Page 23 of Briggs
Briggs turned my head to face him with a gentle finger on my cheek. “I don’t care if we have ten babies or none. I’m looking forward to spending my life with you.” Briggs took a deep breath before he let it out. “Personally, I think you not having a heat was because of the stress and trauma that you were put through. I was warned by the fates that we would need to have the heavy and serious conversations quickly because your heat was going to come, and nothing was going to stop it.”
I could only stare up at Briggs. “What did you just say?” I asked after a moment. “Did you just…how would you know?”
Briggs shook his head. “I don’t. I was told by Canyon. He was giving me a heads-up that you were going to go into heat in a few days. We aren’t going to have long before decisions are going to have to be made. I don’t want you to have to go through it alone, but I will certainly stay away if that’s what you want.”
“Umm…I’m not sure. I’ve had all of the checkups, and I’ve been told I was fine and there was nothing physically wrong with me. But I’ve not had a heat, even since I’ve been here.”
Briggs looked at me with what I would call understanding and a bit of concern. “I’d imagine that was your body still recovering. You meeting me is probably what is going to throw you into heat. We don’t have to have children right away. There are ways to prevent that.” Briggs paused for a moment, and my stomach gave another protest at its lack of food. “Maybe we should talk about this more later,” he suggested with a laugh. “I should feed you at a minimum before we have such a serious conversation. I apologize for that.”
“I brought it up.” I took a deep breath. “But you’re probably right. I should eat. I do think we should talk. I know I asked you about things earlier, and you said we’d see how things go.”I glanced at the council building again, and there were suddenly several people leaving. “Is it the end of the day or something?”
Briggs glanced over. “Probably. Between four thirty and five is when most of the enforcers leave. There are some that stay later, but for the most part, that’s the end of the day for us.”
“Well then, I guess we should go. It’ll be easier to get a ride down off of the mountain with everyone else leaving too.”
Briggs grinned at me before he tugged me along with him. I couldn’t help but smile the rest of the way to the transport building. When we arrived, I was surprised to find it empty though. I would have though there were more waiting to go down off the mountain. Instead, Briggs and I were the only two who were here.
Briggs pushed the button on the wall, and seconds later, a very familiar face appeared. “Hello, Timothy,” Briggs said. “How’s your day been?”
“Not too bad. How about you?” He glanced between Briggs and me, then down at our joined hands. In all this time, Briggs hadn’t let it go, and that made me smile just a bit more. “And you, Todd? How are you doing?”
I smiled. “Not bad. I missed you earlier when I went down to an appointment.”
Timothy furrowed his brow. “I’ve been here all day,” he said. The scenery changed, and we were suddenly down off the mountain. “When was this?”
“Just a couple hours ago. I had an appointment at two.”
Timothy appeared even more confused. “I was here. I had a quick bite to eat around noon, but other than that, I’ve been on call all day.” Timothy glanced around the room in the cabin we were in. “You got down all right though?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I was able to get help with someone else.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure how I didn’t get you. I’ll have to ask someone at the council about it.”
“I’ll do that,” Briggs said. “I have a meeting with Master Edison in the morning anyway, so I’ll mention it.”
Timothy seemed to relax. “Thanks. Enjoy your time down off the mountain.” Timothy disappeared, and I looked up at Briggs.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said something,” I whispered.
“How did you get down earlier?”
“He told me his name was Thomas. Dr. Braun told me Thomas is one of the fates.”
Briggs raised both of his eyebrows. “Yeah, we really should have a talk. What are the chances that both of us were visited by the fates today?”
“Obviously pretty high since it seems like it happened?”
Briggs nodded slowly before he shook his head. “Come on. Let’s get some food, and then we have a whole lot to discuss. I hope you’re not planning on going to bed super early, even if all we do is talk, because I have a feeling it’s going to take a bit with what all we have to talk about.”
I shook my head. I had nothing else going on this evening, and if Briggs wanted to talk the night away, I was all for it. I wanted to know more about the man that Thomas had paired me with.
Chapter 9
Briggs
Istill found it amazing just how much your life could change in such a short amount of time. This morning, I was in New Mexico on an assignment that wasn’t really going anywhere. Now, I was in Timber Valley with my adorable mate, watching him war with himself on which flavor of milkshake he wanted with his meal.
“What flavor are you getting?” he asked.
“Probably chocolate fudge. It’s really good.”
