Jaxson awoke with a start, reaching for Lily… but she wasn’t there. Instead Ian snored loudly on one side of him, and Zane on the other. They weren’t in Lily’s apartment any longer. Somehow they had returned to their own. There was a mattress on the floor. Bags of clothes they’d purchased the day before lined up along the wall, and nothing else. Memories flooded back to him, of coming to Earth the day before and arranging things for their new life.
Memories that conflicted with a Saint Patrick’s Day spent fucking a beautiful woman.
So, was it all a dream?
It’d felt so real!
Heart racing, he combed fingers through his tangled hair and climbed quietly out of the bed. In just his boxers, he left their room and went out into the bare living room. Making a bee-line for the window, he stared out at the apartment across from theirs. Lily’s.
It was still dark out, the sky just barely lit with grey. All the lights were off in her place, and she was nowhere to be seen. Did she leave or did—? There was the slightest movement in her bed, and the tightness in his chest eased.
She’s still there.
She’s safe.
So, it had all been a dream. She didn’t yet know they had been sent to keep an eye on her. She didn’t yet know they lived across from her. And they hadn’t yet shared any moments that changed everything between them, even if it felt like they had. Regret left a bitter taste in the back of his throat.
His gaze moved down, and his muscles tensed. A little man was watching him from the sidewalk across the street. The same strange man from his dream.
Puzzle pieces seemed to move in his mind. He’d run into the man the day before. The man had nearly stepped in front of a bus, distracted by his phone call. Acting on instinct, Jaxson had yanked him back.
So he was just a man, right? Not a leprechaun? Not a man who gave me good luck. But then, why was he sitting across the street, staring into an apartment he shouldn’t be able to see inside of, smiling like he’d done something clever.
Suddenly, Jaxson wasn’t sure what had been a dream and what had been real.
Had the little man given him everything and then pressed the reset button so that she would remember none of it? Was it a gift or a curse? He wasn't sure.
The man’s grin widened. And then, he was gone.
Jaxson stood by the window staring for a long time. After only one day back on Earth, already two significant things had happened. One, he’d had a run-in with a leprechaun, and two, he’d realized that he loved Lily.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he felt his wolf stir inside of him. He couldn’t love Lily. Nothing had changed. He couldn’t touch her, not without risking his life.
No matter how much he told himself otherwise, the sensation lingered. The one that whispered that, despite all logic, the half-breed across the street had buried herself deeply inside his heart.
He sighed. Well, happy fucking Saint Patrick’s Day to me.
Want to check out the next steamy short story in this collection? Then, check out Chosen by Gods.