Page 33 of No Potions Needed

I dragged him down the hall back to his room. We moved all my stuff into it earlier in the day since he was already so settled in. Not only did it let us be as close as possible, but it freed up another room for a guest if anyone else needed a place to stay. Waste not want not.

“You smelled like you were going to knock him over again,” Teddy said once we were locked up inside the room. He scrolled on his phone ordering pizza as he spoke.

“I was. He can’t talk to you like that. I know he’s heir to the bears or whatever or maybe that’s Preston. I don’t know how that works. Maybe they’re not heirs at all. It’s complicated because they have a runaway leader too that’s there sometimes. Anyway. He’s important too. I just…” I sighed, realizing how much I was rambling. “Sorry. I got off track.. I …”

“Hey, did I say to shut up?” Teddy glanced up from his phone. “But before you go back to that, what do you want on your pizza? It feels like I should know that already but that’s an illusion until we exchange the claiming vows.”

“Anything. Everything. Except anchovies. Don’t put fish on pizza. Fish is great but not with cheese. That’s some tastebud torment and an abomination to the spirit of the fish,” I said, scrunching up my nose remembering when I first tried anchovies on pizza.

“I’ll remember that,” Teddy said and scrolled around his screen for a few more seconds before placing the order and glancing up at me. “Seriously. I like listening to you talk about what’s going on inside your head. Though, if you’re trying to figure out who should be more important to you, in this case pick Mori. Only because no mate is worth knocking your friend around for no solid reason.”

“Only it’s solid to my jaguar,” I said, perching on the end of the bed. “He was telling you what to do and he’s not the boss of you.”

“Is that your job?” he arched a brow.

“It’s no one’s job,” I crossed my arms. “At least not where Dern is concerned. It’s not like you bit off his tail and shoved it up his nose. You’re not obligated to be nice to assholes even if they’re traumatized assholes.”

“I didn’t think I was that big of an asshole,” he shrugged. “It’s starting to feel like this is all one big game to Dern. If he wants attention he could just say so.”

“I think he hates attention,” I shook my head. “That’s why he’s so grouchy about all of this. He’s telling us because he wants us to know that despite what our parents’ generation says that monsters are still out there. We’ll have to be careful when we start the business but we should help people too. That and I think he wants us to wrap things up. You and me. He wants to take credit for another set of mates meeting. That seems important to him. Do you think he could’ve been friends with your mom without you knowing? I mean, she had a whole life before you were born, I guess. Maybe you could ask your sire.”

Teddy glanced at his phone screen and frowned.

“Either you’re actually starving to death or you’re avoiding something,” I chuckled.

“Both. My dragon eats when he’s not thrilled about things. Usually, in the wild, he’d probably hunt but right now pizza is good enough. I’ve only talked to my sire a few times since leaving Starscale 1. We’re not fighting exactly but at the same time I can’t be a good family member right now. Maybe never. I miss them all, especially, my little brother, Minter, but I can’t play the ‘ignore it’ game with Nelum and I’m being childish about it and wanting childish things that are unfair.”

“You want him to be your mom,” I said.

“Again. I want him to be her again. Not like in some weird I want to change someone’s gender way or even that I wanted her to be reborn as a woman again. I just wanted him to remember it and he doesn’t. Not like I do. I should be happy that reincarnation worked properly and she’s happy but…”

“That is such bullshit, Theodore Moonscale, and we both know it. You’re under no obligation to be happy about something that hurts you. I’m not saying to rub that in his face or anything but you don’t have to be happy about it. Emotions are logical. If they were we’d call them logicons or something. I can’t imagine how it feels. I couldn’t imagine one of my parents being gone for good and then suddenly being back but as a stranger. It would kill me, Teddy.”

“You’d find ways to live. It’s what we do. It’s why I came here in the first place,” he said, meeting my gaze. “Seriously, you’d find a way. Not to be the toxic positivity guy but it makes me think about what I do every day because one day I’m going to be gone – everything I was just fucking gone – and I want to make these days count. So, believe me, when I gouge Dern back, I’m doing it on purpose.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

“Well, at least you’re not poking him with bullets.”

“My poor tattoo,” Teddy frowned.

“Want me to kiss it and make it better?” I teased, excited at the thought of getting my tongue back on his flesh.

He crossed the room, joined me on the bed, and captured my mouth in a long, slow kiss. He was still delicious. His big, warm hands ran up and down my sides as we kissed. Somehow, I ended up on my back with my shirt off and tossed across the room. Teddy licked over my nipples and then up to my collarbone. I gasped as his mouth shifted up to my shoulder and his lips found my swollen claiming gland. He licked over the taut skin, teasing me with how easily he could break it open and start our claiming vows.

“Pizza’s here!” Mori announced. “You two weren’t answering the phone. So, they called the front desk. When you still didn’t answer the desk called me.”

“One second!” Teddy called back and I put my fist in my mouth to drown out my laughter.

“It’s okay. I took some. The rest of the boxes will be out here unless someone else helps themselves to it!” Mori called back through the door. “Tomorrow you two are on your own. Marsin and Astral invited me to go on a tour of the moonshine place. I promised my carrier I’d sneak him some back if I could.”

“Sneak?” I called out.

“Yeah. He doesn’t think my sire would like him drinking it but tough teats and all that,” Mori said, disappearing down the corridor again, his voice growing fainter with each step he took.

“Tough teats,” Teddy echoed him.

“They are, aren’t they?” I smirked, glancing at my nipples.

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