Violet’s entire body shook briefly at the all-too-familiar voice. Moving her hands slowly from her eyes, tears started walling up inside them as she jumped straight from the bed.

Catching the wolf girl mid-jump, Edward squeezed her strongly in his arms, his own eyes watering slightly.

“Sorry for taking so long.”

Violet didn’t answer and just continued clinging to him, her tail wiggling wildly. Edward could hear quiet sniffles coming from her, so he said nothing else either. Just feeling her warm touch after so long was enough for now.

When Violet finally broke the hug, she was not crying anymore, but her eyes were still red. Edward wanted to say something, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, Violet grabbed his shirt and closed his mouth using hers.

After a brief kiss, she released his lips and said: “I missed you.”

Smiling towards her, Edward wiped the dried tear marks on her cheeks and whispered back: “I missed you too.”

The two just stared at each other for a long time, their eyes saying more words than their mouth could ever do. Violet was the first to break eyesight as she placed her head on his chest while hugging him even harder and said: “Don’t leave, not again.“

“I’m sorry…”, replied Edward, wishing he could give her the answer she expected but couldn’t. The life of a simple human was not a possibility for him anymore.

Sniffling sightly on his chest, Violet bit her lip and said: “Take me with you? I want to stay with you. I love you, Edward. Please.”

Pullin’ her head up to see into her teary eyes, Edward smiled gently and rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs as he said: “I love you too, Violet, but it’s too dangerous. I love you too much to ever let you be in danger.”

Violet bit even harder on her lower lips as she said: “At least, while you’re in the city, can I stay with you?”

“What about the inn?” asked Edward.

“I’ll have someone else take care of it. I want to stay with you, please.”

“Alright.”, said Edward with a sigh.

“Do you have anything you need to do today?” asked Violet next.

“I need to visit a member of my former party at the church and speak something with her. Other than that, maybe to check on Minx.”, replied Edward, not really having any other plans that to get an in with the city lord to get a permit for Minx.

“Can you come with me to the inn so I can let the others know first? I’ll come with you afterward.”

Edward agreed, and after a small kiss, the two made their way slowly toward the inn. On the way, Violet asked what was he doing all this time, and he told her he was just leveling up with Minx in the dungeon. He mentioned nothing about his close calls with death or the trouble with Kara. There was no need to.

Violet also complained a little about how Circe dragged her out of the inn to sleep in the tower, but Edward felt she didn’t really mind it too much. Once they reached the inn, Edward gave her a small kiss and waited outside for her to deal with everything.

About fifteen minutes later, the inn’s doors opened and Violet walked out. Grabbing onto Edward’s arm, she smiled, showing her small canines, and said: “I’m done. I am all yours. Day and night.”

Edward chuckled and asked: “You know I don’t have a place to sleep, do you?”

“I’ll just sleep with you in the forest.” Replied Violet straight away, always curious about why he would never sleep at the inn.

Edward smiled wryly but was happy he could go a lot longer without sleep now. It would be really hard to push the clingy wolf away now.

Seeing he said nothing, Violet asked: “Are we going to the church now?”

“Yeah. We should find Mya there.”, said Edward while leading the way. Violet clung to his arm the entire way, like she was afraid he would run off again if she let go.

Once they reached the gate of the church, Edward walked up to the guards and asked: “Hello, is Mya Greer in there?”

The guards gave Violet a disgusted look before saying: “Yes, you can go in, but the demi-human stays here.”

Edward frowned and was about to argue with the guard when Violet squeezed his arm and said with a smile: “It’s fine. I’ll wait here.”

Shaking his head, Edward turned towards the guard and said: “Go and tell her someone wants to see her.”

The guards scoffed and acted like they didn’t hear him. Edward got fed up with it and also wanted to confirm something, so he grabbed Violet’s hand with his to reassure her it will be alright.

Smiling towards the guards, Edward’s eyes turned black as two water whips flew out of his body and stopped right at the two guards’ privates. The guards didn’t expect someone would actually dare to attack them inside the city and froze in place.

“One of you will go inside and call Mya out and the other will apologize to my girlfriend here. If not, both of you can join the church office after today.”

“You think…. AH…” Once the guards started speaking while reaching for his sword, only for his words to stop as the whip moved forward and cut his privates clean off. He only released half a scream before he passed out and fell to the ground, spasming from time to time with blood flowing from between his legs.

Turning towards the other guard, Edward asked: “You should get a priest for him as well.”

The guard didn’t dare argue as he rushed straight inside the church grounds. Violet sneezed on his arm and said: “You shouldn’t have done that. I’m used to it. Most humans always look like that to us.”

Stroking her ears gently, the black receded from Edward’s eyes as he said: “And what kind of boyfriend would I be if I were to let them treat my girl like that? Letting him live was going easy on him.”

“But you’ll get in trouble…”

Edward chuckled and said: “Will I?”

Violet looked into his eyes and, seeing no trace of worry, nodded before resting her head back on his arm.

Mya, accompanied by an old man Edward didn’t know rushed out with that guard in tow. The old man looked at the bleeding guard on the ground and asked: “What is the meaning of this?”

Edward ignored the angry geezer and turned towards Mya, who was walking towards him with a subtle smile on her lips.

“Hey, Mya. How are you?”

Mya smiled back and ignored the man as well. “Hi, Edward. I’m good. How long have you been back?”

The old man got even more enraged as he got ignored by the two, but he said nothing else and just rushed to heal the bleeding guard before he died.

“Last night. Are you free to take a walk with us?” asked Edward.

Mya nodded and followed Edward as they started walking away like everything that happened was none of their business. Edward was walking in the middle, with Violet still clinging to his arm and Mya on the other side.

“What happened to that guard?”

“He was quite rude, and it pissed me off. By the way, you two haven’t met. This is my girlfriend, Violet Glass. Violet, this is Mya Greer, a member of my former party.”

The two girls shook hands and Violet said: “Nice to meet you, Mya. Thanks for taking care of Edward.”

“Nice to meet you too, and he was the one who took care of me. I would be dead if not for him.”

Violet smiled at her words and squeezed Edward’s arm as she said: “He saved me too. In so many ways.”

Edward rubbed Violet’s ears and was feeling quite embarrassed. Wishing to change the subject, he said to Mya: “Can I ask you something?”.

Seeing her nod, he continued: “Do you mind telling me about your family? Even that priest was too afraid to make a move on me once he saw I was your friend.”

Mya smiled wryly and asked: “How did you know?”

“I had a hunch ever since I went to your place.”

Mya sighed and replied: “My father leads the assassin guild in the city. That’s why I moved away and stayed inside the church most of the time. The atmosphere at home is too stifling. Even if he didn’t dare do anything in front of me, you should still be careful. The priests know, but the guards don’t.”

“It will be fine. I have my ways of dealing with them.”

As they were chatting, they reached the city gates and Violet asked: “Where are we going?”

“To check on Minx?” continued Mya, figuring out there was nothing else they would go into the forest for.

Edward nodded and said: “I left her alone last night and want to check on her. I also want to introduce Violet to her properly.”

The girls nodded and soon reached the place he left Minx at. When they arrived there, Edward was surprised to find a familiar bird frozen in an ice cube, with Minx sleeping nearby.

The girls also looked curiously at the bird when Edward said: “Minx, you could have waited for me as well.”

Minx lifted her head and looked at the girls before saying: “I got bored last night. Good to see you, Mya, Violet.”

Mya rushed from Edward’s side and started rubbing her head on Minx’s fur. “Minx, I missed you so much.”

Violet was a lot more reserved as she smiled and didn’t let go of Edward as she said: “Good to see you again, Minx.”

The three just sat down next to the frozen bird and chatted casually for a while. They mostly spoke about what everyone did in the time they hadn’t seen each other, with Mya clinging onto Minx the entire time.

As the time was approaching noon, Edward said: “Mya, I know you don’t agree to your family’s business, but can I ask you for a favor?”

Mya rubbed her face on Minx’s fur once more and didn’t seem to care that much about it as she said: “Sure. What is it? I don’t hate them or anything, I just can’t stand living there and don’t want to know too much about my father’s job. He still loves me and I love him.”

“I want to get a permit for Minx to enter the city, but there was that incident at the gate a while ago, which made things quite difficult. I wanted to know if your father has some connection or way to persuade the city lord. He needs to approve the permit for Minx if I want to even have a chance.”

Mya nodded instantly and said: “Sure, I’ll ask him about it. He should be able to help. The city lord was always by our house when I was little.”

“Thank you.” Edward already spoke to Circe about this, and she was the one who revealed Mya’s background and the fact that her father might help if asked by his little girl.

They spend some more time just messing around in the forest. At noon, Mya said goodbye to the rest and left to go home and take care of the stuff with her father. Edward and Violet remained sitting on the soft grass while resting with their backs on Minx’s soft fur.

Watching Mya sprint away, Violet moved to kiss Edward’s cheek and said: “She’s cute.”

Chuckling, Edward turned towards her and whispered: “Not as cute as you.”, before moving to steal her lips for a kiss.

As the kiss became more passionate, Edward started sliding his hand up Violet’s leg, heading upward. Grabbing onto his hand once it reached her thighs, Violet broke the kiss and said with a blush: “Minx is here.”

Edward chuckled and asked: “Do you think Minx would mind us kissing?”

“You know what I’m saying.” Said Violet as she softly hit Edward’s side. Minx turned her head towards the two and said: “I don’t mind.”

Seeing Violet even getting more embarrassed, Edward smiled and asked. “So you wouldn’t mind it if Minx was not there? How about we head back to Circe’s tower then?”

Violet understood what he was hinting towards and nodded with a blush. Turning towards Minx, Edward said: “Minx, we’re going back to the city. Don’t worry, I’ll soon get that pass for you.”

Minx sat down and said nothing. Once Edward and Violet were already far into the distance, she looked in their direction with a conflicted look before crushing the bird's prison into pieces.

Edward walked with the blushing Violet towards Circe’s tower at the magician guild. Once they entered the room, Edward pushed Violet against the door and moved for a kiss, only for Violet to ask: “What about Circe?”

“Don’t worry about her.” Replied Edward as he continued what he started.