Chapter 4

“You ready for this?” Cos whispered.

I was holding Poppy, so I gave her a kiss, then I took a breath and nodded. “Yes. I think it’s the best plan we have.” I set Poppy down so I could make myself a plate.

He nodded, kissed my cheek, and gave me a quick nuzzle. “Me, too.”

Cos and I had been making plans. Lots of plans and contingencies.

Since we’d found out that the Red Cloth was back in town, and specifically Anderson and the Supreme Rose, we’d known we needed to figure some things out to keep our pride safe.

And now that things were in motion, we needed to have a family meeting.

So once everybody had their food and was sitting down, Cos stood up and cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. It took a few minutes for everyone to realize he was standing there.

With Wren and Harriet living with us—finally—and Lilibeth, Scarlett, and her boyfriend Ben here as well, we ran out of room at our very large dining room table. So a few weeks ago, Dare and Luce went out and bought another long table. Thank the goddess the dining room was pretty huge because both of the tables were the longest ones I’d ever seen before now. It was a tight squeeze with both of them in the same room, but we managed. Much better than squeezing together at one table and constantly bumping elbows.

Once everyone quieted down, Cos said, “I know everyone is well aware that… they’re back in town, but we need to talk about some precautions we’re putting in place. I don’t want to scare you, but we need to make sure that if anyone has to, uh, make a run for it, they have the routes memorized.”

I glanced around the tables and saw that everyone was paying attention, even the kids. We’d debated on whether or not we should include the kids in this family meeting because the last thing we wanted to do was scare them. But… we also didn’t want to hide anything from them, and it was very important for them to know how to get out of the house and off the property, just in case something happened and they were alone while escaping.

I was really trying not to think about that happening. But it was a truth we had to face. It could happen. Anderson had access to all of our information while he worked for the TRD. Which meant he might have our address. And even if he didn’t, the Red Cloth’s hackers were good enough to take over the entire HID system for a full five minutes. It didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility for them to find out where we lived.

And Anderson had it out for me.

Thinking about it, thinking about him, made me want to explode and blow something up with my magic. So I did my best to push his ugly mug out of my mind.

Cos continued, “The yellow house next door”—he pointed in the direction of the house—“is being put up for sale, but I already stepped in and made an offer. I was told this morning that the couple is going to accept it, although it hasn’t been made official yet. I’m supposed to sign something tonight.”

Zara’s eyes were wide. “You bought another house?”

Cos nodded with a small wince. “Yes. I was going to talk to you guys about it first, but I was afraid of losing our chance.”

“Why do we need another house?” Haiden asked. “We still have plenty of room here.”

“I know, but the house next door has a huge bunker. That property’s part of the wooded area has a cave, and someone built a bunker in it. It’s… a good size. I tried to negotiate to buy only the land behind their yard, but they wouldn’t split the property, so… we’re buying the house, too. They have a panic room in the house as well, so that kind of works for our needs right now.”

Everyone seemed to be soaking in that vast amount of information, but Zara looked worried as she asked, “Can we even afford it?”

My mate met my eyes for a moment, and I gave him an encouraging nod before he faced Zara and said, “We can. We’ll have to take out a mortgage, but with everyone contributing, we’re going to be fine. Plus, there’s talk of magi who grew up in the compound getting some reparations—although I’m not counting on that happening anytime soon, or at all. And… Harriet just sold her house and insists on putting most of that money toward the pride even though I told her a million times not to.”

“I want to,” Harriet cut in. “Like you said, I’m contributing, and it’s not like I’m using it for anything else. I’d rather help out my family.”

Cos sent her the sweetest smile, and I really wanted to yank him down so I could taste that smile on my lips. But I refrained. Mostly because it would’ve been way too sappy. Blech.

Cos said, “Are you sure? We can afford the mortgage even without the down payment. It’ll be more, obviously, but it’s still doable.”

She nodded. “I’m a hundred percent sure, Cos. Please let me do this. You put me on the deed here already, and I’m assuming you’ll be putting everyone on the new house as well?”

“Yes. Of course.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. I understood exactly how he felt because I felt the same. I didn’t like taking money from other people or feeling indebted to them. But… this wasn’t just a random person or even a close friend. This was Harriet. She was family. Pride.

And if she wanted to help in this way, then we should let her, even if it made me want to squirm.

It was the best way to keep our pride safe.

Cos leaned down and rubbed his cheek against Harriet’s, scenting her for a moment as he whispered, “Thank you, Harriet. You’re too kind.”

She smiled and patted his back. “It’s nothing.”

As soon as they parted, Zara asked, “Why don’t we just build a bunker on our land? And put a panic room in here somewhere? We have room. Why buy a house we’re not even going to use?”

I wasn’t surprised she was the one questioning everything. She always liked to talk things out and try to think of every angle. I appreciated that she didn’t simply accept things and move on.

I took over for Cos, saying, “The bunker and panic room next door are ready right now. I’ve made some phone calls and spoken to some contractors so we could get an idea of the price and timeframe if we built them here. It would be at least two months, or more, before either of those things are finished because of permits and such. It would save us money, but not as much as you’d think, honestly, especially because we’d probably have to pay more to get things rushed… if that even worked.”

I cleared my throat, shot a look at the kids at the other table, and continued, “The Red Cloth is here right now. I don’t want to risk waiting, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want a bunch of strangers in my space for months on end while our house is under construction.”

What I didn’t say—but was likely implied—was that I was way too paranoid for that. I’d never be able to relax, not even when the workers left because I’d be worried they left something behind that could hurt someone.

It would be a nightmare for me. A complete and total nightmare.

Zara nodded in acquiescence. “That makes sense.”

Cos added, “Plus, having more land to roam around and explore when we’re shifted isn’t a bad thing, especially if our pride keeps growing the way it has been.”

“Also true,” she said with pursed lips, seeming to think about everything.

After waiting a minute to see if she had any more questions, I asked, “Does anyone else have any questions?”

Charlie asked, “What are we going to do with the extra house?”

“We’re not sure yet,” Cos said with a shrug. “We might just keep it as is for now. As our pride grows, keep it open as an option for anyone who doesn’t want to live in this house with us but wants to remain close.”

Char nodded, easily accepting that answer for the time being.

“Any more questions?” Cos asked. When it seemed like no one else wanted to ask anything, he said, “Alright, great. Feel free to ask if you think of something. For now, I want everyone to finish eating dinner, and then we’ll walk next door and check it out. I have the keys already.”

“They gave you the keys?” Luce asked as she picked Teo up—he’d been trying to escape, clearly bored of all this adult nonsense—and she kissed his cheek. The little boy giggled and squirmed until she set him back in his chair. He was going to need to get some of that energy out before bedtime.

Cos answered her. “Yes. Andrew Clarke said we were always good neighbors, so he didn’t mind if we went inside and checked the place out since he and his wife are no longer living there.”

“That works out well for us,” Luce said. She lobbed a napkin at Cos, and it hit him in the chest before falling to the floor.

He picked up his fork with a bite of food on it and held it back like he was going to flick it at her.

She glared. “I dare you.”

For a second, I thought Cos was going to do it, but then I saw his eyes flick to Teo beside her, and he sighed as he set his fork back down.

“That’s what I thought.”

He snorted and shot her a grin, and everyone dug into their food and resumed chatting… and teasing each other.

After dinner, the pride was ready to follow my mate next door. Cos headed toward the back door, turned to me, and jerked his head, silently asking me to join him in front of our large group. I sent him a tiny smile as I caught up, and he squeezed my hand before walking outside and waving the rest of our pride along.

The panic room inside the house was bigger than I’d expected but definitely not large enough to house all of us for long. We could squeeze in there if we really had to, but it would get really uncomfortable very quickly.

Hopefully there would never be a need for it.

We didn’t dally inside the home. There wasn’t much to see. It was a large house but not as big as ours, and it was empty of all furniture, so it was just a lot of open rooms. We didn’t need to look at it in detail other than memorizing exactly where the panic room was—inside the primary bedroom, the door disguised as a second closet.

Cos led us back outside and into the woods. The bunker wasn’t far. Cos had actually taken me to it recently when he first found out about the Clarkes moving. We’d snuck onto their property and checked it out. I hadn’t believed my rule-abiding mate would trespass like that, but he hadn’t even thought twice. He just wanted me to see the bunker.

I kind of wondered if he’d actually had permission and hadn’t told me just to make it more exciting.

I did end up laughing the whole time as we’d snuck around.

The cave went about thirty feet deep. It curved to the side before you came upon a steel door, so anyone peeking into the cave entrance wouldn’t be able to see the door at all—nice feature.

Inside the bunker was huge and could keep our entire pride comfortable for at least a few days if need be. We’d have to stock it with some furniture, food, and supplies once we officially owned it, but that wouldn’t be a big deal.

The living room area, for lack of a better name, was big and open with its own kitchen off to one side. There were shelves on nearly every wall and plenty of space for couches, tables, chairs, and cots. There were a few holoscreens installed already, too.

A hallway led to a bathroom—sharing only one bathroom wouldn’t be ideal, but we’d deal—and to a huge storage room. The storage room had row upon row of shelves. They were all empty, of course, and it would take time for us to fill them, but the entire setup was great.

One of my favorite features was the camera system. There were cameras all over the property, including right in front of the very thick steel door that led into the bunker. The cameras were wired to the bunker’s holoscreens, which was perfect. It made me feel better knowing that anyone inside could see the other side so they’d know whether it was safe to open the door or not. It would also give those inside a clue as to what was going on.

Haiden walked past me, and a surprised laugh bubbled out of me. He turned to me with a frown, and all I could do was say, “Glitter.”

He huffed. “Where is it?”

“In your hair.”

“Get it out.”

“No way. If I touch it, it’ll be on me forever.”

“Mads.”

I smiled at him and gestured to Logan, who was on the other side of the bunker. “Your mate can help you.”

“God, you suck.”

“I love you, too.”

He snorted, gently punched me in the arm, and walked over to Logan.

Charlie popped up beside me and whispered, “They haven’t tried to get us back yet…”

“They’re planning something.”

“Right? They’ve got to be, and it’s going to be awful.”

I snorted. “Yep.”

“Ugh.” He gave me a quick side-hug—that I returned—and a hair nuzzle before he walked over to the shelves to inspect them. I didn’t know what the kids were planning, but I had no doubt they’d get us back for the glitter when we least expected it.

Cos showed everyone around, and our pride mostly looked on with contemplative expressions, only asking a few questions here and there. Everyone was pretty quiet. I figured seeing this in person sort of made things feel real. Made the threat of the Red Cloth more tangible.

It wasn’t a good feeling, but seeing it and taking this seriously was necessary if we wanted them to stay safe.

When we were done and we walked back to our house, Cos asked, “So what do you guys think? Is everyone okay with me finalizing the sale tonight?”

I was happy to see everyone thinking hard about it for a few minutes before they started to answer. We needed to hear their honest opinions. We didn’t want anyone agreeing just for the sake of agreeing.

“I think it’s a good plan,” Dare finally said, and I saw Cos sag in relief. If Cosmo’s older brother was on board, I had no doubt that most, if not all, of the others would follow his lead.

As expected, everyone else agreed, and Cos took a deep breath. “Looks like we’re buying another house.”

After another failureat finding the Red Cloth—or Anderson—we all decided to unwind after work. To forget about our woes for a little while, we decided to hang out in the back yard. The other magi and humans were sitting around the fire with me while most of the shifters were running around the yard in their feline forms. I always loved watching their powerful and sleek bodies wrestle and play.

Cos was chasing Charlie, and I laughed when my mate pounced on his brother, and the two of them went rolling. Frankly, the sounds coming out of them would be enough to scare me or make me think one of them was injured if I wasn’t so used to hearing it.

Cats were loud.

My cats were really loud when they were at home and playing without worry.

I turned my attention back to everyone around the fire pit when Scarlett and Ben joined us. The two of them still seemed very unsure of us, even after living here for a few months. They were quiet and tended to stick to themselves, which made it pretty difficult for Jude to get to know his sister. Neither she nor Ben were ever rude or unappreciative, but they hung out in their room a lot of the time.

It seemed like they thought we didn’t truly want them here or something.

I’d mentioned my thoughts to Cos the other day, and he and I decided to make an extra effort in making them feel welcome and wanted.

So far, I was doing a pretty shit job of it.

Making someone feel wanted, accepted, and comfortable wasn’t my forte. At. All.

I definitely wasn’t the person anyone wanted in charge of the welcome wagon, but at least I was trying, right?

“Hey, guys,” I said as they made their way over. “There’s a seat over here.” I pointed to a pair of chairs on the other side of Jude—the ones his mates had vacated so they could join in on the cat wrestling extravaganza happening twenty feet away.

Scarlett sent me a smile. “Thanks.” She sat beside Jude, and Ben sat beside her, shooting me a small, grateful smile.

He tended to be quiet, but I really didn’t think it was because he was rude or didn’t like us. I thought it just took time for him to warm up to people. Which was understandable. It took me a long time to drop my walls around people I didn’t know well, but I wasn’t a shy person, so I kept those walls up even while running my mouth.

Jude exchanged greetings with them, and then we all fell into a sort of awkward silence.

To my absolute surprise, it was Ben who broke it. “Did you guys see the TRD vids going around? They’re practically begging people to join.”

“Really?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Here, I saved one.” He gestured to my HID, so I opened it, and he flicked the saved vid over to me.

I accepted it and clicked play with Jude resting his chin on my shoulder to watch it with me.

A commercial making the TRD seem like the best place in the world to work flashed before my eyes, and I felt my eyebrows rise. They even managed to say they treated all employees equally, no matter their species. Wow.

“Well, okay then,” I said, shaking my head.

“They’ve got a lot of nerve after everything they’ve put us through,” Jude said. “Equal, my ass. Better than before? Yeah, definitely. But they’ve still got a long way to go.”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, I can imagine. The whole country has a long way to go.”

I stared at him for a few seconds. He was a few inches taller than me, so Scarlett was taller than him and more muscular. The guy had very blond hair and hazel eyes, and I could admit he was good-looking.

But he’d been a guard at the compound, and that was a hard pill to swallow. I wouldn’t lie and say that I’d been one hundred percent okay with having a guard sleep in our house. The first few nights he’d been here, I’d slept with one eye open, half expecting him to march into my room with a magi collar in his hand.

Which was ridiculous. The man had helped the Cloaked Freeway for years. Logically, I’d known that, but my brain hadn’t let the whole compound guard thing go so easily.

Luckily, I was over that now.

Wren distracted me from my thoughts by asking, “Can I see the vid?”

I turned to them. They were on my other side, sending me a small smile that I couldn’t help but return. They were such a cutie and tended to bring out my protective instincts as easily as Logan did.

I cleared my throat and said, “Of course. Sorry, I should’ve passed it to you already so everyone can see it.” I gestured to the others around the fire.

“Thanks.” Wren held their arm up so Logan could watch with them, and Ash ended up squishing up against them to see it, too.

Harriet said, “Send it to me when you’re done, please.”

“Copy,” Wren said automatically, then paused as if realizing what they’d said. With a bark of laughter, they corrected, “I mean okay. I will.”

Harriet simply smiled at them. “Thanks, dear.”

Wren shrugged, looking embarrassed, and Harriet’s smile turned fond—I couldn’t blame her. I was pretty sure most of the members of our pride smiled at them like that. Thank goodness for Harriet, though, because I’d be a disaster every time Wren went to work if it hadn’t been for her. If I couldn’t be there on Wren’s team, ready to protect them at every instance, I was happy they had Harriet there. She’d keep them safe.

Scarlett drew my attention back to her, Jude, and Ben. “I’ve been thinking about joining.”

I blinked, and Jude hesitated for a moment, absorbing the information, before he said, “You want to fight on TRD?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s combat. We fight taragorians and witches all the time. It’s not an easy job.”

“I’m trained in combat. I’d be an asset.” She sounded defensive—and super pissed—and it made me wince.

Jude huffed. “I know you would be. That’s not what I… I only wanted to check that TRD is what you want to do.”

Her tension relaxed a hair—she seemed to be a little high-strung at times but calmed more easily than some, you know, like me. “I want to help. I certainly don’t want to stay in this house all day, every day like we’ve been doing.” She gestured at herself and Ben. “We need to do something.”

My eyebrows rose, and I turned to Ben, asking, “Does that mean you want to join, too?”

He made a seesaw motion with his hand. “Part of me wants to, but the other part doesn’t want to be pulled back in with the NHSO, so I’m hesitant.”

“That’s understandable.” I gave him a nod. “But you want to find a job?”

He nodded. “I want to contribute somehow. Your family has gone above and beyond with helping us and letting us crash here for so long. I?—”

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “We aren’t letting you crash here, Ben. We want the two of you to live here. For as long as you want, which we all hope is a very long time, or, you know, forever.” I shot him a smirk when his eyes widened in shock. “I understand you wanting to contribute, but I need you to understand that you’re wanted here, okay? You’re not a burden. Not even a little bit. You’ll always be welcome in our home… In fact, we all hope you start calling it your home soon.”

To my absolute horror, tears welled up in Ben’s eyes as he stared at me in disbelief. And then to make matters worse, the human stood up and stepped past Scarlett and Jude to stop in front of me. Since I was still sitting, I had to tilt my head all the way back to look him in the eyes. Eyes that were all teary. Shit.

I saw his intention a moment before he did it, and I barely had time to prepare for impact.

Ben bent down and hugged me tight enough I couldn’t breathe for a moment. Or maybe it was the weird, gross feeling in my chest that was doing it.

Ugh. Why were people hugging me so much lately?

Did I have a note written on my forehead that said please hug me?

I didn’t like hugging people I didn’t know well.

At least I was used to getting hugs all the time now. If this would’ve happened five years ago, punches would’ve been thrown.

Jude was laughing at my expense beside me, but he still reached over and put his hand on my back below Ben’s hands. Jude’s touch helped ease the panic enough that I was able to lift my arms, wrap them around Ben’s body, and pat his back a few times.

Thank the goddess the hug didn’t last that long, although he did still hold onto my upper arms as he backed up and stared at me.

Ben whispered, “Thank you, Madeo. I really appreciate that.”

Since I was too overwhelmed to use words, I simply nodded at him.

He sent me an appreciative smile, and I tried to reciprocate, but I was sure my mouth was in more of a grimace than anything else.

What felt like an eternity later, he released me entirely and walked back to his seat, saying, “Sorry about that. I just… I’ve never had anyone care enough to… put a roof over my head or make sure I had food or anything. And your whole family has been so kind and caring and… I’m just… thank you for that.”

Scarlett reached over and grabbed her boyfriend’s hand, squeezing it tight as they shared a look. Jude and I shared a look, too, and then we sat there for a minute as we waited for their attention to drift back to us.

“We’re both grateful,” Scarlett said, and I wasn’t surprised at all when she added, “But we still want to work. I’m sick of sitting around. We did too much of that at the safehouse already.”

“I get that.” I really got that. I’d hated sitting there, waiting. Waiting was the worst. “Okay, so that means TRD for you, Scarlett?”

“I think so. I was thinking about calling and setting up a meeting so I can get all the details.”

Jude said, “When you have an appointment, I’ll go with you.”

“You can’t come into a job interview with me, big brother,” she said in a teasing tone. She’d started jokingly calling him that a couple of weeks ago, and even though she was being playful, Jude loved it. I mean, he didn’t let that love for it show on his face, but I felt his warm appreciation every single time. It made me like Scarlett even more.

She’d even called me big brother a couple of times, which had surprised me, but it had elated Jude even more than when she called him that.

My dyad was such a huge softy.

He said, “No, but I can drive you there and then wait inside the building. I know they’ve been good to us since we came back, but it makes me nervous having only one of us there. You need backup, just in case.”

She stared at him for a beat, then nodded. “I can handle that.”

“Good.” He sent her a smile, then hesitantly reached over to pat her knee lightly before he turned his gaze to Ben. “You don’t sound too enthused by the TRD.”

Ben winced. “I’m not. After working at the compound, I think I’ve seen enough violence to last a lifetime.”

“Haven’t we all,” I muttered under my breath.

Jude ignored me but sent a bout of warmth through our bond and said, “What if we talk to Luce? The bar has a restaurant attached to it, so you could maybe get a job waiting tables or something. Would that interest you?”

He shrugged. “I’d be okay with that, I think.”

Scarlett shoulder-bumped him with a grin on her pretty face. “You’ll do great.”

He sent her a smile, then leaned in and kissed her cheek.

The two of them really were sickeningly sweet together. It made me happy and nauseous at the same time—not really. But it did make me happy for them. They were cute.

Cos, in lion form, came bursting into our little bubble, nearly knocking my seat over with the force of his head butt against my arm.

“Geez, honey, what’s wrong?” I asked as I started petting him with both hands, making sure to get behind one ear and under his chin, too.

He made a few rumbling sounds at me while changing his facial expressions and flicking his tail. And even though I definitely didn’t speak cat or lion, I somehow understood him.

He’d felt my uncomfortableness with Ben’s hug and had run from over a mile away in the woods just to make sure I was alright.

“I’m fine,” I whispered, trying to soothe him with my words and my tone. “Everything’s okay, fluffball.”

He rubbed against my hands and legs in understanding. But then he kept rubbing and nuzzling me, so I leaned back to make some room for him. He couldn’t climb on me or in my lap because he was way too humongous for me—and the chair—but he could step up onto the chair to get closer and have more access to me.

Instead of moving closer like I thought he wanted, Cos backed up and made a whining sound. I understood what that meant, too.

I guessed I’d spent so much time around shifted shifters, especially Cos, that I spoke more cat than I realized.

With a huff, I got up, said my goodnights, and let my mate lead me away from the group. Jude shot me a grin, and I felt for our bond to make sure he was okay with me walking away. He was content and happy to continue speaking with his—our—sister and Ben.

Cos nudged me off to the side of the yard, away from everyone else. I shivered from the lack of heat from the fire, and of course, my mate noticed. He immediately nudged me until I sat on the grass, and then he wrapped himself around me until I was basically wearing a lion fur coat.

Cosmo’s body was wrapped along my back, and his head was in my lap, his mane fluffy all around my arms and chest. I was practically eating his fur, so I grumbled at him.

I’d never admit out loud how much I actually liked it.

I settled in with a sigh, resting my full weight against him.

After a few moments of us just sitting together with my fingers running through his fur, I asked, “Is this why you pulled me away? You wanted me all to yourself, huh?”

I didn’t mind. We hadn’t had a lot of alone time together lately.

He lifted his head and nuzzled my chest, then sniffled my neck and cheek, tickling me. After I wiggled and let out a laugh, he lay his head back down on my thighs.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then. You want to stay in your lion form tonight? You know I like sleeping next to you in whatever form you want.”

He nudged my fingers in agreement.

I settled back with a sigh as I stared up at the sky. It was dark, so the stars were out, but being in the city, we could hardly see any at all. We might’ve had a good bit of land around us, but we were still very much a part of Fairview City and all their lights.

“You know, when things calm down, we should take the kids somewhere without light pollution. I bet they would love to see all the stars and point out constellations.” He huffed in agreement, and I smiled. “Something to look forward to.”

And it was something to look forward to because I refused to believe that we wouldn’t find the Red Cloth and defeat them.

We would.

We had to.

Because I wanted a million more nights like this one with my pride and my mate.

Tater Tot ended up joining us and cuddling up to Cos for a big snuggle. It was almost funny to me how so many dogs didn’t like shifters, and then we had this one who not only liked them but loved cuddling even in their felid forms. Cos loved it, and I thought it was adorable.

Eventually, everyone started to head inside, so Cos and I followed. He stayed in his lion form for the entire walk back to our room, brushing against my legs and leaning into my touch as I idly petted him.

After placing a kiss on top of his head, I murmured, “I’ll be right back.”

I slipped out of the room and went into the bathroom to take care of my nightly routine. It only took me a few minutes, but when I came back to my bedroom, Cos was lying on the bed in his bipedal form.

“I thought you were staying fluffy tonight?”

He shot me a small smile and shrugged. “I want to hold you and kiss you more than I want to stay in my lion form.”

Something fluttered in my chest, and my mouth ticked up in a small smile. “That sounds nice. Go get ready for bed.”

He slipped out from under the blanket, and I chuckled when I realized he was naked. I’d assumed he’d put sleep pants on. When he walked out of the room still buck naked, I snorted and rolled my eyes. The shifters truly had no shame when it came to their bodies. As weird as it was, and as much as I didn’t want to see anyone else besides Cosmo’s naked ass, it was also kind of… nice? Freeing?

Or maybe I was just used to it at this point.

Goddess, if you’d asked me ten years ago if I’d ever live in a pride house and be used to people free-balling it all the time, I would’ve laughed in your face. If you would’ve told me that I’d not only live in one but actually love it, I might’ve punched you in the mouth to shut you up.

And the fact that casual nakedness didn’t bother me in the least anymore?

Crazy talk.

Almost as soon as I climbed into the bed to wait for Cos, I opened my HID because I knew if I didn’t distract myself, I’d fall asleep, and I really wanted all the kisses Cos talked about. I started flipping through everything, unsure of what to read or what game to play, but then I saw my saved vids and pulled them up.

I watched a couple short ones of the kids doing silly things in their playhouse—they often pretended to put on cooking shows and other things like that, and they knew I loved them, so they made sure to send them to me—and then I flipped to the recording of the Red Cloth’s vid.

I knew I shouldn’t watch it, especially right before bed, but I couldn’t seem to flip to a different vid once it started. I had the entire thing memorized. I could recite the Supreme Rose’s speech word for word and describe every single thing in the background with precision. I could even name every person whose face I could see.

When the vid widened to show the Supreme Rose’s followers, I paused it and stared at the man who’d tortured me for years, bullied me at work, and did everything in his power to make my life miserable since the day I met him when I was twelve years old.

A shudder ran through my body just from looking at him.

And apparently, I was a masochist because I exited out of my vids and opened up my pictures, scrolling until I found the one I wanted. The picture of the writing in blood on the wall.

You won’t escape with your life next time. You’re mine.

I sucked in a sharp breath and snapped my eyes shut, trying to keep my breathing even.

No. No, I wouldn’t go down this rabbit hole. Not tonight. And especially not right before bed.

As quickly as I could, I exited out of the pictures and made sure both pics and vids were closed out. Then I found some mindless, silly short vids to watch to get my mind off it.

By the time Cos returned from the bathroom and shut and locked the door, I was calm and had nearly forgotten all about Anderson.

And by the time Cos climbed into the bed and crawled over to me, the warmth of his love had encased my entire chest and made me feel cared for. His affection washed away all the bad thoughts that were trying to linger so I was able to focus on my mate and only my mate. He forced me to lean back until I found him hovering over the top of me on all fours with hands and knees on either side of my body.

“Well, hello there,” I said, trying not to laugh at the very serious expression on his face.

He pressed his body down so he was on top of me but kept much of his weight on his elbows and legs. “Is this okay?”

I nodded. “Perfectly fine.”

“Tell me if you get uncomfortable, okay?”

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I nodded at him. He knew that I sometimes didn’t enjoy having anyone on top of me—or feeling like I was being held down—but I was also a fan of his full-body hugs so he checked in with me all the time to make sure I was good. It was sweet, even if it sometimes seemed a little unnecessary.

I cupped his cheeks, loving the scruff there. “I love you.”

He smiled. “I love you, too.” He pecked my lips, keeping the kiss chaste, before he nuzzled my nose with his, bringing a smile to my face. “You’re handsome.”

“Uh… thanks. I think.”

He snorted. “And hot and sexy and sweet and kind and gentle and?—”

I put my fingers over his mouth to stop him. “Shhh.” I let out a laugh. “Stop being ridiculous.”

He playfully bit my fingers. “It’s not ridiculous if it’s true.”

With a roll of my eyes, I kissed his lips again. “Whatever, you absurd man.” I kissed him again.

He settled further on my body, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, playing with his hair. After a moment, he said, “So I know I said I don’t mind—and I truly don’t at all—but you keep talking about it, and I know you really want to, and this weekend is a full moon, and we don’t have any plans that I know of?—”

My laugh cut him off. “Wow. Did you forget to breathe there for a minute?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m breathing.”

I snorted. “Okay. What are you trying to ask me?”

“It’s a full moon this weekend. What do you think about making our tying ropes this Friday night?”

A slow smile spread across my mouth. “Really?”

He nodded and searched my face before landing his gaze directly on my eyes. “Only if you want to.”

“Of course I want to, Cos! I’m the one who asked you, aren’t I?”

One side of his lips quirked up. “You wouldn’t mind doing it that soon?”

I snorted. “Soon? I asked you months ago.”

“I know, but it’s still not that much notice.”

With a roll of my eyes, I said, “I’d love to do it this weekend. Holy crap on a cracker, finally.” He laughed, but since I knew he was being a weirdo about this whole thing, I added, “Yes, Cosmo Ono-Nai, I want to make our tying ropes this weekend and start the tying process with you.” I pulled his face down to kiss him again. “Please.”

The breath he took was shaky, but when he released it, a huge smile overtook his face. He pushed his arms under me and cradled me to his chest as he rolled onto his side so he wasn’t squishing me.

“I can’t wait, baby.”

“Me, either. Now kiss me.”

With a smile, he obliged, and I knew it would be a long while before we fell asleep. I didn’t mind one bit at all.