Chapter 106

“Junie,” Anton says, laughing a little, wrapping his hand gently around my wrist and tugging my hand away from my mouth. “What? What is it?”

“Tony,” I whisper, still horrified, my throat tightening with my guilt. “I – there’s no wish anymore – I ended the stupid fucking Game which means there’s no more prize –“

“Oh, come on, that can’t possibly matter,” he murmurs, dropping my wrist and using that hand to trace his fingers through my hair.

“What!?” I shriek, going still. “Anton we need that to –“

“June,” he says, shaking his head at me, laughing again, soft and kind. “You proved today that your powers like…completely outmatch the God of Death. If he was going to be able to give you a wish capable of bringing me back to life, then surely you can give it to yourself.”

I stare at him for a long moment, turning the idea over in my mind. But then I just scowl and smack him again on the chest.

“Ow,” he says, even as he laughs, bringing his face closer to mine like he likes it. “June, I’m not sure if I bruise as a ghost, but honestly you’re ensuring that we’re going to find out –“

“Why do you always think of these things first!?” I snarl, frustrated. Honestly, I’m not a stupid person – why is Tony putting everything together before I am?

He shrugs, tightening his arm around me, bringing me closer, tracing the tip of his nose along my cheek like he can’t resist it. “I don’t know, June – it’s just something I’ve been pondering for a while. What happens to me, to us, if this Game doesn’t go as planned. But I’ve had faith in you for a long time now – you’re the only one with doubts.”

I pull back a bit, frowning, wanting to study his face. He pulls back too, letting me, his eyes moving slowly over my features in turn.

“You’ve been thinking about that?” I whisper.

He hums lightly in confirmation.

“What…what did you decide?” I ask, soft and a little afraid of the answer.

“That my scrappy Princess was going to find a way out,” he says with a shrug. “And if she couldn’t take me with her that I was going to find a way to haunt her ass for the rest of her life –“

I laugh at this, unable to help it. “Oh, come on,” I sigh, slipping my arms again around his neck, wanting him close. “It couldn’t all be that positive. What was worst case scenario?”

He shrugs, dropping his gaze, not really liking that turn. “That at least we’d be ghosts together. Maybe be reincarnated together so that we could try this again. In the next life.”

My heart seizes at that idea, my lips turning down at both the secret sweetness of him even if no part of me wants that – not at all. This life – I want this life. “That wasn’t the deal, Anton,” I whisper, tightening my arms, pulling him closer. “I promised you I’d win that prize and bring you back to life. That’s what we agreed to.”

“Yeah well,” he says on a sigh, smiling at me, leaning close to press a quick kiss to my mouth – just for a moment. I start to smile too. “I wasn’t in love with you when we made that deal. My priorities have shifted now.”

My eyes go wide as my arms slip from his neck. Tony grins, enjoying himself immensely, which brings me back to myself a bit, making me scowl. He laughs at this, shaking his head at me.

“You weren’t in love with me?” I ask, my voice shaking – just slightly.

“Nah,” he says, giving a shrug. “Does that make you mad? That it wasn’t love at first sight?”

I just stare at him – trying to put together the implications here –

“I mean, you were stunning laying all passed out on that bathroom floor, Juniper –“

I squeak, going rigid in his arms, and then I pound my fists against his chest three or four times, making him again roar with laughter even as he cuddles me close.

“You are so rude, Anton,” I snarl, not really angry, just wanting the upper hand. “I was tricked! I was –“

“You were fantastic,” he murmurs. “But it took a little longer for me to fall in love.”

I go still, stopping breathing at this confession. But my curiosity gets the better of me. “When?”

He shrugs, huffing out a sigh as he pretends to think. “Like, six more hours.”

I burst out laughing, my head tilting back on my neck.

“Yes,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to my exposed neck, laughing along with me.

“When!?” I gasp.

“I really liked it when you told Orion I was your service wolf, trained to alert when I smell a jackass in the room –“

I laugh harder, shaking my head, lifting my hands to my face and covering my eyes. Because I can’t – that can’t be it – that can’t be the moment –

“And then you really sealed the deal when you poured your wine all over his shoes,” Anton murmurs, again pressing his lips to my skin once more before tilting me back up so he can see my face. Little laughs still pulse through me as I shake my head at him, sliding my hands down to my nose so I can see him again.

“I thought you said Orion liked that,” I whisper, desperately pleased, incredibly happy.

“Oh, he did,” Anton says, nodding deeply. “Orion and I…share a type. The reason why I knew it worked for him is because it made me insane – I wanted to grab you and snatch you away into some dark corner then and there, declare myself your slave forever –“

“So why didn’t you?” I murmur, all soft and low.

“Because, I had to play it cool,” he says, giving a way-too-casual shrug that makes my smile spread wide beneath my hands. “If I’d declared myself in love and properly obsessed from the start, June, you’d have called me a lecherous ghost and banished me away.”

“That’s precisely what you are,” I whisper, desperately pleased, slipping my hands away from my face. “Creepy ghost stalker.”

“Yes,” he sighs, leaning close, pressing a long kiss to my mouth. “Precisely as you like me. But it worked. Now I’ve got my girl.”

“I don’t know about that,” I sigh, playing it cool even as my wolf sings in my soul, raising her snout to the heavens and howling a long, continuous note. “I have yet to decide and declare –“

“No, you’re mine, Juniper Sinclair,” Anton murmurs, the possessive hum in his voice making my stomach turn over and then sink low.

He slides his hand down my back, my skin tingling in its wake as he moves his palm over my ass and then down my thigh, cupping my leg beneath the knee and using his grip there to pull me lower in his lap. Anton bends down over me, his lips so close to mine, and a little moan slips from my mouth.

“And I’m never letting you go,” he whispers, his gaze moving over my face and then coming to rest on my lips.

“Promise?” I ask, my eyes falling half-shut as my hands lose themselves in his hair.

He growls his answer, pressing his mouth to mine and making my mind go all pleasantly fuzzy and blank. I kiss and kiss and kiss my sweetheart ghost, letting him claim me, accepting every moment of it, not caring if the morning ever comes.

Because despite everything in this insane world, and all of the upheaval that’s happened today…in this moment?

I am absolutely, perfectly happy.

Orion stands at the window, looking out at the ghost with the Princess in his lap, watching for a moment as they alternate between kissing and laughing together, completely lost in each other.

But then Orion feels like a creep and turns away, crossing his arms over his chest, his head hanging.

Inside his soul, Orion’s wolf howls with jealousy, his claws scratching desperately at the dirt, needing action – no matter how fruitless.

Ours, ours, his wolf snarls, lowering his nose. She’s supposed to be ours – why does she like that boy –

She’s not supposed to be ours, clearly, Orion says inwardly to his wolf, sighing. We just like her – it’s not a mating bond –

You don’t know that – his wolf says, desperate, turning in circles like the solution could be in any direction – if he could just…find it.

And what about her? Orion asks, his inner voice bitter and accusing as he lifts his eyes to fix on Laila, beautiful in respose on her little pillow pile on the ground.

His wolf whines, confused. We like her too, the wolf murmurs. We need to…to keep them…to have them both…

Orion scoffs, sick of himself for being so…so selfish and entitled.

Seriously? He’s so stuck up that he thinks he deserves two Princesses, each more lovely than the other.

His wolf whines, wanting them desperately, sure that it’s right.

But Orion just shakes his head and moves back to his arm chair, slumping down into it and trying – very hard – to get his mind in order. Because…what is it, really, that he wants? And why is he being such a coward about actually getting it, if he’s already decided?

Because it’s not just up to us, his wolf says, hanging his head, his nose nearly touching the ground. She…they have to want us too…

Orion sighs deeply, covering his eyes with his hand, angry and discontent, frustrated with himself for his…utter indecision and inaction.

God, could he be less of a Prince in these moments?

Juniper – she’s all action and impulse – seizing what she wants and brooking no compromise.

And what, in turn, is he?

Orion’s wolf whines, not liking this self-effacing turn of thought. But Orion just shakes his head, confused, and leans back in his chair, his ears peaked towards the door, listening for the sound of secret lovers returning.