Page 353 of Bride of Choice

So many damned chores.

Cave life is so not anything I’m cut out for, not in the long term. Ugh, what I wouldn’t give for one of my suitcases full of my self-pampering shit right now!

Admittedly, I was growing a little suspicious of my Buu-buu bear of late. Call me paranoid… but sometimes he’d disappear for small stretches and I had no clue where he’d gone off to. This was beyond cave is so big I done got turned around bologna. This was…

He always comes back, but I’d swear there’s this, like, guilty look on his face and then he’d take extra care with me, just being super thoughtful, more than usual. If we were back on Earth and he was human I’d be way more suspicious, I felt. These furballs have properly ruined me.

It was hard to gauge whether I was just being paranoid or Peekaboo was up to something.

Possibly as part of my own brokenness, or pure boredom, I was having trouble dividing the two at this point as I warred with my own personal worries related to things back home in Yetiville versus my worries with things going on right now, like Buu’s possible subterfuge.

Sitting in the hall with my legs crossed, I was propped up there for a good hour, doing my best to be quiet, no sign of his ass for quite some time, when I finally heard it.

My eyebrows shot up as I glanced up at a scuffling noise and spied Buu’s legs slipping out of a hole in the ceiling. Right before my eyes, he wiggled down and slowly slipped from his hidey hole. So soft, swift, quiet.

He was like a damn ninja, silently dropping into the cave system down the hall from me.

Snow covered his wide shoulders. Shrugging them and lifting his upper hands, he shook the snow off.

Turning to hurry towards the cave he’d last set me up in, he froze at the sight of me.

Cradling my quickly growing baby bump, I got to my feet. My very puffy of late, aching feet.

For the sake of my sanity, I’d stopped counting the days on the wall with tally marks and accepted that this might very well be my new existence. I might never fucking get out of here, I’d told myself.

“Find anything interesting?” I murmured softly, quietly.

There it was, guilt flashing in those beautiful purple peepers. The fool’s fur began to stand on end.

Staring at him, I waited.

I’ll admit I may have… Okay, so I’d totally lost it a couple weeks back. Finding a small, pin hole sized peek of light breaking through the top of the ice door blocking our way out, I’d cried, I was so happy, sobbing and babbling on about this being a sign. Soon we’d be able to leave! This was it! We were heading home!

The next morning, however, that pin hole of light had magically disappeared.

Sending up a silent prayer for my fur-ipede’s soul, I advanced on him.

“You mean to tell me you’ve had a way to get out of here this whole time and you’ve said nothing to me? Not one word?” My voice was calm, low, but anger simmered. “I have mates waiting for me back home, our home, and you-”

“Joalee home,” he cut in curtly, sharply, more sharply than I’d ever heard him talk to me.

Lips pursing to hold back all the things about to crap outta my mouth, I stiffened. “Excuse me?”

“Joalee home.” Buu’s toe claws scraped along the cave floor as he stared down at it. “Joalee home. This cave, Buu’s home.” Darting a glance my way, he grunted out, “Joalee say want stay with Buu. Joalee no want stay with Buu no more?”

Lord grant me the strength… “Yes, I want to stay with you,” I replied carefully. Walking towards him, I gestured at him. “YOU, as in be with you, but I can’t live here, in a damp cave in the middle of nowhere. You can’t expect me to have our baby in a cave. I’m stuck in here, quite literally. No sunshine, no fresh air, just stuck in a cave that only you can Houdini your way in and out of.”

“Joalee say want stay with Buu,” he mumbled, lifting a hand to tug at his front left ear.

“I want to be with Buu, and bring you back to my village, like we’ve been talking about. I want to be with you and my other mates, and the baby. You know this.” Taking his hand in mine, I brought it to my cheek to hold it there. “What were you thinking?”

Beastly subterfuge was nothing new to me, not anymore. Perhaps that’s why I wasn’t exactly shocked to discover this. That, or I’ve gone soft in my impending motherhood.

“Joalee see. Joalee like. Joalee want stay with Buu. Buu goot male. Take care my Joalee and bebeh,” he whispered, hugging me to him to rest his cheek on the top of my head.

He was waiting me out? Hoping I’d give up? Oh… some beastie did not know this little lady very well.

Taking a deep breath, I bit my lip. “I’ll never give up on getting out of here. I don’t care what crack or crevice I have to try and wiggle my chunky buns through, Kehr-a-boo.” Shaking my head, I pulled away from him. My hands fell to my belly. “What if there’s a difficulty with my pregnancy? The birth? What if the baby needs a healer?”

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