Page 81 of Peacock Me Like a Hurricane

My eyes narrowed when I realized she allowed him to contact the Company for a doctor.

That could only mean one thing.

“Taurus is calling in a favor, yeah?”my mate said, grinning.“Typical rich Company badass stuff. Are you sure they won’t lock you up and make you the world’s most uncomfortable lab rat?”

I beamed then had to hide it. The coyote nailed the point of paranoia that I planned to feed. They will make her an experiment; she can’t trust them.

“That is a concern, my love. They do not have an excellent track record with ethical behavior and what of the babe?”

A jolt of fear zinged through our connection, but then she grew steely.“Taurus would never let that happen. Neither I nor our child will be test subjects. We’ve discussed our lines regarding maternity care, and I will also use an old rival who is a magickal midwife. We covered our bases.”

I sensed this might be a more delicate operation than I first thought, so I backed off and nodded.“Excellent, my love. I am glad that you have settled the most worrisome thoughts already.”

She smiled, looking at us back and forth before running her hand over her flat stomach.“We have. Thank you for being so supportive.”

“My Darkness, ever shall we be your shoulders to lean on, should you need. Now, how about we discuss the specifics of your grand celebration that is up-coming?”

Her eyes lit up and I watched her speak about the preparations for my ennobled’s birthday gala. There was something different about her, and it was not just her new fashion choices. It is behavior and speech and dare I say it, starch in her spine that seems to be reminiscent of long ago.

This transformation bears much closer examination than I feared.

The Artist Manages His Frustration

RAFE

My primary stopped here after letting the coyote and the writer know about her plans to let the secret agent knock her up.

Don’t think I’m being nasty.

I’m behind anything that makes my woman happy, even if I think it’s going to cause a hurricane of resentment to swirl around her while she’s chowing down on ice cream and pickles. However, she felt optimistic enough about whatever tripe those two fed her to pop in and join us for a planning session for this wretched party that everyone in my house seems dead set on throwing despite my loud and frequent protests. I’m concerned with her sanity now that we’re having a full-fledged discussion, to be honest.

“We’re going to have a massive community-wide party for my birthday, including all the warring factions out for blood, and your idea is to make magickal rooms that do what, again?”

She snorts. “You’re the idiots who wanted a fetish ball. I’m making the fetish part happen.”

Hex arches a brow. “In the most sodding dangerous way you can, Nancy. Are you sure that you want to put that kind ofmagick into play? I figured you’d do silly minor spells like funny mustaches or something.”

I shrug. “Hell, itcan’tbe any worse than what went on at the costume-switch Halloween party or the Christmas party from hell, right?”

They all look at her as if she’s lost control of the crazy train and is standing in the middle of the tracks.

I don’t blame them; this is likely going to be a bloodbath.

Victor prowls across the room, his eyes only on her. “Love, I’ll do anything you ask—always—and you know it. This seems like asking for trouble that you don’t want.”

I rub my temples, trying to get a handle on so many things at once. Her insistence on this laughably bad idea and the boys trying to talk her out of it; a party with everyone Idon’twant to see not only attending, but looking for me because I’m the host. Right now, I don’t have any interest in stroking people’s egos or glad-handing a bunch of sharks who came to swim in our pool.

What the fuck are we thinking?

The cat hasn’t even admitted to the world at large that she’s mated with the great fashion hound, and shejustdropped the fertility bomb on our vengeful mates. She can’t be this crazy. She must have a plan.

What is it?

“Look. The entire thing sounds like a bad bloody plan to me, but then I’ve not been in the mood for stupid for weeks.However, given my status as primary to the community leader and given that she has to let some cats—no pun intended—out of the bag at some point? In public is better for crowd control and more efficient to boot. If having this idiotic party will help us move on with everything, I’ll get behind it, even the stupid magick room plan.”

She beams at me and I wonder what in the hell she has up her sleeves. The cat smiles more now than she did for months thanks to the assassin, but lately, she glows from the outside in.

Who am I to deny her that?

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