Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate The Final Chapter- Ryann | am so insanely excited and anxious that | might actually pass out. | probably look a little pale because Bellamy puts down the box he was carrying and pullsinto a reassuring hug.

“Calm down, everything will be fine.” He promises. | rest my head against his chest and take a few deep breaths.

“I know, I'm just worried. It was super nice of you to arrange for Maggie to get a place in the Shifter compound, and I'm beyond thrilled that Logan's mum has decided he’s better off living with her full time. I'm so excited to live near Maggie again and it'll be lovely for Kiara to have her friend nearby. But... what if the others don’t approve? | mean, it's one thing forto live in the compound, we are engaged after all. But I'm bringing in more non-Shifters. What if people get angry?” | ask anxiously. | know | already decided to do this, and Bellamy was actually the one who suggested it when | was stressing that Maggie really shouldn't bet living alone and that she wanted to take in Logan but didn’t have the space. It's the perfect solution, but | don’t want everyone to hatebecause of it. | know my friends won't mind, but there are still plenty of Shifters that | don’t know well yet. Bellamy laughs.

“It will be fine, | promise. You're far too loveable for anyone to be really upset with you. Plus I'm sure Maggie will have everyone on their knees begging for her to feed them in no time. What you need to do is relax. You're so stressed out. We get married in a week and at this rate you're going to collapse halfway down the aisle!” He says the words as a joke but the concern is real. He's right, I'm stressing out. | need to relax. Thankfully, It’s kind of hard to keep stressing with his arms around me. We stay like that for a few more minutes, then continue helping Maggie pack up her boxes. We're just about to take the first load of stuff down now. Maggie will be paying rent, she insists. But she can now rent out her old place too so she has enough money to manage it.

Kiara bounces over to us.

“The last box is all taped up! | labelled it for the kitchen.” She beams a smile at me. She's ecstatic that her best friend is moving so close. I'm going to have to keep an eye on the two of them. Logan is a pretty mature kid, but Kiara has definitely been bringing out his mischevious side lately. Still, she’s changed so much in the last few months it's amazing. She’s so much more outgoing. There are times when she gets quiet and sad or scared, but between talking to a therapist and spending twith Logan, she has been doing a lot better.

1/6 The Final Chapter- Ryann She's still nervous around strangers, particularly women, but around friends and family she is far more herself.

When | asked her to be the flower girl for my wedding she was thrilled and she’s talked about almost nothing else for weeks.

“Good job.” | complement her. | look around for Logan who is rarely far behind. He wanders over from the other side of the car with a pleased smile.

“Have you finished packing all your things Logan?” | ask. He confirms that he has. Most of his stuff was at Maggie's anyway. It was really only a few furniture items and sclothes at his mum's place.

“Perfect. So, with all your stuff in the car there's no space for you guys. But Megan and Darrien will be coming by in a few minutes to pick you up and drive you to your new place. Sound good?” | confirm.

“Yes!” He is bouncing in place. | was worried he would be hurt that his mum was so willing to send him to live elsewhere, but ‘he actually just seems relieved. He's a smart kid, he knows this is for the best. Besides, it's not like his mother doesn’t love him and he knows that. She’s just not a very responsible person. She wasn’t ready to have a kid and she just never learned.

| head inside to let Maggie know that we're leaving and that the kids will be waiting with her. She is just finishing a final clean up.

“Are you sure this is okay honey? You're all going out of your way forso much.” She sounds a little guilty and | immediately feel better about the whole thing. Not because she feels bad but because | remember why | wanted her near us in the first place.

+11 “Of course I'm sure! You're my family. Besides, you've been taking care offor years. It's my turn to help take care of you. Plus, this way when Logan and Kiara inevitably decide to sneak out in the middle of the night to see eachother, at least they won't be wandering through town at night.” | joke. Sort of. I'm a little bit serious. Logan DID actually sneak out once a few weeks ago. Kiara had a nightmare and instead of wakingup, she called him. I didn’t know what was going on until Maggie calledsaying that she couldn’t find Logan. He turned up on our doorstep about twenty minutes later. The biggest surprise was that he wasn’t alone. Shaun of all people had picked him up on the street and brought him over. Apparently Amber had asked him to wait on that corner at three in the morning, so she must have known like she always does. Both kids got a lecture about safety and talking to us first if Bor 03: 2/6 The Final Chapter- Ryann they need to go out somewhere. Logan refused to apologise. He insisted that his friend needed cheering up and that he didn’t think the adults would let him go so late at night. Eventually we all cto an agreement that as long as there was a GOOD reason, we wouldn't refuse late night meetings as long as they asked first and got an adult to drive. Still, it gave us all a bit of a fright and now | know that the kids are willing to sneak out if that’s what it takes.

+1 Bo 03 Belllamy drives and we arrive at Maggie and Logan's new hwhich is already bustling with activity. Shaun and Amber got here early. Amber insisted on making lunch for everyone and she’s been working on it all morning. Darrien and Megan arrive about fifteen minutes after we do, Maggie, Logan and Kiara in tow. Megan is quite literally dragging Maggie by the arm into the house.

“Con! We have a surprise for you!” She insists. A surprise? | wasn’t aware of any surprise. What is going on? | glance at Bellamy who grins. Oh he’s in on this too. Why didn’t | know about it? | narrow my eyes at him and he winks atunrepenteantly.

“Sorry love, but everyone was too worried you would tell her and ruin the surprise. Plus you've been busy enough with wedding plans.” He takes my hand and we follow the group. Inside Maggie is standing in the kitchen and she is near tears. | can see why. The kitchen isn’t the one she sae a few weeks ago when she cto check out the place. It has been replaced with the most gorgeous looking kitchen | have ever seen. With a huge oven, granite benchtops lined with a fancy looking kitchenaid and a full set of baking tins and other supplies. It's any bakers dream. How the heck did they manage all of this? “Surprise!” Megan calls out excitedly.

“This is a gift from all of us. We started a collection when you first decided to move in. You make us so many treats we thought it was only fair. Originally it was just Me, Amber, Bellamy, Ryann, Alex, Megan, Darrien and Aaron. It was meant to be a sort of housewarming thing. But when we started looking into it more and more people wanted to chip in. Basically the entire security team put money towards it. Then when everyone else heard that we were making a special kitchen for Ryann’s family, a lot of people volunteered to help out so we got most of the actual work done for free.” Shaun explains excitedly. Wow, | didn’t realise everyone would be so excited to have Maggie here. Bellamy was right, | really didn’t need to worry after all.

“Oh you dear sweet things. I'm going to have to make each and every one of you your favourite deserts. So you had better start a list or a sign up sheet of something. I'll have to 3/6 The Final Chapter- Ryann give this new kitchen a whirl!” She is actually crying at this point and I’m about two seconds away from joining her.

“That's going to take a lot of baking and will cost a lot. So I'm making a new rule. Anything you bake and give out to our Shifters you can bill the ingredients to me.” He declares. Maggie shakes her head.

+1 Bo 03 “Oh no, I couldn't.” She refuses.

“I insist. Think of it as my keeping up morale.” He insists. The two of them go back and forth. for a few minutes, but eventually Maggie caves and agrees to let Bellamy contibute to her baking supplies. | suspect she will need it with how the Shifters fight over her baking.

Amber is getting ready to serve lunch when Aaron finally arrives. He isn’t working today since. I'm with Bellamy anyway. But apparently this moving day has turned into a surprise party and everyone is invited. I'm beyond excited when | realise he has bought along a plus one. FINALLY | get to meet his mystery girl. Aaron nods a greeting to me, but his girlfriend drags him forward, holding his hand and swinging it between the two of them.

“Hi I'm Penny. And you must be Ryann!” She shakes my hand with her free hand before continuing.

“And your Bellamy. Which means that must be Shaun and Amber. | assthat is Maggie. The cute little blonde over there must be Kiara and the strapping lad is Logan. Megan and Darrien are the two on the other side of the counter, right?” She points us all out like she’s on a gshow and she’s playing to win.

“Uh... yeah. That's right. It’s lovely to meet you Penny. Hey you're not an Oracle, are you? Because that was impressive.” | comment. She laughs, a light tinkling sound that is strangely pleasant.

“No, no. I'm actually half Siren.” She responds easily.

“Oh. Well how did you know all our names? Did you study up on us or something?” | ask jokingly.

“Sure, | made up flash cards and quizzed myself. I'm still waiting to meet Alex, Cam and 4/6 The Final Chapter- Ryann Harrison.” She grins at me, flicks her hair out of her face then continues.

+10 Bon “Nah, I'm just kidding. It was easy to figure out. Aaron talks about you guys all the time.” She explains. We all stare. Somehow it was more believeable that she had stalked us all online and made flashcards.

03: We spend a few minutes getting to know Penny who is as chatty as Aaron is quiet. We're just setting up a picnic lunch since we haven't actually brought over Maggie's furniture yet when Harry and Cam turn up.

“EVERYONE WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!” Harry declares, throwing the front door open and rushing in. He does pause to hug Maggie and high five Kiara before standing before us all expectantly.

“Con, someone ask!” He whines, Cam rolls her eyes and swats him on the arm playfully.

“They don’t have to ask. I'm just going to tell them. The registration for my new coven has officially been approved thanks to you guys! That means | can finally sell potions and spells. Just in tfor the big re-branding party next weekend! You're all coming right?” She tells us excitedly. We all break out in cheers and congratulations. Cam needs to be in a coven to sell magic, but since she isn’t comfortable in her family’s coven anymore she needed a new one. The whole thing was Harry's idea. He checked the MRO’s official rules for coven registration and discovered that the laws don’t specify that coven members have to be Witches. It actually just states that they have to be ‘magic users.’ So, Harry, Amber and | are now the newest members of Cam’s coven.

At this point it’s basically a drinking club and Megan attends all our ‘meetings’ but what matters is that Cam can finally operate her bar the way she wants to. all sit down to lunch and by the end of it, Penny has signed up to join our coven and has promised to sing at the big re-branding party.

We | watch on in satisfaction and when the colourful strings joining everyone in the boisterous. group starts to overwhelm me, | step into the hall to get a break from everyone. Bellamy follows and pullsinto a hug.

“You know what this means?” | ask. He pulls back and tilts his head curiously.

“What?” He asks.

5/6 The Final Chapter- Ryann “It’s official. When we were first getting to know eachother you toldthat Shifters are better off seperated from everyone else. You're officially wrong.” | declare and he laughs.

“I figured that out a long tago. You, me, and our huge, mixed up, crazy family. We are definitely much better off together.” He confirms. | can’t help it. | reach up on my tip toes. and kiss him. With this lot around, | don’t know if | will ever have another quiet day in my life. But | can’t bring myself to regret a thing and | will always be grateful for the day that Bellamy cknocking on my door and for every day | have surrounded by my strings of fate.

+1 Bo 03 Author's note: Thanks for reading, my new book A Human’s Guide to Surviving Magical Mishaps is updating and you're welcto read it!