Page 34 of No Potions Needed

He bit me, “Ouch!”, before sliding off the bed to gather up our food. I started to get up but he shook his head. So, I stayed in bed, hoping Mori had tipped the delivery person, as he gathered the boxes and carried them back over. Then he fed me a slice bite by bite. The first bite was cute. The second felt a little ridiculous. By the end, it was sort of nice to lay back propped up on fancy pillows and have my true-mate feed me pizza. If this wasn’t the good life, I didn’t want it.

We took turns feeding each other pizza while we talked about everything under any star we’d ever seen. He told me stories about Lotus and London where he grew up and promised he could teach me all the old Grim Howlers’ dances because his mum taught them all to him and his siblings. He talked about his siblings and his best friend, Sunny. He was even friends with Sunny’s Dad, Clarence. I told him about the pard and all the faces that were a regular part of my day. I told him about how annoying brewing the potion was and how the best part of being away from the village was not having to sit and watch the cauldron all day.

“I feel really lucky. Not because I’m ungrateful, though,” I added quickly. “In the past, it wasn’t safe enough for anyone to leave like I did. It wasn’t safe for an heir especially. Th whole pard might’ve been wiped out if something happened to me. I mean, I do carry the potential for all the magic the pard has. Well, sort of. I carry the potential to carry it. I won’t carry it until my carrier moves on but still. So, Idofeel really blessed not to have to sit there and watch the cauldron boil and simmer. Literally, it wasn’t possible for anyone else in my pard back in other generations.”

I fell asleep all wrapped up in Teddy’s arms. Sure, in traditional courtship we might not have shared a bed, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have been able to fall asleep without him. I never wanted to sleep anyone other than right beside him all wrapped up in his arms ever again.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Teddy

The next morning, we had leftover pizza for breakfast. We ate in silence while we waited for room service to bring our coffee. Mori had texted me to remind us that he was off on his own for the day and we should spend the day together as true-mates did. He didn’t say it directly, but I figured he wanted me to chill out Othoni before he got knocked over again.

“Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?” Othoni yawned after reading the text. He was so sexy in the morning with his messy bedhead and sleepy lidded eyes.

“I do,” I nodded. “I think he already has. He just doesn’t want it to happen again. He probably has hangups about violence given his sire’s side of the family. We all try hard not to be like our parents even when we already are.”

“I’m not afraid to eat someone. Not Mori. Just in general,” he yawned again. “I’m not going out looking for a fight but we all fight back home. At least, we’re trained to protect the pard. Mostly that includes learning to let the jaguar take over. Though, I feel like I should’ve practiced more on making him sit down and stop it.”

“I think it’s hot. The whole protective thing,” I shrugged. “Not so much knocking Mori over but the whole attitude.”

“Good because I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve seen it a little bit with some of the folks back home. It’s rare but occasionally the pard does get true-mates. Though, I haven’t seen someone go after their friend.”

“Hey, you know Mori and I didn’t plan to meet up here and fuck, right?” I cut to the chase. “I’m not saying you thought that but Marsin asked me about it before you all ever got here. It was never like that.”

“Oh, believe me I know. Mori wouldn’t with you. Usually, I’d take that as an insult, but I think I’d wear his tail as a trophy hat if he wanted to right now,” he said and gnashed his teeth into another slice of pizza.

“Well, I didn’t want to seduce him either,” I said all of it leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

“What?” he asked, leaning over to sniff my shoulder. “Are you mad that Mori doesn’t want you? Mad, isn’t exactly what I’m smelling.”

“I think this is one of those times I should shut up,” I laughed and leaned back against the pillows. “I’m not sure what I’m feeling and talking through it aloud never works out.”

“So, you don’t want to seduce Mori but you’re mad he doesn’t want you?” he arched a brow in my direction and sat his pizza down.

“I think it’s more the fact that you two talked about it enough for him to say he didn’t want to. That’s so fucking weird, mate. Really weird. I almost want to call Sequin and ask him if that’s how omegas talk when alphas aren’t around.”

“Sometimes but it wasn’t about you, not really,” Othoni shook his head. “It was about what his parents wanted and didn’t want. Though, sometimes we do talk about who we don’t want to sleep with but it’s for safety. Sometimes we have a bad feeling or just want our friends to know that whoever is a no-go. That way we can have each other’s backs. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a vibe you gave off. I think your life intimidates Mori a bit. Hell, it intimidates me. Like how the hell do you get on a ship and fly to another planet? No one was certain the damn place even existed!”

“Well, I wanted to go, and my dad said he wouldn’t do it without me and Sunny,” I started to explain.

“How were you not scared?”

“Who says we weren’t?” I asked. “Sometimes you do the thing because it scares the shit out of you.”

“That’s what Mori was talking about.”

“If I only get to be me one time, I’m not letting something little like fear hold me back and in the face of oblivion fear is such a tiny fucking thing, mate.”

“That makes me---- You do remember how we met, right?” Othoni asked, scooting to the end of the bed.

“That’s a different sort of fear. It’s not like not sky diving when you want to but you’re afraid. Floods, tornadoes, whatever can wash your little fluffy ass away. That’s a survival instinct in overdrive.”

Othoni froze for a second as if he thought about what I said and then he came back up onto the bed properly with me.

“At least someone gets it,” he said and leaned his head against my shoulder.

“My guess would be that your instincts and intuition go into overdrive because you will lead the pard someday. Don’t worry, though. If a storm comes like that after you’re in charge, I’ll shift and sit on everyone, so no one gets blown away.”

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