Free Through the Veil by Lacey Thorn

otherwise.
    “Save that for later,” Taggart said, tugging her away from
Jamison and dropping a kiss on her head before leading her over to sit at a
table that held the tantalizing aromas. She took in the scene around her. A
table filled with tempting food, a fire set and ready to go in the fireplace
and a bed with the covers already pulled back. But more importantly she took in
the two men with her. They smiled and looked at her with such love in their
eyes.
    It was too soon and yet she couldn’t deny the words any
longer. Maybe it was where they were. She’d already discovered that everything
was different on this side of the veil. Without the little things to complicate
and manipulate it was just her and them. They had no fear of showing her how
they felt, no need to deny or hide. And it was that which gave her the courage
she needed.
    I love them , she admitted to herself.
    We love you too. Jamison’s voice filled her head.
    Taggart just nodded. Reggie wanted to laugh. What took
courage for her to say they just accepted and returned as if their love was a
given.
    But it is. To know you is to love you. Taggart’s
voice this time.
    “I love you,” she spoke aloud, needing to say the words, to
give voice to them. “I love you.”
    Taggart and Jamison both just smiled at her and nodded in
agreement. Totally accepting and obviously reciprocating her love. She had to
laugh. Here it was all so simple. No games, no lies. Just an embrace of life
and love and one another. It was something she had longed for her entire life
and finally found.
    “Dig in,” Taggart urged her as he moved a filled plate of
food in front of her.
    And that was just what she planned to do. To dig in and
savor every moment of what her life offered now. Her gaze moved from Taggart to
Jamison and back again. She was truly the luckiest woman in the world.
    * * * * *
    Serena stood in the center of the clearing and listened to
the voices on the wind. It was nice to hear the joy of others all around her.
Especially since it seemed their joy was all that she would ever know. Standing
there, she drifted back to that one moment so long ago when everything had
changed for her.
    “All you have to do is walk away from him,” Meryll had told
her. “You know that it is forbidden to love a shifter, especially when we have
always been promised to one another.”
    “I don’t love you,” Serena tried to get him to understand.
“I’ve never felt more for you than a friend.”
    “Because of him,” Meryll sneered.
    “No,” Serena said. “He has nothing to do with how I feel
about you.”
    “The man you love has nothing to do with your spurning the
man you are promised to?” Meryll asked with a cold smile. “How can you stand
there and lie to my face?”
    “I’m not lying to you,” Serena declared. “I love Lynx. We
never meant to fall in love. It just happened.”
    “Unfortunately for you it doesn’t matter,” Meryll said. “I
have already spoken with your parents and they are willing to overlook your
words as long as I am willing to still marry you.”
    “And you would marry me?” Serena asked softly. “Knowing that
my heart and soul belong to another, that your bed will remain cold and empty
of your bride?”
    “You will come to me and we will consummate our vows,”
Meryll stated. “You will put this shifter out of your mind and move on as is
expected.”
    “I won’t,” she said just as softly.
    “You will,” he yelled at her, spittle flying from his lips.
Serena had never seen Meryll so angry before.
    “I love Lynx,” she stated, her voice louder this time.
“Nothing you say will change that.”
    “Really.” He turned to her and, grabbing her by the arms,
shook her hard. “You think that there is nothing that I can do to change that.
Don’t fool yourself, little girl. You will uphold our promise or I will see to
it that you never see Lynx again.”
    “How do you propose to do that, Meryll?” she asked with