Page 140 of Theirs to Crave

“We meant to give it to you earlier,” Zaf interjected, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. “Beforeyou accepted us as your mates.”

I giggled, rolling another tortilla.

“But it took a while to find something that would work for themasa,” Zaf pronounced theMcarefully, “and longer before our efforts met Naryanuh’s approval.”

“You all worked on this? Together? And Mariano helped?” My eyes bounced from one to the other, wide with disbelief. Absentmindedly, I tore off a bit of tortilla and pinched up some of the meat. Flavor burst in my mouth. Oh, fuck, that was good.

Litha nodded. “Revik carved thetorteeyuhdoro, I devised theheenges, Zaf figured out we could useinretto make themasa, and we all practiced making the tiny flat cakes.”

“You did what?!” I demanded, staring at Revik.

He turned, lifting a device from the kitchen shelves and setting it in front of me.

It bore a striking resemblance to my Nana’s antique wooden press, which made sense. That’s probably what Mariano had described when Revik asked him about it. This was the goth version, though, carved from the green-black wood of Doluna trees.

“If I didn’t already love you three more than I thought possible, this would have gotten me there,” I admitted, to a round of purring chuckles.

We ate. The three of them were unbearably smug throughout, watching me gorge myself. When I couldn’t eat another bite, I leaned against Zaf, patting my belly happily.

“I can’t believe you did all this and I had no idea.” I stroked Revik’s tail where it lay across my legs. “I especially can’t believe you got Mariano to agree to it.”

“He loves you,” Revik said simply. He shrugged. “And I helped him with something too.”

“Really? What?”

Revik shrugged again.

I sat up, intrigued. “Did you make him his own tortilladora?”

“No,” he snorted. “I offered, but Kurz almost bit my head off.”

“Reeeally? Interesting.” Murder Puppy was a bit territorial, it appeared. “And you won’t tell me what you did?”

He gave me a look through narrowed eyes.

That was fine, I’d bully it out of Mariano. Now that my love life was sorted, I had energy to help him fix the mess he’d made of his. Not that I had any intention of messing with him and Kurz. The two of them were great together. But I’d seen the confused, longing looks Therry sent him when we visited the village. And I’d seen the tormented ones he wore when he thought no one was looking. If he didn’t sort that out, it would get messy.

The last thing we needed was a dramatic love triangle moment in the middle of dinner.

“Are you happy, Estrayuh? Here, with us?” Litha’s voice was a caress, making me shiver with remembered pleasure.

I stretched across Zaf to kiss her, anchored by Revik’s hand on my thigh.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

The End

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