Page 25 of Delivered to My Demons

When we got down there, I set about doing what Grendel suggested. Brewing coffee and making toast while he whipped eggs and melted butter in a pan. “I hope our mate likes omelets.”He added chopped herbs to the eggs before pouring them into the pool of butter. “Do you think she does?”

“I think she likes your cooking.” I spread butter on the toast and set it on a plate then went looking for a tray to arrange our offerings on. “Are you adding cheese?”

“Of course.” He’d also fried up some bacon somehow, and I attributed my not having noticed to the fact that the scent of our mate clung to my skin, and I wanted to get back to her as soon as possible. “It’s just about ready.”

I went to lift the tray but then paused. “Gren, do you think she will stay?” It was huge on my mind. She’d seemed to like being with us, but we hadn’t really discussed it. “I don’t want her to feel confined or compelled, but I don’t think I’d be able to survive long without her.”

“Me either. I thought we were happy, sure, we hoped to meet our mate, but before she was here, it wasn’t such an…”

“Ache?” I offered. “Need?”

“Both of those and more. I’ve always heard that when someone loses a mate their chances of survival are not good. I thought it meant if they died, but I think it would be just about the same if she decided we weren’t who she wanted to live with for the rest of her life.”

“Yeah, me too.” On that sober note, I carried the tray, and Grendel followed with the coffee carafe and her special creamers. I had thought I’d hate them, that they’d be too sweet, but that hadn’t been the case at all. They were delightful—maybe because they made me think of her.

When we went into the room, we found her still in bed but sitting up against the headboard, her hair mussed and a mark from the pillow on her cheek. “Good morning,” she said. “I’ve slept half the day.”

“I think you slept about an hour,” I informed her. “Because you have two very naughty mates who are probably going to ruin your sleeping for many years to come.”

“Promises promises,” she murmured. “For right this second, I hope you’re coming back to bed to share whatever you’ve got on the tray.”

Actually, I think we had both expected Poe to eat all the food herself, but she’d asked so sweetly, and also, I was a little hungry, so I climbed right in and lifted a triangle of buttery toast to her mouth. “Bite?”

Her rosy lips parted, white teeth crunching down on the offering. “So good,” she said, sending a few crumbs spraying. “You have to try it.”

“It’s just toast,” Gren said, cutting into the omelet and forking off a piece. “Anyone can make it.”

“Anyone did,” I grumbled. But our mate’s expression when she let him feed her the eggs and then a bite of crisp bacon made it all worthwhile. “Eat up, and then maybe we’ll go out for a walk.”

“Or not get up at all today?” Our mate was a very naughty girl.

And we loved that about her and took her up on her suggestion. We didn’t get up until it was time for Gren to make us dinner. And we made good use of the time. Poe did not seem to suffer any ill effects from our enthusiasm, luckily.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Grendel

“Our mate has never seen our demon forms.” Hemlock stood behind me in the kitchen where I was preparing supper for the three of us. It was a simple meal of soup and salad and rolls, but I still had some work to do and did not need to be interrupted just now.

“Yeah, so?”

“And we also have not seen her wolf.”

I set down the knife I was using to chop vegetables and turned to face him. “No, we have not. Do you think she’d be willing to shift together? I would love to see her wolf.” Funny how we had not done that right away, but somehow it hadn’t come up. “We need to ask.”

We found our mate in the living room working on her laptop, and when we came in, she looked up with a smile. “What are you two up to? You look guilty.”

Already she could read us well, but in this case, she did not have it on the nose. “Not guilty,” I told her, “but we do have an idea.”

“Yeah?” She set her laptop aside, cheeks blooming with color. “I thought you’d both be sated for a little while after this morning, but okay.”

Now I was blushing. Just the memory of our mate warm and pliant between us filled my mind with images that had me wondering if maybe we could put off shifting until tomorrow. My demon had been remarkably patient, waiting for his turn to meet our mate and her beast as well. He did not want to wait any longer.

“We thought we could go out and shift before dinner,” Hemlock said, obviously staying more on track than I was. “If you are up for it.”

“Oh yes.” She hopped up and gave us both a hug. “My wolf is about to lose it. I didn’t want to be pushy, but she really wants to see your demon forms. You’re not quite shifters, right?”

“Sort of, but it’s a little different. Want to see?”

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