Page 68 of Bride of Choice

Quickly popping back out, I followed Kooky to the end of the hall and out the heavy back door.

Following the sounds of my new temporary roommate talking softly in his language, I found the beast man cooing at the psychedelic potato-corn that had pulled his sled earlier.

“They’re so small compared to the others I’ve seen,” I commented, resisting the urge to reach out and try and pet it. I liked to keep all of my fingers and toes on my person.

A grunting noise leaving my companion had me looking up to meet his gaze as he glanced my way. He was freaking tall, but not freakishly so that I felt like a chipmunk hanging out with Godzilla. “Feed. Bebeh eats,” he rumbled out as he took my hand in his, pausing only for a moment as our skin touched, like maybe he was feeling that weird spark that shot through me as the rough pads of his fingers brushed mine, to place a piece of burnt toast into my fingers.

“Of course you get to feed her the fruit and I’m the burnt toast lady,” I mock grumbled, even as my hand shook and I forgot how to breathe as he extended our cupped hands.

“Likes,” he crooned softly, tucking the rest of what was left of his offerings under his arm to pet his Bebeh while urging them to take the food we were offering.

“Me or the food?” I joked, then jumped, a startled “eep” leaving me as a thick, wet mouth closed over our hands and the overdone toast was quickly gobbled up, sucked into a slobbery maw with what felt like a bisected, maybe even trisected tongue, or multiple tongues that moved in tandem.

“That was so fucking awesome,” I whispered, gaping at my ick-gooey hand in astonishment. And also, “Ew.” Totally grody, but so freaking awesome.

Kooky let out a deep, rusty chuckle at my emphatic response.

A soft lowing had me reaching out with my free hand, gooey-stickening be damned, to tentatively pet the crazy looking fur-baby’s head butting against Kooky’s slobber gooped hand. My hand wandered over coarse, dense fur, with a thick layer of softness below the longer layers. It was like puppy silk was hidden under all that longer wild fur. Careful as I went, I tried a little scritch behind the ear, which seemed to please our burnt toast demanding overlord.

“I’m all out of toast, baby. Sorry, toots,” I cooed at the beast.

“She likes,” Kooky said on a laugh as I found my hand repeatedly, gently but urgently head butted for more scritches.

“Greedy little thing,” I tsked softly yet did as she bade. She was too sweet and cute to argue with. Who was I to deny her?

This place has a freaking potato-unicorn and everything! Good luck ever getting me to leave!!

A series of soft chuffs, leading up to a bellow of a low, aimed at Kooky’s face while Baby urged me to pet her until my arm fell off, had me cackling like a hyena. “He is so your snack bitch. Isn’t he, Baby? Isn’t he?” I crooned, getting a loud snort and grunted chuffs from said snack handler in her employ.

“You don’t know what that means, do you?” I asked, glancing up at my companion.

“Knowed,” he huffed and puffed, though his eyes said, shit no!

Pulling back to watch as he finished offering her the rest of her treats, one at a time, then washed his hands using a pump that fed off a series of large, insulated water barrels that appeared to be used to catch run-off water. Washing out a huge bowl next to refill it using the fat pitcher he’d brought out and laid at his feet until he was ready for it and the water pump, it took him several trips to refill the monster of a potato-corn water bowl.

Noting he set in on a raised contraption with softly glowing orange coal rocks under it, he explained as he spied me watching, “So no freeze.”

Making use of the water pump and small oddly shaped chunk of soap next to it to wash my hands, I quickly wiped my hands on my pants and wrapped myself up in my pelt tighter. It was stupid cold out here and coming down hard. Worry nipped at me as I eyed our little friend. “She won’t get too cold out here?”

The look Kooky gave me said he was going to swap names with me if I kept that up. How was that kooky?

“Don’t look at me like that! She could get cold!” I huffed and puffed, spinning on my heel to march back into the house.

“Bebeh made for cold. Many furries.” His chin jerked towards her coat. “Stays warm,” he called after me, sounding absolutely fucking baffled by my logic, or lack thereof.

My pink cheeks were out of his line of sight as I stormed into the house in a mock snit, and yet my embarrassed flush remained long after we’d both sealed away inside our castle in the snow.

And this was how our crazy, surprisingly functional friendship/roommate hood kicked off.

Chapter 11

“We go,” Kooky grunted out, walking over to nudge my foot as he passed.

“We? Who is this we you speak of, sir?” I murmured, rifling through the scraps of my old clothes for the right material for the job.

It’s been longer than I cared to think about since I’d moved in here. My pop-ins in the village anymore for a quick thing here or there or a visit with Rosa, were fewer and far between lately.

Dodging nosy posies has been easy enough, considering I make it a point to avoid them at any and all costs. The few times I was caught up by Daisy or Red, wondering where the heck I’d poofed out of thin air to, my story remained short and sweet and uniform. My place, along with the other huts for the unmated, were all temporarily out of order. They needed work and until said work was done I was staying at an old friend of Dorothy’s place since the rest of Yetidom was currently all full up. Dorothy knew so many folks from the villages scattered throughout around us, near as much as far, it was entirely plausible and typically left without question. Very few wanted to tangle with Dorothy. God, I loved that woman.

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