Finding Abigail (18 page)

“It’s about time you showed up,” Jackson said as they met him at the door.

Abby stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jackson.”

The stern man blushed and shook his head before squeezing her hand. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Abby. I’m glad my brutish brother finally came to his senses.”

“I’ll toast to that,” Justin said from the kitchen.

Rina laughed at his side. “It was the curse, dummy. You know he would have been on his knees long before that.” She blushed beet red at her comment. “I meant begging…not...other things.”

Jordan laughed and gave Abby a hug. “Glad to see you’re okay, babe.”

Abby squeezed hard. “Thanks for being my witch and helping out.”

Matt scowled then kissed Abby’s cheek. “That’s
my
witch, but she’s kind of hot when she’s using that magic.”

Jordan rolled her eyes as Brayden shuffled over to welcome her. “Can’t take those two anywhere.”

“Good to see you, Bray,” she said as her gaze traveled to Allison and her kids in the living room. Allison waved, but her eyes were solely on Brayden.

These two have to find each other. This is getting ridiculous
.

They sat and ate together, laughing at the stupidity of being Cooper brothers, and Abby leaned into Tyler’s hold, knowing this was the family she’d always wanted.

She never wanted to lose this.

“Hey, I have a present for you,” Tyler whispered.

She looked up at him, and her eyes widened. “Crap, I forgot yours at the house. I thought we were doing them later.”

Tyler swallowed hard and looked at his brothers. “Uh, I couldn’t wait.”

Okay, what was going on?

“Come with me,” he said as he pulled her away from the table. 

She just shrugged at their looks and went with Tyler to the foyer, away from peeping eyes and ears.

“What is it, Ty?”

“Uh, here.” He handed her a rectangular box wrapped in heart-filled paper, and she rolled her eyes.

Yes, those words were so romantic.

For some reason, disappointment slid through her. She knew it was too soon, but she’d thought it would be an engagement ring. But the box didn’t look like one. Plus the thing rattled.

It would be okay though. They were just starting out and had plenty of time. 

She unwrapped it and laughed.

“Candy hearts?”

Really? That was it? She would have thought Tyler would have had more practice by now at the whole wooing thing.

“Open them.”

Okay…

She poured a couple on her hand and froze.

One said, “
Abigail Mine
.”

While the other said, “
Marry Me
.”

Tears filled her eyes, and her hands shook, almost making her drop the box.

“Abigail?” Tyler asked, his voice shaky.

She looked up at him and couldn’t breathe.

That had to be the cheesiest, most amazingly romantic thing anyone had ever done.

Oh, God, how she loved this man.

“Okay, baby. You’re just crying and staring at me. Was it too soon? Too cheesy? I’ll fix it. You just have to tell me what to do.” 

He cupped her cheeks, trying to wipe the tears that kept falling.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

“Hell yeah!” he yelled and picked her up. She almost dropped her candy.

“Hey, I don’t want to drop these. I want to keep them, baby.”

He set her down as the rest of the Coopers and Allison and her kids filled the alcove, talking over one another with their congratulations. 

“I love you so freaking much,” Tyler said as he took the box and pulled out a diamond solitaire.

Oh, this man was good.

“You’re my cupid, you know that?”

“And you’re my Abigail. I’m so utterly happy that I found you, Abigail. Be mine.”

“I’m yours, Tyler Cooper.”

He crushed his mouth to hers, and she ignored the catcalls and wolf whistles around them. 

This was her happy ending. And even though it hadn’t been the smoothest ride, she’d never change a thing about it.

Sometimes it took an arrow, a bad guy, and a man with wings to find happiness, but she’d take it any way she could get it.

As long as she had the Coopers and Tyler, she’d make it.

After all, it had taken a cupid to find her and make her his.

The End

Next in the Holiday, Montana world is HER LUCKY LOVE, where Brayden and Allison finally get their happy ever after…with a little luck.

About the Author

Carrie Ann Ryan is a bestselling paranormal and contemporary romance author. After spending too much time behind a lab bench, she decided to dive into the romance world and find her werewolf mate - even if it’s just in her books. Happy endings are always near - even if you have to get over the challenges of falling in love first.

Carrie Ann’s Redwood Pack series is a bestselling series that has made the shifter world even more real to her and has allowed the Dante’s Circle and Holiday, Montana series to be born. She's also an avid reader and lover of romance and fiction novels. She loves meeting new authors and new worlds. Any recommendations you have are appreciated. Carrie Ann lives in New England with her husband and two kittens.

www.carrieannryan.com

Also from this Author

Now Available:

Redwood Pack Series:

An Alpha’s Path

A Taste for a Mate

Trinity Bound

A Night Away

Enforcer’s Redemption

Blurred Expectations

Dante’s Circle Series:

Dust of My Wings

Holiday, Montana Series:

Charmed Spirits

Santa’s Executive

Finding Abigail

Coming Soon:

Redwood Pack

Forgiveness

Shattered Emotions

Holiday, Montana Series:

Her Lucky Love

Dreams of Ivory

Dante’s Circle:

Her Warriors’ Three Wishes

An Unlucky Moon

Dust of My Wings - Excerpt

Have you tried Carrie Ann’s other series, Dante’s Circle?

Dust of My Wings is now available

Chapter 1

A summons from the council never led to good things. Shade Griffin’s millennia worth of experience told him that. No matter what he truly desired, he’d do what he was told. He didn’t have another option, and why would he disobey now? He never had before. Whatever demands they dealt might seem tedious to a long-lived being such as him, he didn’t have anything else better to do.

Such was the life of an angel in his predicament; a vast and endless sense of being, yet no one with whom to share it.

Shade shook off the misery that threatened to creep along his skin and suffocate him. The idea of sharing his endless life with someone else, someone special, had long since burned away. No need to think about it again.

The sun broke through the clouds, warming his cool, honey-colored, almost dark tan, skin. He lifted his face, letting the rays soak into his pores. His eyes closed, and he took a deep breath, not really wanting to leave the spot. He rolled his neck, stretching his muscles, and then opened his eyes. His back ached from the long flight to the enclave. He stretched his wings, the light shimmering off his midnight black wings that trailed to a rim of deep blue. The wind picked up, his blue-black hair flowing behind him.

Shade arched his back, his wings flared, and blue dust trickled off and into the air, and drifted to the ground below.

Damn stuff kept doing that; and there was nothing he could do about it. He clenched his fists and winced in pain. He looked down at the healing abrasions on his knuckles and muttered a curse.

As one of the appointed enforcers of angelic law, he’d just come back from the punishment of a young angel: a cocky one at that. He hated doing it, but the unrepentant jerk had decided it would be fun to fly in broad daylight without cloud cover over Area 51. Really? Cliché much? It was easy enough to downplay the event as another UFO sighting, which would certainly bring out the crazies, but it didn’t negate the fact that the reckless angel had broken angelic law by letting humans see him flying.

Because he had decided to laugh about it to his friends and merely shrugged it off, Shade had to step in. If he’d apologized, then Shade wouldn’t have had to use his fists. But no. The young one mouthed off and challenged him, so Shade had to accept. After all, as a warrior, he could not ignore a challenge. Doing so would negate his authority.

And he won.

Of course.

He still hated punishing others, even though it was his job. Between him and his best friend, Ambrose, who was practically his brother, they dealt with most of the enforcing the angelic laws. Together they’d done what they had to do for centuries, and in Ambrose’s case, even longer.

Shade was a warrior angel. In the times of the Angelic Wars, he’d fought alongside the best of the best. Hell, he was the best of the best. Well, maybe tied with Ambrose, but he wouldn’t tell the other angel that.

Shade chuckled as he envisioned Ambrose’s reaction to his thought. Ambrose was sure to want to prove just the opposite to be the case, and Shade would be more than willing to give it a go.
If you couldn’t fight for supremacy with your best friend, how else would you even know how good you were
?

Now those wars were long since over. Times of awkward peace were at hand, meaning the warriors herded the other angels and made sure they followed the rules the council members set in place.

They followed the rules, even if the rules were sometimes, in his opinion, too strict for their own good. But he would never voice it. He was merely a warrior angel.

He wasn’t even a godly one like in the fables of mortals. Their race wasn’t that of a god. Yes, if theology was correct, a god at some point had created them, but they weren’t God’s right hand men; they were not the symbol of goodness and hope. Far from it. They were just another species with rules, regulations, and a seemingly endless long life in order to be subjugated.

Wow. Bitter much?

He shouldn’t be; he had everything he wanted, didn’t he? His forehead scrunched as he thought, and his wings fluttered a bit in agitation.

He certainly had all the money, titles, glory, and privileges a warrior of the finest caliber could have. Why did he feel like he was missing something?

Shade shook his head and looked around. He stood at a midpoint on the mountainside, the enclave circling him. Stone buildings jutted from rock faces, thousands of feet above the surface, old as time. No stairs or elevators here. Open the door and, without wings, they’d drop to their death. Marble and crystal twinkled in the sunlight from the adornments and windows on all of the structures. It may have looked cold to some, but to Shade and his angelic brethren it was warm and inviting.

It looked like home, but it wasn’t truly a ‘home’; There was no love waiting on the other side of the door, and that pained him.

He sighed. He really needed to stop thinking such depressing thoughts. Taking one last look at the place he called home, he jumped off the ledge, his wings spreading to catch a drift, as the cool breezes hit his skin. He flew past other angels in the air, nodding to a few, but kept to himself. He was a warrior angel, the last face some would see as they stared beyond the end of his blade. Tough to make life-long friends outside of certain circles that way.

Shade descended, the wind whipping his hair back from his face, until his feet touched the stone balcony set off the council chambers. He set his wings back, making sure they didn’t trail on the floor. He was exhausted, but that didn’t give him a reason to be lazy. He walked through the ornate doors that reached tall to the roof. Despite his thousand years of living, sometimes the immense beauty of the council chambers had him at a loss for words.

Gold and crystal adorned the walls. Intricate carvings and art filled the room. Eons of pride and talent gave the room a sense of grandeur and honor that made Shade feel young in relation to the other angels surrounding him.

In reality, he was the youngest warrior angel of them all, and second in command to Ambrose, the leader of the warriors, the best at the job. That wasn’t pride talking, just fact.

Shade walked to the center of the room and surveyed the five council members before him, perched high on their thrones, their noses turned up towards him. Another presence worried him. Ambrose stood off to the side, a frown on his face. What was happening?

“I see you have finally decided to grace us with your presence,” Caine, the leader and all-around pain-in-the ass, admonished, and Shade held in a scowl. The brown-haired angel lifted a lip as if the mere sight of him disgusted the ruler.

Shade bowed his head. “I’m sorry I was late. I had just finished my dealing with the young angel and needed time to clear my head before I came. I didn’t want to taint the council with the thoughts and actions of a warrior.” There. That didn’t sound like sarcasm and distain, did it? Well, maybe it did, but it was the best he could do. He wasn’t overly happy with Ambrose in the council chamber. It felt like an ambush.

Caine snorted and shook his head.

Okay, apparently he couldn’t quite mask his true feelings. Oh, well.

Shade didn’t hate the council. He just didn’t like the fact that they held all the power and didn’t seem to do anything but hand out decrees and punishments that were enforced by the warriors. There were only three classes of angles: the council, the warriors, and the others. He didn’t like all the power on the top that trickled down to nothing, but who was he to speak out of turn?