Page 204 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“So, I still think we should wait to tell them until we get there. There’s going to be so many questions that I just can’t deal with them over the phone.”

“I—” I started but stopped when Chris also started speaking.

“Sure. Whatever you think will be less stressful,” Chris agreed, surprising me.

I didn’t really care one way or the other. He was the one who didn’t want to spring the news on people.

“Thank you,” Bells finally relaxed, a hand on her stomach as she got lost in thought, while Adam watched cartoons on the couch.

When it was time for bed, Chris and I walked up to our room. I fed Coco and cleaned her cage, while letting her run around the room for a little while.

“It’s time, Violet. We need to release her before we leave.”

I sighed, sitting down on the bed as I watched her foraging in her little toy.

“I know. Give me a little bit. We’ll release her soon. I promise.”

“End of the week?” Chris asked, pulling me into his lap as I continued to watch the little rabbit run around.

“Okay. That way Adam can spend some time with her and say goodbye, too,” I agreed, snuggling into him.

“It’s what’s best for her. She’s a wild animal. She would never be fully happy in a cage the rest of her life,” he whispered, trying to soothe my heartache.

“I know. It’s just hard. In a way, I feel like she helped me a lot. But, I don’t want her to be caged.”

“At least there’s no more predators in the woods right now. She’s got the run of the place all winter.”

“Yeah.”

Three days later, Adam was saying goodbye to the rabbit, before Chris and I would take it into the forest. The poor boy was crying. He didn’t want Coco to go. He kept begging Bells to let him keep her, promising to take care of it himself, and doing chores to buy it food. He was bawling by the time Bells took him away, and so was I.

I almost caved, threw everything to the wind and decided to keep the rabbit, but Nenetl made a good point that stopped me from doing it. She reminded me she had essentially been caged for over a year now, and she would give anything to be able to feel the wind in her fur. I didn’t want to do that to another animal. It was one of the reasons why werewolves rarely kept pets. We were animals ourselves, and doing that to another living being felt wrong.

So, I forced myself to trudge into the woods through the sludge of half-melted snow, with the fluffy furball in my arms.We picked a spot with a few downed trees, hoping it would take refuge from the cold near them.

“Thank you for being my friend,” I whispered to her, kissing the top of her head before setting her down on the floor.

The rabbit’s ears flicked, her tiny nose up in the air as if smelling for something, and then it took off running. I sniffled as I watched it disappear, and Chris pulled me into his arms.

“It was the right thing,” he consoled me.

“I know. I shouldn’t have gotten attached.”

"You have a big heart, is all. Come on, let’s get you out of the cold.”

We turned around to leave, but stopped when we heard someone calling out.

“Wait!”

Chris tensed. We turned back around and he stepped protectively in front of me, when a woman in some sort of strange armor stepped back through the trees, huffing for breath.

“Oh, good. You’re still here,” she huffed, trying to catch her breath.

“Who the fuck are you?” Chris growled.

“I’m Vesta,” she explained, and waited for our response, as if it was supposed to make some sort of sense.

She sounded friendly enough, so I grabbed one of Chris’ arms and peeked around his giant form. Now that she wasn’t running, I could see her long auburn hair in a braid, and her brown friendly eyes. She was smiling at us as she caught her breath. Suddenly, she slapped a hand to her forehead, making Chris’ arm twitch and pull me back behind him.

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