Page 37 of These Little Heirs
I frowned. This wasn’t the foot I wanted to get off on with everyone. Back in the nesting tower they didn’t know I was one of them. Now they knew.
“Teal!” Ambry spoke up over the heated voices.
“Yes?” Teal answered through gritted teeth.
“I’d feel better if only people we knew packed our stuff. Mine and Robin’s,” Ambry said.
Touche! Using the baby card was probably the best thing he could’ve done.
“It’s just that he does so much by smell still and I don’t want angry people touching our stuff because later he’ll smell it andit might upset him. He’s still so tiny and—” Ambry said and his bottom lip quivered.
Shit in a tree! He wasn’t playing a card. He meant what he said.
“Exactly,” Cobalt said. “And Guardie. Guardie might get confused and—Look, brother, I’d take a bullet for Ciro. The least you can do is not let your friend play with our mates’ underwear.”
The blood drained from Odell’s face.
“Maybe we should all go,” he piped into the conversation. “I’m not sure I want anyone messing with my underwear.”
“I’ll buy you new underwear if something happens,” Cobalt said.
“But I like my underwear. They’re mine,” Odie said.
“I’ll pack them myself,” I said. “I won’t kick them under sofas like some people.”
“Well, don’t throw your underwear at strangers!” Teal snapped at me.
“STOP!” Indigo said, tapping the table. “If you guys make my baby cry, I will personally chuck both of you.” He pointed at his brothers. “Into the well. We’re a family. I’m not sure about Morvan either but Teal is still one of us. Teal, you are still one of us, right?”
“What bloody else would I be?” Teal snapped again.
“Hungry,” Odie whispered. “Maybe you should hunt and then we’ll decide.”
“You’re bloody right,” Teal sighed. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Ciro.”
“It’s okay. I’d rather you yell at me than pregnant people. Do you want me to come or---” I started but Teal was already out the back door dropping his towel on the porch.
Chapter Nineteen
Teal
Making firm plans took two full days. It took an extra two to get my metabolism back to normal and for me to stop waking up in the kitchen devouring whatever was in the fridge. Each time I woke up in the dim light of the icebox there was Ciro, ensuring I didn’t chomp into something I shouldn’t. I wasn’t sure if it was stress or not eating during the rut that drove my insatiable hunger, but I felt like a ravenous maw that consumed and consumed but never filled the void. If things had been the other way around, I’d have taken a pregnancy test. My carrier thought I should see the healer but I didn’t need Dara to tell me to eat. I knew how to do that all by myself.
I’d just woken up in the middle of one of my midnight snacking episodes with Ciro feeding me cheese when a familiar knock sounded on the backdoor. After I hadn’t answered any of Morvan’s text he showed up in the middle of the night. Only that meant it was like eight or nine in the morning back home in Moonscale London.
“Do you want me to eat him?” Ciro whispered.
“No,” I sighed. “I have to talk to him sooner or later.”
“You’re mad at him,” Ciro said.
“Of course I am and that makes me an asshole,” I sighed again. “Torvan is his brother no matter what he does.”
Inside his inner sanctum, my dragon sighed too. All he wanted to do was eat until he was full and then curl back up with our mate.
“Why is the world so against me?”he sighed, and I felt bad for him. Talking about a bloody pity party.
“Do you want some pants first?” Ciro asked.
