Page 19 of The Safest Place She Knows

Oren sighed. “Isuppose so. There will be other mornings, but I am glad to haveshared this first one with you.”

She was goingto reply, but she heard the pitter-patter of giant feet, and sheducked and pulled Oren on top of her so that the dogs could stompall over him. He grunted as they jumped on him, and she laughedwhen a snuffling nose found her arm and left a wet smear.

She giggledwhen she looked up at Oren. His scowl was resigned. “They do thisoften?”

“When Brexelsends them to get me up. It usually works.”

Oren kissed herslowly. “Then, we had better get up.” He slowly put one hand toeither side of her and did a pushup that indicated both dogs wereon his back.

She wasgiggling as she eased out from under him and made a dash for thebathroom. The dogs yelped and scrambled after her, woofing inirritation at the closed door.

She cleaned upand tried to ignore the blush that no one could see but still madeitself known. Ymer had been careful. There were no aches, notwinges, but she felt pleasantly warm.

Iris left thebathroom, scrubbed Jupiter’s cheeks with her hands, and then didthe same to Juno. They looked at her in disappointment that she haddeprived them of pouncing on her. She grinned and went looking forher clothes in the neatly arranged pile of boxes and the wardrobethat she didn’t remember from four years ago.

The wardrobewas filled with her work clothes or, rather, costumes.

Oren pulled hisshirt on and walked up behind her, wrapping an arm around her andpulling her back against him. “If I ask really nicely, will you puton that gauzy one?”

“Not forbreakfast and not anywhere the boys will be.”

He chuckled.“Fair enough.”

She foundunderwear, jeans, and a T-shirt with a cartoon snake on it. Shepulled on puffy pink socks and got a hair tie to pull her hair intoa ponytail.

Oren waswatching the entire time.

She looked athim and said, “Jupiter, I am hungry.”

The huge dogbodychecked Oren, and she was free to bounce happily out of theroom with Juno at her side.

She felt good.Remarkably good. Strong, energetic, and hungry. She dismissed thearousal. She had met omegas with their alphas before. Arousal wasgoing to be a frequent visitor to her body.

Iris smelledpancakes. When she came down the stairs and walked toward thekitchen, she could see Ymer sitting at the table, scowling at hisphone.

She walkedtoward him, and he said, “Iris, do you remember the woman who madeyour leather outfits?”

“I do rememberher, but she didn’t tell me who ordered them.”

He waved thatoff. “I can’t get a hold of her, and she really grasped myaesthetic.”

“Oh. Tonlya. Ithink she had to go out of business. She underpriced herself andeventually ended up losing money on all of the items she made.”Iris sighed. “She used to do snake rescues, but she had to give upon that as well.”

Ymer lookedshocked. “Oh, no.”

Iris didn’ttell him what she knew. Tonlya had taken on her only sibling as herguardian. She was barely scraping by and had exhausted herfinancial reserves, but she wasn’t giving up. She had a normal jobat a grocery store and did phone surveys at night.

Ymer looked ather and narrowed his eyes. “What do you know?”

“Many things.What topic are you referencing?”

“You know wherethe leatherworker is.”

Brexel saidsoftly, “The boys are here.”

Iris froze, andhe turned off the oven, covered the pancakes, and took her hand tolead her to the door. Brexel opened the door and stood with herhand held tight in his. The boys were exiting a van and wavingcheerfully to the driver. They turned to head for the door, pausedwith eyes wide, and then they were coming in at a run.

Iris squawkedin surprise as the twins hugged her with an impact. They chatteredat her, and it became a roar of sound in her ears. She wrapped anarm around Denel, and he leaned back. “Did you notice? We gottaller.”

---