Page 51 of Moon Tamed

Calden’s father laughed. “You just want things people won’t try to hunt in your office.”

“Including me,” Calden muttered.

I somehow kept from snickering at the dismay in the man’s tone.

“I’m not sure doing something nice for the pit viper is going to help you with that problem.”

“She’s not that bad, Dad.”

“She is that bad. When she gets Coraline snarling within twenty seconds, it’s pit viper territory. I even had the footage pulled to confirm what happened. Do yourself a favor, Calden. Never come between Coraline and her parents. She will win. Frankly, I’d beware of crossing Coraline. You will lose. And worse, you’ll lose to someone sensible with a mean streak ten miles wide.”

“We’ve upgraded from one mile to ten?” Calden rolled his eyes. “All Coraline did was tell her off.”

“It’s true. She just got snooty, so I got snooty back.” Rather than roll my eyes, I shrugged despite knowing Calden’s father couldn’t see me. “The idea is to give the crabby ex a chill pill and restore general peace. Maybe the bunnies will keep her busy for a while. Just write a note saying you didn’t think bunnies were different from rabbits, you have educated yourself on the matter, and be done with it. And if she expresses interest, just be honest with her in a polite fashion. If she continues to be an ass after the work you put in, well, the entire faction will know about it in no time at all.”

“The ruthlessness of your idea is both terrifying and admirable,” Calden’s father informed me. “Do you have any other gems lying around just waiting to be used?”

“Not particularly. Common sense isn’t all that common, but using it a little more might help. Really, most problems can be solved with a little bit of common sense. Before making assumptions, look into it first. No offense meant, Calden, but if you had taken the ten seconds to search for what a bunny was, you would have realized why a rabbit hadn’t been what she wanted. Now, you may not have understood why she wanted one, but at least you would have saved yourself a lot of effort.”

He still would have had his girlfriend at the end of the day, too, but I’d let him figure that out for himself.

“I can’t argue with that, so I won’t.”

“It’s a miracle,” Calden’s father muttered.

I almost laughed at the older man’s comment, occupying myself with twisting in my seat to check on the bunnies in the back. Calden’s pair cuddled together, while his ex’s sniffed around her carrier, her tiny nose twitching. “They’re definitely quieter than some of the other animals I’ve transported recently.”

Both men laughed, and Calden added a little snort before saying, “Lucky is one of the loudest birds I’ve heard in my life. I’m just glad he’s mostly stopped proposing to me every time he sees me now. And he’s using toy mice for his proposals rather than the corpses of formerly live mice.”

“My mother bought him toy mice?”

“We’d gotten the cheetahs toy mice, and Lucky stole them. We’re debating if peacocks like catnip now.”

Calden’s father snickered. “We’ve always had a madhouse with the number of animals living at the headquarters, but the peacocks are taking the cake for their charming but ridiculous displays. Every floor wants peacocks now, but they’re going to have to settle with the menagerie we’re building on the top floor and on the roof. I’m going to have to buy another faction building just to keep our animals at this rate. Maybe I’ll buy up some land on the outskirts of the city once the quarantines are lifted and use it as an opportunity to hire some of the refugees. A lot of the animals can’t be released into the wild here.”

“I can add it to a list of things that should be done soon but not immediately,” I stated, well aware the man might cut into his rest and relaxation time making his idea a reality. “You should inquire with the vets so they can make a plan for the type of habitats and enclosures required to safely contain the residents.”

“You’d steal my project given a single chance,” Calden’s father accused.

“I would more efficiently delegate the project so it is finished in a timely fashion,” I countered.

“I would ask you to prove it, but you might steal my job—and do a better job of it while you’re at it.”

“Highly unlikely. I would rather work than talk to most people. You can keep handling the talking. I prefer helping to make certain everything gets done without the loss of general sanity. Fixing the messes is challenge enough. I’d rather not be the one stuck with creating and fixing the messes.”

Calden snickered. “You’ve lost, Dad. Just surrender. We’ll be at the headquarters within twenty minutes, and I’d like to have the hutches set up in her office within the hour, assuming they don’t defeat us. They might.”

“I think we can handle it. How hard could it possibly be to assemble a hutch?”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Dad.”

The hutches put up a valiant fight, but we defeated them. While we worked, we kept an eye on the three rabbits meant to share the space. I’d expected some form of fluffy battle at introduction, but beyond some wariness, the three decided they were better off together than apart.

I would have accused the Stephans men of working some form of magic on the bunnies, but they focused on their battle with the hutches while I handled making certain the furred residents didn’t do something we’d regret.

Three hours later, with the bunnies contained for the night, their play pen and toys set up, a card from Calden on his ex’s keyboard along with a list of everything the bunnies would need to be happy and healthy, we left. To help preserve the idea we were going to our various homes independently, Calden dropped his father off, made a show of dropping me off, and headed to his place.

I snooped on my neighbors until certain Mr. Stephans wouldn’t catch me sneaking to the end of the row to meet up with Calden, where I’d help him build an empire for his bunnies and have dinner. I knocked on his door, and when he let me in, I laughed at the mess of hutch components scattered across his living room. “You just built two of these. How did you create this much of a mess in twenty minutes?”

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