Chapter Eighteen

My home was the only logical choice for us to live in, and we could make changes as we liked. Clay was living in his Animals' apartment, and Rome shared an apartment with a roommate. I had the only actual house among us. We could easily move somewhere else if we chose later on, or remodel, and I already had an ADU planned for the backyard that could be an office or he-shed

I'd fallen in love with the Craftsman bungalow the instant it came on the market a couple of years before, and I was so glad that my mates also seemed to like it. The deep stone porch with its columns stood out against a home of mostly wood, and my bear felt like it had a forest feel about it.

Looking around on the day my mates were going to officially move in, I was glad I'd spent every spare moment for the past couple of weeks cleaning and organizing. I wasn't too sloppy and didn't have piles of things around, but as a single bear with an active career who was rarely home to do anything more than eat and sleep, things started to pile up. Paperwork, clothing that I wanted to donate in a box by the door, items past their expiration date in the pantry…nothing terrible, and my mates had certainly been here and seen how I lived, but with them moving in, my bear suddenly became den happy and insisted I make everything perfect for them. Since I agreed, I buckled down and made it happen.

The master bedroom now had brand-new bedding on the extra-large bed I'd commissioned. We still slept all cuddled together, but I wanted there to be plenty of room for anyone who might want to stretch out. The en suite had the fluffiest towels I could find, nice soaps and body gels and shampoo… I wanted them to feel welcome, and I'd snooped around a little to make sure I knew the brands they liked. Fridge was stocked, too, with everything I'd seen them enjoy so far when we ate together.

Getting ready for them to arrive was so exciting and although they were pretty much sleeping here every night already, on the date when they "officially" moved in, I was so excited I could barely keep from dancing around the place. Only the fact that a dancing bear, at least when it referred to this shifter, was more like a bear in a china shop kept me from doing that. It would just make extra work for me.

The living room was dusted and the wood floor gleamed, the couch cushions plumped. On the table just inside the door, a vase of flowers from my native landscaping held more color than people expected outside a flower shop. When I pulled out the lawn and had a local expert design the garden for me, I was amazed at how beautiful it became after a couple of years. At first, it looked so sparse! But now, it really enhanced my curb appeal. Not that I planned to put the place on the market, but if one of my mates wanted to move at any point, I would certainly do it. But I really hoped they would be happy here.

"Anyone home?" The front door opened to reveal a certain sugar glider carrying a box brimming with clothes. "I mean…honey, I'm home."

I ran over to take the box from him, never gladder than now that the builder of this house had been even more built-in crazy than some others of his era. The master bedroom had enough closet space for all three of us without having to go through the annoyance of going to another room to get dressed in the morning. "Right this way, mate. I gave you the left side of the closet, and I want to talk to you about your secret plan for the ‘spare' room."

We unpacked his things into the closet and the dresser drawers I'd cleared for him then he stood back and shook his head. "When I moved to San Diego, I got rid of mountains of things, wanting the simple life, but since I got here, it seems I've started to collect clothing again. Is that shallow of me?"

I gathered him close and bent in for a sweet kiss on his warm, full lips. "Not shallow. With your money, you could be living a whole different life instead of the one we have planned. Now, what would you like to do next?"

"That's such a loaded question." He glided his hand down and cupped the hard bulge in my pants that happened whenever one of them was nearby, especially in my arms. "We have a few hours before we need to meet our other mate and help him bring some things over. And we still need to get most of his hoarder cave ready. Did everything come?"

"I think so." Although I couldn't be certain. I had been with Clay when he was placing the order for it online but had also been on the phone with a client for about half that time and wasn't sure exactly what all he'd decided on. "Let's go find out."

It was to be a big surprise for our mate. If I'd had the ADU already in the yard, that would have been ideal, I thought, but Clay disagreed, saying a dragon would want their hoard close by where they could guard it better.

"I didn't open the boxes," I told him. "Since this project is your baby, I thought you should get to see them first."

"Or we see them together," he said, pulling his multi-tool out of his pocket. "Cross your fingers they followed the specs because I was very specific in my specs."

I laughed at that, but I knew he was joking-not-joking. Our sugar glider omega was as sweet as what his animal was named after, but also a serious businessman in his own right. His choice to work at Animals was just that, and I knew if he wanted, he could be running a large corporation. His humility and kindness were remarkable, and not a day passed when I wasn't grateful for him in our lives.

We set to work unboxing and mounting all the shelves and boxes and other display pieces our thoughtful sugar glider had ordered for our dragon. He was going to be blown away. And since we'd finally convinced him to quit one of his jobs, he'd actually have time to enjoy his hoard.