Page 23 of No Potions Needed

He yelped and Teddy laughed as he joined us up at the top of the bed with all the pillows. He snuggled in behind me and I grabbed his arm to wrap it around both of us. I wasn’t willing to share Teddy as a lover with anyone else. My jaguar wasn’t having it but I’d share him as a protector because the ancestors knew both of them needed to feel useful in this world. I buried my face in the back of Mori’s neck, letting him know we were both right here with him. No one from anywhere was going to get through us and hurt one of us. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever. If a wolf, a jaguar, and a dragon couldn’t handle it, the world was probably ending anyway.

Chapter Fourteen

Teddy

The sun dancing on my back through the window whispered to me that it was nearly noon when I finally roused in Mori’s bed all wrapped around Othoni as if he were my comfort cat. Sometime in the middle of the night my mate had shifted to his jaguar and lay curled around my arm. The rest of the bed was empty and somewhere beyond the edges of the room a shower rained down. I kissed the top of Othoni’s furry head and thought about everything that happened the day before. It was a clusterfuck. A beautiful, glorious, serendipitous clusterfuck but a clusterfuck, nonetheless. Othoni stirred in his sleep but didn’t wake up. I hoped he wasn’t sharing Mori’s dreams of forced medical procedures. Hell, I hoped Mori’s nightmares were over but had a feeling they’d be back.

In someways, Mori reminded me of a furry, omega Sunny. My best friend was a dragon and the second born of the ruling family of The Moonscale Dragon Flight. He was tough on the outside and a little bit headstrong. Sometimes he came off as immature too. Only he was soft, gooey, and really fucking sensitive on the inside. So, the nightmares would be back if he was anywhere near Sunny’s level of sentimentality that I thought he was.

I rolled onto my back, keeping one arm around my mate. He turned into his sleep, flopping half on top of me as I wondered if the staff had already rolled my breakfast and lunch carts into my room. Breakfast would probably be cold but I’d eat it anyway. My stomach growled as if voicing its agreement and Othoni blinked awake. He stretched once and shifted back to his human form.

“Don’t eat me,” he yawned and stretched long and taut like only a feline could. “I’ll feed you.”

“Nom, nom, nom,” I leaned over and kissed the top of his head again.

“Nom, nom, nom. If this wasn’t Mori’s bed, I’d nom you,” Othoni laughed as I stole a good morning kiss.

I had just slipped my tongue into my mate’s delightfully warm mouth when the bathroom door open and the steam from Mori’s shower billowed into the room ahead of him. He was dressed for the day and looked more alive than he had the night before.

“Don’t worry. I told them we had a lie-in. There’s no food rotting away in anyone’s room,” Mori said. “I’ve already talked to Dern and Ormund. Well, Dern. Spirits aren’t great at talking on the phone. They’re expecting us soon. I think the best way to handle this is just to do it. Rip that hot wax strip right off.”

“He got an everything wax a few months ago and he still hasn’t stopped talking about it,” Othoni let out a sleepy laugh.

“They tried to kill me. Just ask my wolf,” Mori shrugged. “Shall I call and say we’re ready to eat?”

“Please,” I said, sitting up and rubbing my face with the heels of my hands. “Tell them I need two buckets of coffee.”

“I would think most people were joking but with you, Teddy, I never know,” Mori laughed, stepping out in the hallway.

“I’m going to get you clothes or your robe or something,” Othoni yawned. “I don’t want you walking around naked.

He paused before getting out of bed and frowned at me.

“I’m turning into a cave cat, huh?” he sighed.

“You’ll hate how I walk around when we visit Starscale 1,” I warned him.

“I’ll have to write my name on your dick later,” Othoni paused at the end of the bed. “I don’t like you walking around naked but it’s not like I’m going to stop you.”

“I’m not naked, first of all,” I said and flashed him my underwear. “Secondly, if it makes you more comfortable I’ll put pants on. I still think you’ll calm down once we exchange our claiming vows, but I don’t think that’s happening this morning. Not with Mori’s plans to talk to Dern and Ormund.”

“How do you feel about that?” Othoni asked.

“Mixed,” I shrugged. “Seriously, mixed up. He’s been through hell, but he still shot me. I figure as long as I go once, I can blow the rest of the times off without hurting Mori’s feelings.”

“I don’t know how many more times they’ll be, alpha,” Othoni frowned.

“Then we better hurry our asses up, huh?” I laughed, fighting off the urge to pull him back down into the bed with me and not let him get up until he was as happy as yesterday when he was dry humping my leg.

Chapter Fifteen

Mori

It was another three hours before we were all seated inside Mori’s sunlit room at the care home. I had lingered in the corridor as long as I could giving my friends to do all their good morning smooching before breakfast arrived. In fact, I didn’t reenter my room until I was sure Teddy had pants on. I’d seen enough of Ni’s jaguar to know that I didn’t want to fight him. I might’ve been okay if I would’ve actually fought him but I wasn’t willing to hurt my friend just because his beasty parts had its thong stuck up its buttcrack. My pride could take a beating if it was unavoidable.

Somehow we made it through breakfast and them going to their own rooms to get cleaned up and dressed without any fights breaking out. Hell, we’d even made the walk to Dern’s without fighting. Then again, we were all friends even if Othoni was more territorial than normal.

“Oh, you came,” Dern glanced up when we walked into the room. The heavy door was already propped open and sunshine poured into his room by the bucketful. “Thought you’d forgotten about me or thathechanged his mind.” Dern nodded at Teddy.

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