Page 35 of Finding Closure

“Wow, that’s—talk about crazy timing. What did you do?” Ara asked.

“We left and my dad immediately reported it,” he answered. “And we did what fairies always do. We got involved the best we could.” He nodded when my eyes went even wider. “We’re sneaky fairies, Your Highness. We saved someone here and there and got people over the border when we could. We blew munitions and saved the wounded.

“We can’t just change it all like we’d want to. Humans would know about us then, but there’s a reason there are legends about us and humans think we’re angels. We get involved. We can’t just stand still when there is injustice. Hopefully, we will start to learn to think a bit before we act going forward. I think you’ve shown us that will do more in the long run.”

“Hopefully, though I need to take my own advice as well,” I admitted.

He snorted. “You admit that which makes you worlds further than most fairies I know.”

“Do I get cake for being so awesome then?” I asked when I realized I was hungry.

“Yes, that’s exactly how it works,” Ara teased.

Nice.

We got a bunch of breath treats and the huge rawhide bones that even the fae dogs had to slow down to chew and that helped their teeth. Then we loaded up on the super big squeaky balls since they were hard to find and they had them in stock.

And my dogs kept popping them when they got excited.

The loveable twits.

One of the women said she wasn’t going to ring me up unless I promised not to get them in trouble.

“The police are still right outside,” I reminded her when I got annoyed. “Would you like me to get them to report this or what?”

“Hell, I’m recording it to play for her boss’s boss,” Ara chuckled.

She called us both useless whores and quit on the spot.

Sure, yeah, we were the problem.

The dogs were thrilled when I came back, and all promised to eat more veggies and do better cleaning their teeth. They even suggested I make chunks of ice for them to gnaw on and they would be good pups and eat them.

Seriously, they were too fucking cute. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been terrified of Chief or any of them.

Neldor showed up looking a bit panicked right when I was about to wrap up. He came over to me and put a barrier over the two of us.

“Spit it out, Nel,” I chuckled when he simply stared at me.

“I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t do it. I just found out and immediately came to tell you,” he blurted, waiting until I nodded. “Apparently, the thing at Artemis tonight—some of the fairy students have older siblings coming to attend.”

I nodded. It was basically the Power Playoffs for the fairy students of Artemis since they couldn’t join in with the regular ones. It wouldn’t be fair and someone could accidentally get hurt. But it was something they should still experience, so we were having an abbreviated one just for fun at night.

“Apparently, I’ve been involved with several of those people and they’re attending the function. Plan to make a scene,” he blurted so fast that it took me a moment to catch it.

I nodded. “When did you touch any of them? That you know of at least?”

He frowned. “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “I just need information. You didn’t do anything besides have a past. If bitches are going to be petty, and—why is that your fault? You’ve had to deal with years of rumors I’ve fucked just about every man I’ve come into contact with. I didn’t do anything wrong, but you still had to suffer that. I’m not going to blame you for the petty of others.”

“Okay, yeah, good point, but I just freaked when I heard some of the Guardians talking and not sure if they should warn me or if it was rumors and—”

“Nel, info,” I cut in.

“I haven’t been with anyone since before the war,” he said firmly. “I met you as a baby and—we discussed my few hookups because I thought feeling the mating bond with a baby was fucking insane. But the war started not long after. That was it.”

I nodded and kissed his cheek. “I would never hold the petty and stupid of others against you. Just leave it be and I’ll let you know how it turns out or if some of your ex-lovers are ash.”

---