Page 15 of Ellie 3

I jumped, almost dropping my phone. I chuckled when she narrowed her eyes at me like I was acting guilty. “You were seriously out, and I didn’t hear you stir.”

“You were laser-focused on whatever conversation you’re having,” she commented, her voice neutral, but my nose was picking up anything butneutral.

I turned it around and showed her. “I apologized to Ha-yun like I told Mum and she’s replying, being open with me. Part of me wants to like pinch myself or check that her phone wasn’t stolen. I don’t know she ever responds to my texts besides with basic information and certainly not like this.”

She glanced at it quickly and nodded. “And part of you wants to help because she’s your sister, but also you’re not there with her yet.”

“Yes, but also I’m not sure I ever want to be there,” I admitted, clicking my phone and setting it on the nightstand. I moved over to her and snuggled under the covers. “We can do business and I prefer us all be civil, but I don’t know I can everbe like real siblings with them. Even if she never came at me or wasn’t as bad as the others, she was…”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person,” she promised, moving a bit so I was snuggling up to her breast. I wasn’t sure why she did that until she started playing with my hair.

Comforting me. I was such a selfish git. She was going through several layers of hell and I was whining about my shit to the point where she wanted to comfort me.

But still, I wanted the comfort and reassurance that I wasn’t being a git. It was hard to know what was the right thing to do when it came to family.

To life even.

A few minutes of her playing with my hair and I realized something. “I’ve never understood how I always read or saw that women loved this or even women I’ve been with. It seemed silly and no one ever played with mine or like this.”

“Really? Your hair is so nice it makes me itch to play with it,” she murmured, sounding sleepy again.

“It feels so good that I would tell you anything,” I confessed. “Seriously, keep doing that and I’ll tell you all my secrets. My bank passwords. My email login. Whatever you want.”

She chuckled and then buried her face against my hair, hugging my head but also smothering her tits against me. “You go from wild animal fuck machine to docile pup wanting to be pet within such a short span that I honestly just can’t—oh shit, life is so much better with you in it. I can’t even joke anymore that it’s the food your mom gives me.”

“Glad it’s more than sex,” I said when she kept laughing.

“Yeah, more than sex though I’ve never, noteverhad better than sex with you in my many,manyyears,” she admitted as she settled down. “Honestly, if I had known sex with an Alpha shifter was this amazing and wild, I would—”

I flipped us so she was pinned under me. “And that’s about the time you learn tact and shut it, yeah?” I raised an eyebrow when she frowned. “You want me to ramble on that I should have gotten blow jobs from vamps sooner so I knew feeding there was—”

“Point made,” she agreed, nodding that she got it. “Sorry. I profusely apologize and you’re not being a brat. You’re right and that was tactless in afterglow time. I’m still a bit all over and not thinking.”

I gave her a smacking kiss. “Apology accepted. Are we snuggling, being productive, or another round—”

“I’m spent for the day. You wore me out.”

“I was going to say food,” I chuckled, wiggling my eyebrows at her that she admitted I’d sated her. Yeah, I was a git for enjoying that.

But I was a git who was in a real relationship with the woman he loved and I hadn’t seen that coming. I was fucking over the moon about it, and she could beat me later if she wanted.

All the time even as long as she stayed with me.

5

Ellie

I started my Monday with meetings off campus with a few vendors. They were a bit tedious, but I was glad we managed to work it out so there was more of what people were asking for in the menus and we didn’t screw over the people relying on us to buy from them. There would be more seasonal fun—it was good.

And we were going to have a makeshift farmers market. Twice a month on Saturday mornings people could pick up fish orders directly from the vendor for their personal use at just a bit of a higher rate than we paid.

It was fair given they were setting up a cooled shop for a few hours just for our people. It would be a bit of a hassle for my staff, but one person would handle it. We’d get the numbers the week before of what was available and email it out. First come, first serve, and if there was extra we could open it to family or whatever.

We’d figure it out.

Hell, I was fine with expanding it. The company was family-owned, and I knew firsthand they were good to their fishers and people. I’d known the owner for over a hundred years, and he’d beat anyone who wasn’t honorable and tried to fuck with his livelihood.

More should follow his business practices.

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