10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Pike

Sitting on Cora’s couch watching TV while Kimble slept with his head in Pike’s lap felt like the height of decadence. They’d managed to get three bags of blood into Kimble last night before Pike carried him into the guest room. He and Kimble slept there last night. He wished Cora had stayed with them, but it was enough to know that only a wall separated them.

When he’d woken up late the next morning, he found a note taped to his phone.

I had to go into work or else I might not be able to keep you guys in blood and groceries! I should be home around five. Call if you need anything or if Kimble gets worse. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.

The note ended with a smiley face instead of a heart or I love you. For Cora, this was probably a pretty affectionate message. After talking to one brother over the phone and interacting with a second one, he was getting the impression her family didn’t do normal displays of affection.

Or maybe he didn’t know what was normal for humans. He’d grown up in a bear family that associated with mostly other bear and shifter families. His type didn’t know how to be reserved. Affection was freely given and received, there was no holding back.

Cora’s family could be typical for humans, which made him feel bad for humans. Who wanted to live without hugs and words of love?

Pike was startled when his phone rang and didn’t bother reading the screen before answering.

“Hello?”

“David, honey,” his mother, Tina, said with a relieved little laugh. “It’s good to hear your voice finally. It’s been three days since the last time we talked!”

“Did you get a hold of him?” Pike’s father asked in the background, his voice getting more frantic as he spoke. “Is he okay? Does he need us? Is it Kimble? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet, Mark,” his mother said back. “All he said so far was hello.”

“Tina, give me the phone,” Mark demanded. “I want to talk to him.”

“Mom, you should put me on speaker,” Pike said. They always argued over the phone and rarely remembered that there was a speaker function.

“Oh, yes, I’ll do that,” Tina said, and then he got to listen to them argue about what to push. He laughed and muted the TV while they figured it out.

“Honey, can you hear me?” Tina practically yelled into the phone.

“Not so loud, Mom,” Pike said with a slight wince. “You guys aren’t that old, why do you have so much trouble with phones?”

“It’s against nature,” Mark grumbled. “I’m a man of words, not electrons.”

Unwilling to get into a philosophical debate with his dad about modern technologies' effect on creativity, Pike was quick to change the subject.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call back sooner; things got a little busy.”

“I know you wouldn’t make us worry on purpose,” Mark said. “But three days is a long time.”

“It’s been a hectic three days,” Pike said. “I found my mate. ”

There was absolute silence on the other end of the line before his mother spoke, her voice gentle. “We know, sweetheart. We’ve met Kimble many times.”

Pike chuckled. “I meant another mate, Mom. Her name is Cora, and she’s human.”

“Does Kimble want her too?” Mark asked.

“He’s desperate for her to join the flock,” Pike assured them. “I can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s tiny but so very strong.”

“Put her on the phone,” Tina demanded.

“She’s at work,” Pike explained. “But I was thinking of bringing her over for dinner. Not this weekend because I’m going to a party to meet her family. Maybe next weekend?”

“Of course we can wait until next weekend,” Tina said. “It’ll give us time to make everything perfect.” She made a sound of concern. “You’re going to meet her family? Are they all human? Are you going to take Kimble?”

“They’re all human and don’t know about us,” Pike began, but before he could answer any more questions, his father started talking.

“I teach mostly humans at the college; do you want us to come to help? I can bring my collection of winter poetry and do a reading,” Mark said at the same time Tina gave instructions.

“You should bring them something humans enjoy, like Jell-O. It comes in all kinds of colors. Oh, and pudding. They like pudding too.”

“That’s a good idea!” Mark said. “We could both go and meet everyone too.”

The thought of his gentle parents mixing with Cora’s aggravating brothers made Pike wince. Better to wait until he’d met them and could get a feel for how to best introduce everyone.

“I love you guys so much,” Pike murmured.

“We love you too, honey,” Tina responded without hesitation.

“You’re my favorite male child,” Mark said.

“I’m your only male child,” Pike responded. “I’ll tell you guys all about Cora’s family after I meet them, but we’re probably going to need a little time to get you all together.”

“That’s fine,” both of them said in unison. They did that a lot .

“I was thinking I’d bring something anyone could eat, like a bowl of cut-up fruit,” he concluded.

“Fruit is good,” Tina said with a sound of approval. “Don’t put grubs in it though, even if they make it taste amazing. Humans don’t eat grubs.”

“Some humans do,” Mark argued.

“Not many,” Tina said. “But I guess he could put them on the side so people could add them if they wanted to.”

“I think I’ll leave all the grubs at home,” Pike said.

“Has having Cora join the flock made Kimble any better?” Tina asked.

“They haven’t shared souls yet,” Pike explained. “Cora didn’t know anything about our world until just before she met Kimble. Like I said, a lot’s happened in the last few days.”

“Oh, the poor thing,” Mark said. “That had to be a shock. But if the magic picked her for you and Kimble, then she’ll come around soon.”

“You didn’t really answer the question. Is Kimble any better yet?” Tina asked.

“A little better,” Pike said, but didn’t mention it was probably due to the blood Cora was buying him rather than her presence in his life.

“That’s good,” Tina said.

“If we have to wait to meet Cora, could you at least send us a picture?” Mark requested.

“Yes!” Tina agreed with a little cheer. “I want to see what she looks like.”

That was when Pike realized he didn’t have any pictures of Cora on his phone. Not even a single selfie of the two of them. “You guys will have to wait until she gets home.”

He could feel their disapproval over the phone. His mother’s phone was full of pictures of him, his sister and her husband, including pictures she’d taken of his baby pictures hanging in silver frames on the walls of her house. His father would have just as many pictures on his phone if he could work it half as well as Tina.

“Not even one of her face?” Tina asked.

“No, Mom. Not even one of her face,” Pike admitted. “But I’ll fix that tonight. ”

“Now tell us everything you know about Cora,” Mark insisted. “No detail is too small.”

Smiling with happiness, Pike started talking and the hours flew by.

***

Cora

Parking her work van in her single car garage attached to the house was always a pain, but Cora refused to leave it parked in the driveway. If the van was stolen, she’d lose a lot of specialty tools and equipment. She didn’t have a shop, just a small one room office she rented in an industrial building manned by Charlotte, her only full-time employee at the moment. The parking lot behind the building was secured by a tall fence and bright lights, but Cora still didn’t trust her precious work van there. During his time off, Van Guts spent his nights safely tucked away in her small garage.

She was so eager to get inside to see the guys that parking was even more troublesome than normal. It took two tries and almost sideswiping the side of the garage door frame before she was successful. Once Van Guts was inside, she could get out and lock him up for the night.

She should be exhausted. She’d spent most of the night tossing and turning. Knowing the guys were sharing a bed on the other side of her bedroom wall made it hard to relax into sleep. She’d fought the urge to go to them the entire time and only fell asleep sometime around three in the morning.

It was unlikely she was going to be able to resist the impulse to go to them tonight. Even now, as she grabbed her purse and phone from the passenger seat, her chest felt tight from the need to at least set eyes on the two men.

These strong feelings should be freaking her out, but all she felt was impatience.

Going through the door from the garage into the house, she heard Pike laughing. Curious and maybe a little jealous, Cora dumped everything in her arms on the kitchen table and tiptoed to the open arch between the kitchen and the living room. At this angle, Pike wouldn’t see her until she stepped through the opening.

Standing still, she listened to him talking.

“...that’s it exactly,” he said. “Fox shifter, I think you nailed it, Dad. ”

The jealousy fled. Of course he wasn’t flirting with someone. This was Pike, he was incapable of cheating. He was so sweet and honest he wouldn’t even watch series episodes without her.

“No, Mom, I don’t think getting us all matching shirts is a good idea yet, maybe later,” Pike said with another laugh, then he paused, listening before talking again. “Winter solstice is months away, Mom. Let’s wait until November before we start planning for that.”

There was another brief silence before Pike spoke again. “Mom, Dad, I need to go, Cora just got home.”

Cora startled. How had he known she was there?

She stepped out from the kitchen as he was saying repeated goodbyes and finally took the phone away from his ear and tapped the screen. He looked up at her with a goofy-happy grin.

“It’s so good to see you!”

Kimble was asleep on the couch with his head in Pike’s lap. There were two empty family sized bags of chips on the coffee table in front of Pike along with half a dozen soda cans and a glass with a little water at the bottom.

Pike followed her gaze to the mess and grimaced. “I’m sorry. I was going to clean up but then my parents called, and I lost track of time.”

Cora didn’t respond as she drank in the sight of Pike and Kimble. Honestly, she didn’t care about the mess, she was only looking at it to keep from jumping onto the two men on her couch.

When had she gotten so needy?

The sun had started setting as she’d hit her street and she watched as Kimble opened his eyes and sat up. He smiled at her and scooted away from Pike to pat the section of couch between them.

That got Pike moving.

“Oh, you’re probably tired and hungry!” he exclaimed, jumping up from the couch. “Come sit!”

He pressed her to sit next to Kimble but didn’t join them on the couch. “I prepped dinner, so it’ll only take about twenty minutes to cook. Do you want a drink?”

Cora stared up at him, bemused. “This feels like Mad Men in reverse. ”

Pike looked confused as Kimble put an arm around her shoulders and cuddled close. “Mad Men?”

“It was a show set in the 1960s,” she explained, noting Kimble’s tidy appearance. She ran a hand over his smooth face. “Did you shave?”

“I bathed and shaved him today,” Pike explained. “Your bathroom is surprisingly big for how small the house is. That made it easy to carry him in there for a bath.”

When Cora dropped her hand away from Kimble’s face, he leaned close and rubbed his smooth jaw against her cheek. Suddenly everything was better, and happiness bubbled up inside her.

She giggled and patted his head. “Yes, you feel very nice.”

“Since you didn’t answer on the drink, I’m going to bring you all the choices available,” Pike announced, striding into the kitchen. He was soon back with several cans of soda, a glass of water, and a bottle of sparkling water. Setting them all out, he whisked away the empty chip bags and cans. When he returned again it was with a small bowl full of chips and another with dip.

“Here’s something to snack on until dinner is ready.”

Kimble snuggled against her as Pike rushed around to make her comfortable. A girl could get used to this.