“Uh, that certainly wasn’t an orthodox way for our competition to go,” the announcer said in a rough voice. “But let’s finish it off strong. Would the judges like to announce their winner?”
“Oh, I got this! I got this!” It was the one male judge who replied enthusiastically, bounding away from the paramedics to grab the megaphone. “After a lot of deliberation and truly a year like any other, we decided that our ultimate winner is…”
I thought I wouldn’t care-after all, I’d just had my own personal bake-off with all-powerful magical creatures who were more like CEOs than winged sorcerers. And yet I still felt a thrill of anticipation in me.
“A tie between both of our newcomers! The McCallisters and the Ramirezes!”
A tie?
A tie!
It was more perfect than I ever thought, and suddenly I was caught up in hugs, then lifted bodily above the heads of all the tallest McCallisters and Ramirezes.
“Guys!” I called between peals of laughter. “We all won, not just me!”
“Yeah, but it’s because of you that we did,” Cas shouted above the cheers. I’d never been carried around like a queen, and honestly, a girl could get used to it.
However, my favorite moment was still when they set me down and I finally got to embrace Cas and kiss him as deeply as I’d wanted to the entire day. More cheers and wolf whistles sounded from all around us, but I didn’t feel embarrassed. As far as I was concerned, I’d earned some serious make-out time.
But we were in public, so I pulled away after a minute or so.
“Hey, Cas,” I rasped, leaning heavily onto him. I was exhausted, but at the same time I was so happy.
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“What if we skipped the whole dating part and jumped to you being my boyfriend?” I mean, in my head, I’d been calling him my boyfriend since the day after our first date.
He grinned broadly, kissing me once more. “Only if you’ll be my girlfriend.”
The third kiss was just as good as the first. “Sounds good to me.”
Utterly exhausted, I intertwined my fingers with his, so incredibly grateful I had him to lean on.
“Now, how about you take me back to my place and pamper me?”
Another kiss, this time to the top of my head. “Whatever you want, sweetheart, for the rest of our lives.”
I felt myself flush, my mind flying in a thousand different happy directions. “Careful, Cas, someone might think that sounds like a proposal.”
He laughed, picking me up one more time and spinning me around. “Perhaps we should go on a third date first.”
“Well, I happen to be free this coming Friday,” I said, batting my lashes at him.
“Then it’s a date.”
The first date of many.c3PV
Castiel
One Hell of a Fiesta-Shindig-Paradilla-Hootenanny
Life had changed a lot since the bake-off that would no doubt be inked in shifter history forever. The fairies had kept true to their word-which they had to do-and suddenly both of our packs had a kind of freedom we’d never had before.
It wasn’t like things were perfect-there were still sects of our pack that were furious at the talks about exchanges of land and solving the centuries-old feud, but Sal and I were working with them to see that it was a good thing. Change wouldn’t come in a day, after all, and it would be ridiculous to expect that.
“I’m gonna miss these lands,” Chris murmured from beside me as I flipped the steaks.
“We’re still gonna have access to it,” I said softly, not wanting any of the Ramirezes who were nearby to hear. There were a lot of them around. We were having a party to celebrate the fairies’ defeat. While technically it probably should have come sooner, there was so much to do and explain that it was nearly a month after the initial bake-off had concluded. “We’re just sharing it with the Ramirez clan. We’ll still be able to do all our runs, they’ll just be able to use it too.”
“And hunt,” Chris added.
“Yeah, and hunt.”
That part had been the easiest to arrange. Sal and I had sat down with maps of our lands and discussed what would work best for both of us. I was incredibly pleased when he said he didn’t want to evict us from the homes, gardens, and everything else that we had built. After all, my father was buried on our lands.
In the weeks since the bake-off, it had become abundantly clear to me that things couldn’t stay as they were. No, there had to be change.
And I was going to lead it.
In the end, we’d given up our hunting lands to the north, beyond the river that we rarely ever used, and then a good half of the rest of our running land to a sort of sharing agreement where both packs had equal claim and use of it. A tenuous agreement considering how long our packs had hated each other, but Sal and I had faith.
And that faith was why we had organized a truly gigantic party to celebrate our not-quite-a-merger. The McCallisters were still the McCallisters, and the Ramirezes were still the Ramirezes, but we were no longer so strictly divided. Because in the end, we were all wolves.
“Hey there, handsome,” Felicia said, bounding up to me in a sundress that really did make her look good enough to eat. Even nearly a month after the bake-off, I was in utter awe of her and what she’d managed to accomplish. Never in a million years had I thought that something like that was possible, and yet everything going on with my pack was living proof that it was. She was one of a kind, my sweetheart, and I was reminded of it every day.
“Hey there, gorgeous. Did you need something?”
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