7. Toby

7

TOBY

O ne week later…

I am very large now. It's difficult to carry all the pillows from upstairs down to the Library.

"Wait!" Max calls out. "Those are nice pillows!"

"I told you to hide the nice ones before their due date," Eli says.

"I did! He found them in the attic. I don't even know how he got up there."

The problem with Eli and Max is that they're alphas. They always underestimate us. If I didn't know how to use a stepladder, I never would have ended up here in the first place. That's how I practiced with Felix.

When I get downstairs, I close the door and lock it. We can't have Max coming down here and stealing the pillows.

I waddle into our bedroom where Felix is stabbing a pillow with the knife. He's wearing the Mr. Green suit we got from Francis, and I'm wearing the Professor Plum one. We had to tailor them to fit us, but that wasn't so hard once Marigold brought us a sewing machine.

I deposit the rest of the pillows onto the floor by the bed. Felix has already started filling our nest with fluff. Along with the feathers and pillow stuffing, he's also crinkled up cards from the Clue game and scattered them around. It's already so cozy, I want to take off my clothing and go to sleep.

Felix stabs another pillow and pulls out its guts. Clearly, the murder was done in the Library by Mr. Green with the knife. But it's a nice kind of murder. I remove each article of clothing and curl up on the fluff Felix has found with all his pillow killings. He tucks more fluff around me and rips off sheets of paper from the Clue notepad to layer them on top of me like a patchwork quilt. When he's done, he removes his clothing too and lies down next to me.

Somewhere in the distance, people are banging on the door. Eli is yelling something about a hired fist, which is silly. Why would Felix and I need help laying our eggs? We have each other. The only part we needed him for is already done.

We drift off to sleep. The deadbolt we asked Heller to install yesterday should keep them out. Alphas are so dramatic.

Thank Ice I never had to bond to one.