Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

D aniel and Wade were getting along amazingly.

It was kind of aggravating, but it was mostly wonderful and a touch incredible.

They were moving things together deep in the house, laughing and being all weirdly alpha-y.

Morgan was wandering, and he shouldn't have been able to wander. This was an adobe house. He'd been in it a hundred thousand times, and he knew exactly how many rooms it had.

There was the great room with the kitchen. There was the big pantry. There was the mudroom and the laundry room. There were four bedrooms. Then there were four rooms for the hoards and—well, Max got three of the four rooms because the man was a damn hoarder, but that had nothing to do with anything.

So how could he be wandering?

But he was, and he'd gone past the rooms with the hoards and left them behind instead of hitting the back end of the house.

Now, he wasn't one to say things like, this was impossible, because nothing was specifically impossible.

But it did seem odd.

And also weird.

And just a touch scary.

Of course, if he was scared, why was he still going?

Because curiosity killed the cat, of course, he told himself. This was just—there were rooms. There were rooms with things that hadn't been here before. There were rooms and doors and books and toys and furniture. It was wild.

Really, he ought to go get Wade. Unfortunately, he had turned a couple of corners—which was again, very strange, given this was a shotgun-style home, and there were no corners. But somehow there were corners—and now he didn't know how to get back exactly.

Also, he was kind of scared to tell Wade, because he had the sinking suspicion that Wade would not approve of his relatively hugely pregnant mate wandering around in mysterious rooms that hadn't belonged to them only moments before.

So he was trying to find his way back home. Shit.

He stared at Ava, who was a few feet away on a windowsill. "I don't suppose you know how to get back?" he asked her.

She was a bird, right? They even migrated. Ava didn't answer him, though. No. Ava was staring at something on the floor.

"Don't tell me there's bugs, because I will positively squeal if there's bugs. There shouldn't be new mystery rooms that involve bugs. That should be a rule. I'm going to make it a rule right now, immediately. This is a rule." Panic babble was a real thing.

Ava swooped down suddenly and snatched a mouse from the corner of the room and just snapped it up. Bang.

He screamed, like an absolute banshee, because?—

He didn't even have a because, because he needed his mate right now.

"Morgan!" Wade's shout came to him loud and clear. "Where are you?"

"Back behind the hoard rooms!" That was really the best he could do.

"I'm coming!" The pounding of heavy feet came to him now, and he had a feeling that was two alphas, not just one.

"Morgan!" Wade's footsteps slowed. "What the hell? This is all new."

"Really? How droll." Daniel sounded out of breath.

"Where—Oh, baby, there you are. Where did all this come from?"

"I have no idea." He shrugged, looking around. "It wasn't here before."

"Why are you here, anyway?" Wade asked, and he tried to look humble and sweet.

"I was bored, so I was exploring."

Wade picked him up. "New rule. No exploring without one or both of us, me and Daniel, with you. What if you got lost?" What if this is what happened to Max?

His knees went weak. "Oh no… I… Wait, I didn't… I was just looking…" He didn't want to get lost, not here, not now, not ever.

Everything was just fixed now. Wade loved him, and he loved Wade, and Daniel wasn't mad and…

"Hey! Hey. Bring it down." Daniel threw his hands wide, and he wasn't touching either Wade or Morgan. Of course, when Ava landed on his arm, it was hilarious.

Daniel didn't even flinch. "Hi, Ava. How are you?"

Ava gave a huge screech that just rang out, echoing over and over.

"She probably has mouse breath," Morgan explained. "That's why I screamed. There was a mouse."

"What is all of this stuff?" Wade looked around wide-eyed. "Seriously. What is all this stuff? There's books and furniture. This… This isn't mine, is it? Was it Max's?"

"Where?" Morgan shook his head. "No, no, I don't think so. Come on, look at it. It doesn't look like Max. But you know what? Max didn't stack so much unless he was worried, so he must have seen something." Max wasn't ever not cluttered, but he wasn't…dangerous. "Hell, you know Max. He's like the hippie dragon. Something must have scared him."

"Okay. Is this the end of it?"

Morgan pointed at the door on the other side of the room. "I haven't gone through there yet." He looked at both the alphas. "How can a straight house have turns?"

"How does an apartment building disappear?" Daniel pointed out. "This is sort of the same thing, but backward."

Wade's lips tightened. "Maybe we should go find somewhere else to stay? Maybe we shouldn't stay here."

Morgan's entire soul said no, this is my home . "This is my family's home. I'm not going to desert it."

"Your brothers did," Wade pointed out. "Maybe there was some reason?"

Daniel frowned. "Maybe I should run down the mountain. See what I can see? The cell connection here is iffy at best. I'll go down and make some phone calls, grab us all a fancy coffee—one decaf. And then I'll be back. You two stay together. Everything should be all right."

"Well, that makes sense." Morgan shrugged. "It seems safe."

Wade nodded. "I think it does make sense. Morgan's right. Let's just do it that way. And then? We'll make a decision once you get back. For now, let's go out of this hallway. And just rest, we'll watch a movie, mate."

Morgan knew that Wade just wanted him back in the main house, but right now, he was kind of okay with that, so he nodded. "Perfect."

"Good deal."

They headed back out with Ava leading the way. It seemed like a long walk back to the hoards, to the rooms that he knew and he understood. It was odd because those rooms weren't scary. They weren't dirty. They weren't nasty. Well, except for the mouse. Even mice deserved a place to live, he guessed. But the rooms weren't theirs. They'd never been attached to this house before.

Daniel grabbed his coat and his wallet and his phone. "I'll be right back. Three, four hours tops." He grabbed his keys, opened the front door, stepped out, and walked right back through the kitchen door.

Morgan just sat down right there on the floor, hard.

Wade and Daniel stared at one another.

"Did you just see that? Did you just…?"

"Uh-huh. You going to do it again?"

Daniel nodded. "Fuck yeah."

He walked out the kitchen door and came in through the front door in the same motion.

"Well, this seems bad," Morgan said, his lips numb.

"It seems something," Wade agreed. He went to the kitchen door, and Morgan wanted to yell at him not to go out there, because it could be dangerous, but Wade just peered out.

He walked to the front door then, and did the same.

He came back to lift Morgan up off the floor, lips pursed. "Good thing we unloaded the truck, then."

Daniel nodded. "We are supplied for the time being."

"Uh-huh. Though I'll miss that fancy coffee."

"How can you two be so calm?" Morgan knew he was ramping up, but he couldn't help it. "We're trapped in here and the house is growing. That's not natural!"

"Define natural," Daniel said with a shrug. "I mean, it's unquestioningly not normal. I don't think we can argue that point, but it seems to be happening organically for sure."

Morgan stared at him. "It doesn't bother you that you're stuck in here?"

"Well, it won't be forever."

"What if it is? What if we run out of milk or food? What if we starve? What if the baby starves? What if we need something that we don't have when the baby comes? What if we can't get water? What if the electricity stops working?"

"We have electricity here now," Wade pointed out.

"What if it stops working?"

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know."

So Morgan looked at Wade, who shook his head. "I don't know. I mean we can try blowing fire out the door and see what happens."

"Or cold," Daniel suggested, "which is even less dangerous than lightning. We need to think about this."

"I'm not sure what's going on with you two."

"Of course, I'm worried. We're trapped in here and we're having a baby, and I don't know what's happening, and it's my job to protect you, so of course I'm angry and worried," Wade roared at him.

Morgan stood up and ran to the bedroom that was theirs, slamming the door behind him.

He didn't understand. When he looked outside, it just looked like it was supposed to. It looked fine.

He threw the window open intending to climb out and see what happened. He'd made it about halfway when Wade grabbed his leg and yanked him back in.

"Have you lost your mind?" Wade rumbled.

"I wanted to see what was out there."

"What if you went out there and you couldn't come back?"

"Well, then you'd follow me!" he screamed.

"Into what?"

"I don't know!" He turned to whack at Wade's chest. "I don't know what's going on!"

Wade grabbed his hands, pulling him close. "I don't either, love, but we'll figure it out. And we have to calm down. Running off in panic isn't going to help. And you have the baby to think about. This much stress is bad."

He looked up at Wade, fear just rolling off him in waves. "I'm scared."

"So am I." Wade reeled him in for a deep hug. Like a soul-deep one. "We'll figure this out."

Wade kept saying that, so Morgan supposed he needed to believe it to stay sane, but he just wanted to scream and cry and hit things…

So he took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's throw Daniel out a window and see what happens."

Wade laughed. "We kinda know that already. He'll just come back in. We're stuck with the big asshole."

Morgan let Wade hold him tight. "Oh goodie. He'll make a great nanny."