Page 255 of Bride of Choice

Mal made a face and rubbed at her belly uncomfortably.

“Hey, are you alright? Do you need me to get Booger or Grumpelstiltksin?” I asked.

Mal laughed at my silly nickname for Khri, but then grimaced harder.

“I think we better get you on up to the house, hmm?” Dorothy stood quickly and we helped Mal to her feet.

“I’m okay, really,” she insisted, but Dorothy wasn’t about to be swayed.

“Where are Khri and Boog?” I sputtered, grabbing up Mal’s things to trail after Dorothy and Mal.

“Boog’s out foraging with Gopher and Khri is with the others at Mina’s. It’s not so far from here and I insisted he go. He can be stubborn.” Mal’s rueful smile said she mighta been the stubborn one on this one.

“I’m not ready,” Mal grumbled as she stopped for a moment.

“False labor pains.” I smiled through my worry.

“It’ll be alright,” Dorothy soothed. I was ninety percent sure she was talking to just Mal.

In the back of my mind, my brain chirped, Gopher’s out foraging with Boog and I had no clue?! But, really, how and why would I know? I’m not privy to Goph’s comings and goings. If I cared so damn much, why wasn’t I mated to him already, hmm?!

“A little help!” Dorothy called out, and sure enough several males came rushing up.

Mal found herself scooped up and carted off to Dorothy’s lickety split.

“I’m sorry,” Dorothy spoke softly as we trailed behind Righty, Daisy’s mate who’d come to our aid.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied automatically, because right now didn’t feel like the time.

“No,” she said firmly. “I owe you an apology. I’m so used to the way things are done over here, I didn’t stop to consider it from all angles. Can’t say I’d be pleased, were I in your shoes, come to find out the folks I’ve trusted weren’t being entirely truthful with me, reasons and whatnot and excuses be damned.” She looked genuinely upset on my behalf.

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say a damned thing.

“I miss you being around,” she added.

“I miss being around you, too,” I said simply.

“Celuk’s been sulking. He barely says two words anymore,” she started to say, but I wasn’t ready to listen to her plead his case, not yet, not right now.

“I should probably go get Khri,” I cut in curtly.

“Of course.” Her head dipped in a nod.

“I- I think I’m fine! Really!” Mal insisted. “Maybe it’s just gas!”

Righty and Dorothy chuckled at that.

“Well- It could be,” Mal mumbled uncertainly.

Already hustling in the opposite direction to collect Khri, I snorted out a laugh. It very well may be gas but I wasn’t going to not grab Khri and come to find out it wasn’t.

Mina’s place was crazy nice. It wasn’t a McMansion like Celuk’s, but it put the fan in fancy.

Following the sound of metal clanking, grunts, growls, and groans, that familiar whiz of arrows whipping to thunk into things, the group gathered wasn’t all that hard to find.

Breathless, holding my side from the stupid stitch I had in it, I tumbled onto a scene out of some furry version of gladiator training.

Bum-bum snarled as he smacked axes with Veck. It was biggun versus biggun as they sparred.

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