Page 96 of Bride of Choice

Pfft! I didn’t need anyone!

“Spicy drops not good food. Rek hungry still. Rek tummy spicies now, too. We go,” Rek rumbled, trying to steer me towards his place instead of my temporary accommodations.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I leaned in to hiss-whisper as I tried and failed to slip from his grasp as discreetly as possible. The male was like a damn octopus.

That perfectly innocent look on his face wasn’t fooling anyone. “Jojoknee needs food. Rek has food,” he stated reasonably, like this was the best course of action, “Rek-”

“Ohhhh. No-no-no. No, you don’t,” I cut in, for him to cut right back in with, “Yes, Rek has food!”

“I am not going to your place. I’ll go to mine or Booger’s, but that is it. If you think I’m that gullible or that I’d allow myself to be left alone with you without actual adult supervision back at your place, you have lost your damn fuzzy lined mind!” I slipped free of his hold, but he just held me right back.

There was something to this back and forth that gave me hope, yet time and again he’d open his mouth and ruin it. I missed our closeness, the early morning cuddles, the late night talks. The secret sweetness and fun taunting. I missed us before he’d gone and screwed it all up.

“Would you stop touching me!” I finally snapped, slapping his hands away. “You’re awfully touches and feelies for someone who claims it’s me!”

“Ey! Hey!”

I swear, everything in me cringed, tightened up, then shriveled at the sound of Rek’s secondhand headache calling out to him. Great, just what I needed, another pain in my ass butting in where they weren’t wanted.

“Booger!” I called out. “Boogy-woogaloo?! I seem to have misplaced you!” I made a show of calling out, digging my boot heels in as Rek willfully ignored Kirch calling out to him in favor of dragging me towards his place.

“Here, Jojoknee!” Booger called, closer than I’d expected.

Thank god! He must be trailing us.

“Hey! Rek! Jojoknee!” Kirch was bellowing now, making a scene.

“My god, now who’s the attention whore?” I muttered under my breath.

“Excuse me?” a feminine voice called out to my left, effectively calling me out.

Turning to find Mina staring down at me in surprise, that surprise slowly morphing into offense, the next few minutes here were probably going to suck.

Do I play this off or spill the beans, I debated on what to tell her.

Deciding neither was going to work for me, I turned on the source of all of this bullshit. “This is all your fault!” I barked at the male responsible.

Rek’s lips parted and he gave me a dirty look. “Rek fault? How you say Kirch whore Rek fault?”

“I didn’t call him a whore!” I challenged. Realizing Mina had a baby on her hip, I started coding bad words. “I called him an attention w-h-o-r-e, but only after he accused me of being one first!”

“What the h-e double hockey sticks is going on?” Mina demanded to know.

Kirch came up on us right as I started pointing and talking, finishing off the little circle we formed with Gopher, still tagging along for some god forsaken reason, bringing up the rear.

“Rek told Kirch for reasons I’m still clueless on that I’m touches and feelies and made the comment that he thought I did things for attention, namely that the beast I saw at my window wasn’t at my window last night, like I’d made it all up, and I’m just an attention whore.” Shaking my head, I wrapped my arms around my middle. My stomach felt like it was gnawing at itself and it had very little to do with being hungry. “I ran into something in the woods once.” Swallowing thickly, I cracked under the questioning look Mina was giving me and quietly admitted, “Bum-bum recognized it and said it was a Krampus. It marked me apparently, and there’s like a whole hunt season thing going on and to protect everyone, I was temporarily relocated.”

Mina looked stunned, hugging her baby tighter to her as I struggled to finish. “I knew there was stuff going on, I just didn’t know it was this bad,” Mina murmured worriedly.

Kirch jumped in as her gaze skittered from mine to his, offering me a reprieve as Mina wrapped an arm around me in a quick hug and gave him a strange look. “Kirch nose works good,” Kirch began, talking fast as he gave his mate a let me finish before you get mad at me look, which had my stomach dropping before it knotted anew. “Kirch say why Rek smell like Jojoknee. Rek say he not smell like Jojoknee. Kirch say yes. Rek say no. Kirch say YES. Rek say Jojoknee the touches feelies kind, that why Rek smell like Jojoknee. Kirch say, tell her no touches feelies all over him. Rek say that Jojoknee, she gets upset easy. Kirch watch Rek and Jojoknee. Always together. Always play. Both upset easy. Pretends eat poop?” I got a long look for that one before he continued, “Kirch tells Rek, Rek plays too much. Rek say Jojoknee-”

“Hold up. Wait a minute here.” Mina held a hand up, waiting for him to stop before she gave Rek a withering look. Refocusing on her mate, she sighed. “I’ve talked to Rosa a little about the deal with Joanie and Rek. It’s not lost on anyone they hang out a lot and she hasn’t really shown any interest in any other male, and Rek hasn’t shown any interest in joining anyone’s family group, or gone out on any hunts for a bride, am I right?”

Fuck me.

This was all unraveling so damn fast.

“We… dated for a while, to see if we could be compatible,” I hedged. “I’m not going to be forced into a bridal hunt. Someone’ll be missing a d-i-c-k before I’ll allow myself to become someone’s unwilling broodmare. Anyway, it didn’t work out, me and Rek, so we went our separate ways.”

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