Accepted and Adored

Premonitions

“I love it!” Matt laughed, putting on the horrendously ugly Christmas sweater his mom and dad had given him. “It’s even uglier than last year’s one,” he noted. The bell that had been sewn onto the top of Santa’s hat jingled as he moved, and the tinsel wrapped around the arms of the sweater made him look even more ridiculous.

“Only the best for my son,” Mr. Taylor replied, making everyone laugh. Lily, the Taylors, the Stevensons, Sam and Jessica were all sitting in the Taylor’s living room, the Christmas tree next to the fireplace creating a festive atmosphere in the room.

“We also got you this,” Finn and Matt’s mom said, handing Matt another wrapped present.

Matt ripped off the gift wrap quickly uncovering a small square jewelry box. “Uh, I don’t think jewelry is really my style guys,” he said dryly.

“Just open it,” Mr. Taylor told his son, shaking his head in amusement.

Matt opened the small box and Lily could see a ring that was similar to the one she wore on her finger, only it had a sapphire in the middle instead of an emerald.

“We bought it a few days after you were born,” Matt’s mom explained. “We wanted both of our sons to be able to give their mate’s a ring.”

“We know it’s not the one that’s been in the family for generations,” Mr. Taylor admitted, “But this way you’ll be the first man to ever give that ring to his mate.”

“This is great,” Matt replied, smiling happily and getting up to give both of his parents a hug. “Thanks, you guys.”

“Okay, who’s next?” Matt asked once he was sitting back on the couch.

“This is for Finn and Lily,” Mrs. Taylor said, handing an envelope to Lily and a tiny flat rectangular gift to Finn. “Read the card first,” she instructed them.

Lily opened the envelope and she and Finn read the short message in the card together. For your new home in Seattle, it said. Lily furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at her mate’s parents curiously, before Finn tore open the gift to find a gift card for Bed Bath & Beyond.

“There’s enough on there for a few small pieces of furniture,” Mrs. Taylor told them with a huge grin.

“This is too much,” Lily argued in surprise, not used to such generosity. Compared to the two books and the wine Lily and Finn had given them, their gift was far too much.

“Nonsense,” Mr. Taylor replied. “We want you two to be happy in your new apartment and this is our way of helping make that a reality.”

“Thanks mom and dad,” Finn said, taking Lily’s hand and squeezing it. “We’ll definitely use it wisely.”

“Thank you,” Lily agreed with a watery smile. It was moments like that when she wondered if moving to a new city was a good idea. The Taylors had become her family and leaving them and the Stevensons behind was going to be extremely hard. It was just that staying in Hood River would come with its own challenges.

“I suppose it’s our turn,” Finn said to her. “You can open my gift first,” he added, walking to the tree and picking up a small red gift box. “I left it here in case you got tempted to take a peek,” he joked with a wink.

Lily pursed her lips and gave him an ‘oh really’ look. “So, you don’t trust me?” she scolded him playfully.

“I trust you with my life,” he countered. “But the apartment is a bit small to hide gifts,” he explained.

Lily had to admit it was true– she had resorted to hiding her gift to him in one of her boots. “Yeah, alright, I see your point,” she responded with a smile.

“Merry Christmas babe,” Finn said, kissing her gently and briefly on the lips before handing her the box. “It’s actually a combined gift. Eli, Amanda and Sam helped me with it.”

“Thanks guys,” Lily smiled at the Stevensons. She opened it to find a gold keychain with a green jewel and a mini Space Needle. It was really cute, but it wasn’t quite what she had been expecting. “Uh…thanks,” she replied hesitantly, to which Finn and Eli chuckled.

“The rest of the gift is waiting for you in Seattle,” Amanda explained.

“And what is the rest of the gift?” Lily asked in confusion.

“Car keys for a Mini Cooper,” Sam replied, making Lily’s jaw drop.

“A car?” she asked, flabbergasted. She had mentioned to Finn that she would love to get a Mini Cooper one day, but she had never expected him to do this.

“Sort of. We chose a finance plan, and we’ll pay for the first few months,” Eli told her.

“Then I’ll help you with the payments until you graduate and get a full-time job,” Finn said.

“And I’ll be paying the insurance until you can afford it,” Sam added with a big smile.

Her relationship with Sam and Jessica was far from perfect, but in the months after Sam’s confession at the pack hospital, they had made huge strides in becoming the kind of siblings Lily had once hoped they could be. It helped that his mate, Jessica, had become a much different person after Alpha Mason’s attack and had apologized to Lily so many times for her behavior in the past that it had actually become somewhat annoying. Nearly losing her baby and her mate had been a huge wake-up call for the Luna, and she had actually become someone the pack could admire and look up to.

“Okay seriously you guys, this is way too much,” Lily said with wide eyes. “You really don’t need to do that.”

“We didn’t need to,” Eli agreed, “But we wanted to,” he insisted.

“Besides the monthly payments really aren’t so bad,” Amanda added.

Lily was stunned, but she recovered enough to get up to give Eli, Amanda and Sam huge hugs, and then gave Finn a kiss that was passionate but short for the sake of his parents and her brother. “You’re amazing,” she whispered to him.

“Well Lily, I don’t know what you got for Finn, but I don’t think it will top a car,” Matt chuckled. “And to think that last year all he got me was a pair of fluffy winter socks,” he scoffed.

“Hey, you loved those socks,” Finn said defensively.

“Yeah, I really did,” Matt admitted with a reluctant smile.

“Well, it’s no car,” Lily said while handing Finn his gift, which was shaped exactly like the one Matt had been given by his parents. “But I think you’ll like it,” she told him, her cheeks blushing with her nervousness.

Finn raised his eyebrows questioningly when he unwrapped the square jewelry box. “Is it the earrings I’ve always wanted?” he asked, making her giggle.

“No,” she said dryly. “Just open it.”

When he opened the box and saw the simple gold wedding band, his amused demeanor evaporated and was replaced by awe. Mrs. Taylor looked like she was on the verge of tears as she looked at the ring in her son’s hand. “Is this…?” Finn trailed off, looking up at Lily and swallowing nervously.

Like she had planned, Lily took the ring out of the box he held, lifted his left hand and slid the band onto his ring finger. “Now we match,” she said lamely, pointing at the ring on her finger. “I wanted you to have my promise too,” she explained, wringing her shaking hands and shuffling anxiously on her feet. She had spent a large chunk on her savings on the ring, but it was the only gift she wanted to give her mate– a gift that symbolized her devotion to him.

When Finn’s eyes lifted and met hers, she was relieved to see the happiness shining in his eyes. “It’s so much better than a car,” he said and caught her off guard with an intense and long kiss.

His tongue had just brushed against hers when Bella loudly squealed, “Eww mommy, they’re kissing all gross like,” breaking the moment and reminding Finn and Lily that they had an audience who probably didn’t appreciate seeing them getting hot and heavy.

“I was wrong this morning,” Finn whispered after they pulled apart. “This was the best Christmas gift ever,” he said, making her beam up at him happily.

~

“Do you think we’re making a mistake not moving somewhere further away from Portland?” Lily asked Finn for probably the hundredth time as they pulled into the parking spot of their apartment building. “Alpha Erikson is still out there somewhere.”

Finn sighed. “I don’t know Lily,” he admitted. “On the one hand I want to get you as far from that man as possible, but on the other hand, we can’t keep running our whole lives and give up your dream because of him. You’ve always wanted to move to Seattle, so do you really want to give that up?”

“No,” Lily sighed in frustration at her limited options. “I just don’t know if we’ll be safe there.”

“Seattle is one of the strongest packs in the US,” he pointed out. “We’ll be safer there, living in a building surrounded by other werewolves than we would be in a city that’s further away but offers less protection. Seattle might be close to him, but I’ve looked into other cities and other packs, and none of them have the same sort of setup as Seattle,” he explained. “New York has a huge pack, but they’re spread all throughout the city making them weaker to attack, and the D.C. pack has been getting weaker and weaker.”

“I didn’t know you’d looked into that,” Lily said in surprise. They had discussed whether Seattle was a good city for them, but he had never brought up any other options with her.

“I knew if there was a safer place for us to go, I needed to find it,” he told her with a sad smile. “But unless we move to Europe or maybe Canada, Seattle actually seems like the best bet.”

“You really have given this a lot of thought,” Lily noted with raised eyebrows.

“Of course I did,” he replied, his blue eyes telling her how worried he was for her. “I can’t lose you Lily.”

“You won’t,” she promised Finn, kissing him gently on the lips before they got out of his Jeep.

“Penelope and Matt seem to be doing really well,” Lily said as they walked up the stairs to their apartment. “I’m surprised they’re still happy to wait after graduating to have their mating ceremony.”

The two werewolves were so obviously in love and smitten with each other, and they hadn’t been able to take their hands off of one another at the Christmas dinner party at the Taylor’s. They were almost as bad as her and Finn– almost.

“I don’t get it either,” Finn agreed with a shake of his head. “It’s a really long time to wait.”

“I sure as hell couldn’t have waited that long,” Lily muttered making Finn raise an eyebrow in interest.

“Oh really?” he asked teasingly.

“As if you could have waited,” Lily retorted sarcastically.

“True,” Finn agreed with a chuckle, but his laughter was cut short when they reached their floor and saw a frantic Dianna knocking on their apartment door.

“Dianna?” Lily asked with furrowed eyebrows, gaining the attention of the crying woman.

“Lily!” the old lady gasped, running over and embracing Lily as she continued to sob.

“What’s going on Dianna?” Lily asked in concern.

“I thought you were really hurt,” the woman choked out through her tears.

Lily met Finn’s eyes and they shared a perplexed look at Dianna’s words. “Why would you think that?” she asked the paisley-dressed woman, who still hadn’t stopped clinging to her.

“I saw you,” the woman explained, slowly releasing Lily and wiping the tears from her eyes. “I saw you covered in blood. You were in a car accident.”

“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, taking Lily’s hand in his own.

“I just got back to the bed and breakfast after my family’s Christmas dinner when everything went black and I saw it,” she said, making absolutely no sense.

“I don’t understand,” Lily said in confusion.

“It was like I was seeing you even though I wasn’t there,” Dianna tried to explain. “It was so vivid though,” she muttered. “My mom used to say she could see things that were about to happen, and I never believed that nonsense,” she told them gravely. “But Lily, I was so sure what I saw was real.”

“What exactly did you see,” Finn demanded, sounding far too concerned for Lily’s liking.

“Not much,” the lady admitted. “But I knew you were still alive because I could see your chest moving, and your eyes opened for a few seconds,” she said to Lily. “You were hurt, but you were okay.”

“Did you see anything specific?” Finn asked. “Maybe what she was wearing or where she was? Anything that would prove what you saw wasn’t real.”

Dianna pursed her lips in thought until realization lit up her eyes. “I remember seeing a keychain. It had a little green gem and maybe the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building– something like that.”

Finn’s grip on Lily’s hand tightened and she felt like she might be sick. How could she have possibly known about the keychain that Finn had given her only hours before.

“That’s impossible,” Lily whispered, taking out the keychain that she had left in her coat pocket, and lifting it for Dianna to see.

“That’s the keychain I saw,” Dianna said in horror. “What does this mean?” she asked them with fresh tears in her eyes.

“It means that what you saw was real,” Finn said, pulling Lily toward him as if he was trying to keep her safe from the future. “Tell us everything,” he ordered Dianna. “Don’t leave out a single detail.”