“You need this,” Ransome Hemming advised.

Jiro mumbled a thank you, startled by this generous gesture from Azandra’s father. He’d sometimes thought Ransome could be a kindred spirit, even though he’d judged both the Hemmings harshly for their snobbery. But he of all people should not be fooled by appearances …

Ransome patted his shoulder. “You’re the only one in the family who shares my interest in pixie migrations.”

“They are intricate,” Jiro murmured and looked at Garnet, who also had a goblet in her hand. She smiled, a bit bewildered.

He thought of asking her if she wanted to take all this on, then chastised himself. His chaotic, noisy, emotional family had to be better than being stifled and silenced by her brother. By the Moon Goddess, he would make life better for her than she ever dreamed.

He put his free arm around her and felt her curvy figure. Blushing, he blurted, “We’re mated!”

The cheering and howling was loud enough to compete with the festival still in full swing outside. His family’s faces were full of pride and love and acceptance. Tulaska smiled with quiet wisdom. The rest swarmed around him, with Dane wrapping both of them in an enormous hug.

“May the Moon Goddess bless you both,” he said above the happy sounds of celebration. “And this would be big enough news in itself, but I’m guessing there’s more.”

Jiro nodded. “Ah yes, the Crimsontails deserve an answer.”

Barrett had a relieved look on his face as if he predicted what was coming next. “And what is it to be?”

Jiro wanted to say something polished and eloquent at that point, but again, he blurted, “I planned for this … for my possibly leaving to be with a mate, if I found one. I have a complete plan. I hope two days is enough to explain everything because we have a lot to do. And I’m honored to serve as the Crimsontail Shadows Alpha and to have Garnet as my Luna.”