The Things We Water

Sienna: How’s my baby doing?

Lying across the bed after dinner, I eyed Duncan who was busy gnawing away on a bone while hooked on an action movie with immortal soldiers who were being hunted down.

He was too much.

The fact he loved television, and especially action movies, never failed to tickle the crap out of me. But just about everything he did had that ability. He could sit there snoring like an exhausted dad after a theme park visit, and I thought it was precious. His farts, ignoring the smell, were adorable. At least half the photos on my phone were of him in various stages of sleep. With his paws in the air, on his side, with one lone paw extended, with his butt on me and the rest of him on another surface.

It was crazy what love could do to a person. They could pick up and change their entire lives for it. And even if things weren’t absolutely perfect, and maybe they’d been better—or at least more familiar before—sacrifices for love had never been less painful.

Maybe they couldn’t even be counted as sacrifices. I had that in mind as I texted Si back.

Me: The baby is doing great. He has more friends than I’ve had my entire life, and he’s going on his first run tonight with the pack finally

Henri had given me the news that morning over breakfast, and maybe Duncan didn’t really seem to care—because he had no idea what he’d been missing out on—but that was all right. I was excited enough for him. I’d talked to Matti during his lunch break, and he’d mentioned how much fun they were and how good they would be for the donut. Running around playing tag and ball was fine and all, but a pack run was different.

I’d also given him a tremendous amount of crap for not telling me about his Great Wolf relative, to which he’d sputtered and explained that it was something his dad had told him never to mention to anyone. Long lived beings have long memories, and the Great Wolf had done some things that certain beings would never forget. Enemies probably remained enemies forever. Apparently, Sienna knew about his family tree, but I didn’t get the story about how she’d found out. I let it go, figuring that if there was something my dad had asked me to keep a secret, I would do it in a heartbeat. And I knew dang well that Matti had loved his parents as much as I loved mine. Of course he’d do the same.

And when I’d asked Matti if anybody would ever call him by that term, he’d laughed his butt off. His “no” had been half a hoot. I didn’t understand why that had been so funny, but all right.

Who was I to give him too much crap about family secrets?

But he had seemed way too interested to find out Henri had shared that information with me.

Another text came through.

Sienna: But how are YOU?

I missed her, I was still a little lonely, and I was struggling with how fast my boy was sprouting up. But I didn’t tell her that over text. Maybe the next time we talked and I was far away from the ranch.

Me: I’m fine. Just getting used to this new normal. [thumbs-up emoji]

I cringed inside right after sending the text. What were my chances she was going to buy my BS with a thumbs-up emoji? It was like I’d forgotten she’d known me most of my life.

Her reply came through even faster than I’d expected.

Sienna: [flat eyes and flat mouth emoji]

Me: I’M FINE. I promise

It wasn’t a lie. I was healthy, work was fine, Duncan was good. What more could I ask for?

A lick at my ankle had me glancing down my leg at the puppy who was resting his chin on top of my foot, his toy wedged between his paws as he peered at me.

“I’m all right,” I promised. “Just texting Sienna. I miss her and your uncle Matti. That’s all.” Those bright red inquisitive eyes didn’t blink, and I booped the tip of his nose. “I love you, Dunky,” I said. “I’m good.”

“Yes,” he told me. “Love.”

I smiled, trying to push down the little bit of frustration that had caught his attention. He gave me another lick before his head suddenly turned to the left where the wall was. His tail rose straight up in the air a second before there was a knock.

“It’s time,” Henri’s voice carried through the door.

Duncan’s fluffy black tail swayed, making me smile. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Duncan really liked Henri, but it had been weeks since the last time he’d growled at him. Whether my donut had been won over by how often he made the puppies their breakfast, or that one game of tag, I didn’t know, but the Great Wolf had slowly but steadily been winning my boy over.

When we got to see him, at least, which still hadn’t been a whole lot.

It had been a week since Henri and I had visited Spencer, and over that time, we’d had breakfast with him twice and dinner once. Poor Henri had needed to leave early all three times after getting phone calls that had him squeezing his utensils so tight his knuckles had gone white, but it still counted. It was something.

“Okay, coming,” I called out, already rolling off the bed. “Let me put my shoes on, and then I’ll go drop you off,” I told Duncan, moving to the row of shoes lined up next to the door. I put on my hiking boots, fanny pack, and a thin jacket as he jumped down. With a touch to the top of his head, I opened the door to an empty hallway. “Matti said you’re going to have a lot of fun tonight. You get to run around with a few other members of the pack. Howl at the moon; that’ll be great. And don’t worry that yours isn’t very loud because you’re small, so it’s in proportion to your size, buddy. Your howl is my favorite howl I’ve ever heard.”

His tail brushed my calf as we took the stairs side by side.

He’d gained another two pounds and at least an inch in height over the course of the week.

I was okay with it. Just ecstatic.

“Henri will take care of you, and Randall said he would keep an eye on you too when you’re out there. Agnes is probably already waiting, too. I’ll stay outside the whole time until you’re back.”

He nudged my leg when we got to the bottom of the stairs, his “yes”strong.

The hallway was empty as we headed out the front door. In the same clearing where we sat every night to look up at the stars, which were dim at that moment with the full moon shining so brightly, were a handful of adults with not one but two young wolves.

Where was everyone else?

Duncan glanced up at me, and I gave him a nod before he took off, running straight for the white wolf and the slightly bigger and darker one that I had a feeling was Pascal from the color of his coat. I hadn’t seen him in his pup form since the incident with the Jenny Greenteeth. He hip-checked my boy when he got there, and it made me smile as I went toward them, recognizing Henri, the tallest adult of the group. Randall was by him, Ani to the side, Pascal’s dad, and another man who looked a little familiar. He was younger than Henri, not as tall, a dirty blond and⁠—

Glaring in my direction?

All right, maybe I wasn’t going to be making a new friend tonight.

Sticking my hands in my pockets, I was halfway to the group when Ani glanced over. I waved. “Hi, Ani.”

The woman who I’d spent some time with in passing when I’d run into her at the UTV warehouse beamed. “How’s it going, Nina?” She greeted me with genuine kindness. I’d learned she was forty-two, had two children, and was married to a Mexican wolf.

“Pretty good, how are you?” I asked as I came to a stop in a gap between her and Randall. “Hi, Randall. Hi, Pascal’s dad.” We had never done more than politely greet each other with nods and smiles at the nursery. Pascal had whispered to me that his mommy got jealous, so I didn’t take his distance personally. Now when his mom came to get him? That was a different story, and I could see where Pascal got his personality from.

Even though I didn’t want to, I aimed my attention at the stranger. I didn’t hold out my hand though. “Hi. I’m Nina.”

His hand stayed right where it was, just as unfriendly as I’d expected. “Hi,” the stranger muttered, his posture stiff, his glare definitely intense, maybe even a little confrontational.

With a sinking feeling in my chest, I turned to Henri. Him, I couldn’t help but smile at. “Thank you for taking Duncan out.”

There was something about Henri’s expression right then. This wasn’t the joking man who had rubbed his face all over me for protection days ago. This was bossy wolf Henri. Great Wolf Henri with his coolness and neutrality. That Henri dipped his head like we were strangers. “I’ll talk to him, walk him through what we’re going to do, and then we’ll get going. We’ll be gone about an hour.”

I nodded.

Henri approached the kids, crouching a few feet away from my puppy, and I could see his lips moving as he talked to them.

“It’s easier to keep track of the pups in a smaller group, so it’s only going to be us. The rest of the pack is meeting later,” Randall explained beside me. “We’ll keep an eye on him. We do this every time one of the pups hits a certain age.”

“Thanks,” I told him, trying to ignore the man who was burning a hole into the side of my face. He wasn’t trying to hide it either. But no one else seemed worried about his mood, so chances were, he had very good control of his emotions and maybe I was overthinking his body language since I was hyperaware of it. Henri looked serious almost constantly. Maybe resting bitch face was this man’s normal.

A moment later, Henri called out, “It’s time.”

Taking a few steps back, a wave of magic tickled my skin as the group went from five adult humans to five big wolves standing in their place.

Duncan pressed up against my leg, a small, uncertain “love” grabbing my attention.

Was he worried? “You’re fine, buddy.” I bent over as he lifted his head and met my eyes. “You know Henri and Randall. Agnes and Pascal are your friends.”

He pressed closer, the strip of hair between his tail and the base of his neck rising up.

Moving somewhere new hadn’t made him nervous, but this was? My donut.

“This is your pack, Dunky,” I promised him and the universe. “Henri won’t let anything happen to you. He’s been really nice to you since we got here, hasn’t he?”

Duncan looked at me, and it touched some huge part of me when I felt his “yes.”

A soft howl had me focusing on the biggest of all the werewolves standing with the kids. The rest of them looked like huskies in comparison to the black wolf. It made so much sense right then that the gnomes would call him Great Wolf. Under the moonlight, surrounded by the towering trees with their magical bark, circled by other wolves of every size, Wolf Henri, with his thick, dark coat and regal head and build, was something out of a fantasy novel… or a romance novel.

I gave him a thumbs-up.

Another howl rose out of Henri’s chest at that, starting off low and quiet and gaining depth and volume with every second. From the adult group, two other voices joined him, weaving through the air together as a high one erupted from the children. It was Agnes. Another adult entered the chorus before a small one did the same.

Their voices made me think of my parents. Made me miss them. Miss my childhood and all the people who had been my whole world. I hoped they called me soon. The last time we’d spoken, they’d said one of my mom’s sisters was going to pick them up for a mini family reunion, but they hadn’t said which sister, and she had six of them. I’d give them another week to check in and then I’d start trying to track them down.

A small, crackly howl came from my feet before it cut off, and Duncan gave it another shot. He tipped his head, his neck an elegant line, his ears the highlight of his whole body. His lips pursed together as he tried to sing too.

My boy. My donut.

His voice was thinner than the others, but he was no wolf, and he was a baby, and love filled my entire body when his little lungs ran out of breath so soon and he had to start again, the cutest howl to ever be heard in the world. You couldn’t have paid me a billion dollars to think otherwise. It was magic and life, and I couldn’t imagine what it would sound like when he was older.

A small paw landed on top of my foot, and Duncan gave me this look as he arched his neck some more….

“Love,” he told me, those red eyes intent, trying to tell me something else…. Lifting his paw, he stomped on my foot once more.

I laughed. “Oh, you want me to howl, too?”

His “yes”so joyful, I laughed again when he set more weight down on me.

“Yes, yes, yes.”

“Okay, okay,” I told him as the adult wolves’ song started to rise once more.

“Yes, yes,”Duncan’s telepathic touch urged. Like I could tell him no.

I might have not been a four-legged creature in any fairy or folktale, but I’d been a member of a pack before.

I lifted my face and howled with them, my donut’s weight settling even more against me, his voice gaining volume by the note.

I howled, and when I ran out of breath, caught it, and howled even louder, not letting myself feel like a poser because I knew who I was doing this for.

For this sweet child who was mine. Mine to keep. Mine to protect. Mine to love.

And as I looked at the growing boy who I’d centered my whole world around, I projected the same thought at him, at the universe in general, that he sent me. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, I sent him. ALL OF MY LOVE.

One day, I hoped he’d feel it the way I did when he shared it with me.

I lifted my head and howled some more, like I had done dozens of times over the years with my loved ones, and almost instantly caught the amber-colored gaze of a wolf the size of a horse. The deep foundation of Henri’s song suddenly seemed to get lost for maybe a second before he found it and awoo-ed an awoo that was both werewolf magic and so much more. I wasn’t the only one who felt like it was a call to the rest of the world to howl even louder.

And the moon in her infinite beauty and greatness seemed to shine even brighter as we sang and sang to her together.

I was lying on my back in the clearing when I heard something. Not the frogs and owls that usually filled the night or the rustling sounds that made me paranoid something was going to try and crawl into my ears. These were small, creaky noises.

Sitting up slowly, I instantly spotted the single small green fire bobbing along, heading in my direction from a big tree maybe twenty feet away. On either side of the torch were two gnomes, their wrinkled faces intent and serious. Did they look like they meant business or was I imagining it?

“Greetings,” the one without the torch called out.

“Greetings,” the one with it added.

My hands were already fumbling at my fanny pack as I smiled at them. “Greetings.”

They moved so fast for how small and old they seemed, but appearances were deceiving. Honestly, I thought they lookeda little mean. A little grouchy. Adorable in their own way.

“How are you?” I asked when they stopped a few feet away from where I was sitting.

There was a pause that told me they hadn’t expected my question, but the one without the torch replied, “Pleasant.”

I smiled at them, not sure what to do next. After a second, I pulled a couple pieces of dehydrated sweet potato from my fanny pack and held them out. I’d made them the day before our latest jerky batch. The gnome without the torch reached out and took the rounds, one he put in his pocket and the other he nibbled on before passing it to his friend who finished it off.

When a minute went by and nothing else happened, I cleared my throat. Now this was a little awkward. I didn’t want to put my foot in my mouth, but sitting here being stared at made me squirmy. “The… wolf you spoke to last time isn’t here right now. He’ll be back soon.”

The gnome with the torch made a short grunt. “It is not the Great Wolf we’ve come for. We are here for you, child.”

I pointed at myself.

They nodded simultaneously.

That wasn’t intimidating. This wasn’t nerve-racking at all. They wanted to talk to me? “What do you want to talk about?”

“Talking is unnecessary, we only seek to be in your presence,” the one with the torch answered with a hard stare.

Huh?

“Your obsidian hides nothing from us. We are attuned to elements of the earth,” the other gnome explained, Torch Gnome nodding.

Ohhhh. I thought I understood, at least that part. “So you… want to hang out?” I asked them, hoping not to sound too confused and insult them.

“Yes,” Torch Gnome answered. “We are the oldest in our clan. It is our duty to continue our line.”

I blinked. Just as I was about to ask if they were implying what I thought they were, the talkative gnomes kept going.

“It was a surprise to hear from our brethren in the north that your father is doing well,” Torch Gnome said almost conversationally. “We had believed he had passed on some time ago.”

“It isn’t often they send news,” the other added with a nod.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so caught off guard in my life.

And I couldn’t control how high my voice came out. “My… father?”

Both gnomes nodded in sync with each other. “The son of the night, yes.”

My blood pressure might have dropped. I might have even lost my breath for a moment. “I… I’ve never met my biological father. My dad, who raised me, has never met a gnome, as far as I know, and he’s never hid from anything or anyone, so I don’t think you’re referring to him, are you?”

They exchanged a glance.

“In this case, we speak of your true father, not the one of your heart,” one of them explained after a moment.noveldrama

My stomach churned at their words, at the small clues they’d dropped in front of me in a convenient little pile that felt very, very huge all of a sudden.

“You might have me mixed up with someone else.” For a moment, I hesitated and looked down at my bracelet. Tugging it off, I set it on the ground, watching them both lean forward just a little, filling their lungs once before releasing their breath, even though they’d already implied it didn’t hide anything from them.

They knew something. I’d bet my life on it. I swallowed hard.

“Do not be frightened. There is no confusion. You are his young,” the one with the torch announced.

They sounded so sure of themselves… but it didn’t change the fact whoever my parents were had left me. Both of them. Not just one or the other. And neither of them had ever bothered to check on me. Not in a way that mattered, if they ever truly had.

When I’d been younger, I’d clung to the idea that something tragic had happened to the people I liked to think of as my DNA donors. Only once had I ever brought that up to my parents, and I could still remember the way pity shaped their faces. It hadn’t taken me long to stop believing that.

But I was older now, and I thought I’d come to terms with all the possibilities that could have led me to end up with adoptive werewolf parents. I’d been lying to myself though, I realized, because the idea that my DNA dad was somewhere out in the world, living his life, and that these gnomes could get an update on him?

I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

I didn’t like the thoughts it put into my head.

And I had to take a ragged breath in through my nose and shove the magic stirring in my sternum into the pocket where I usually kept it.

“We meant no harm,” one of them murmured. “We appreciate your offering, child.”

The urge to ask for more information, for a name was on the tip of my tongue, but no.

No.

What did it matter? What did it change? Nothing. That’s what.

The gnomes had already started to retreat before I thought of something I wanted to know. “Wait!” I called out and watched as they stopped. “Why can I understand you but my friend the wolf, the Great Wolf, said he couldn’t?”

Smiles crept over their lips.

And I had to try not to flinch because in their mouths were sharp, needlelike teeth. I’d always thought they were herbivores….

“You may be your father’s daughter, but you are also your mother’s daughter. Our brethren to the south lived among her people for a time,” they answered.

I wanted them to elaborate so bad, but that was all I was going to get when the gnomes deemed our conversation over and marched in the direction of the tree they had come from. The light from their torch gradually disappeared into the darkness in a way that made no sense because the trunk didn’t look deep enough.

I stared at that tree. I stared at it for a long time. Until twigs snapped and leaves crackled in the distance. Until red eyes and a blue flame came running straight at me from a distance.

And that—he—was the only thing in the world that could have made me smile when my nose felt funny and my fingers tingled over the conversation I’d just had.

Duncan charged over, leading the way with Agnes at his heels, Pascal behind her, his tongue hanging out. The adult wolves were further back, loping gracefully through the trees without the urgency that my donut had.

I held out my arms, and Duncan jumped into them, knocking the wind out of me when he landed.

“Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.”

He was real. He mattered. He⁠—

“Dunky, why is your face wet?” I cried out as he licked my cheek, hoping to the freaking universe that he’d found a creek and that it wasn’t bodily fluids that had his snout soaked. “Oh,” I whimpered, not moving an inch or trying to stop him from licking me but fully aware I was rolling the dice letting him rub all over me like this.

He kept licking, and it was a warm nose nudging at my right hand and the feel of fur at my other that distracted me from what could be water, blood, or worse. Pascal was sniffing my fingers, and Agnes… I didn’t know what Agnes was doing, but I thought I had felt something brush my leg.

“Oh, fine,” I laughed, giving up. Dewormers and antibiotics existed for a reason. There was soap and water, and clothes could be replaced.

“Love, Love, Love, Love, Love.”

Duncan licked and licked my chin and temple, his tail a flutter of emotion and happiness as he jumped and pounced. Little paws pressed down on sensitive places of my body, but it didn’t matter. If joy caused some bruises, it was a small price I was more than willing to pay. And then Pascal must have joined in because someone was pressing a bigger body against my back and sides, and I opened my arms and hugged the puppy bodies that were… yeah, they were both wet and I still really hoped they’d found a creek in the last hour.

“YES, LOVE, YES, LOVE, YES, YES, YES, LOVE, LOVE,” Duncan pretty much shouted, he was that pumped.

“Did you have the time of your life?” I asked, still laughing, soaking up his excitement.

I scruffed up their sides. I hugged them. One body then another. Then I did it again, affection and happiness making me smile. No wonder these puppies were raised by everyone. How could you not love their love?

And I kept on smiling as a reddish-brown wolf trotted over, his snout nudging one pup, then another, Agnes—who at that point was hanging out off to the side—getting one too. Familiar eyes met mine, and I squinted, “Randall?” I asked.

One of its ears twitched, and I grinned.

There was a low woof as a dark wolf lumbered over on ridiculously long legs, and I watched Randall edge away. Wolf Henri’s amber gaze was bright and glowing as he came up to us, a skyscraper in a village. His head dipped, and that long snout nudged at my arm.

“You want a scratch?” I asked slowly, surprised.

A face that would have made Little Red Riding Hood wet her pants stretched close until his warm nose grazed my cheek in the gentlest brush.

I didn’t move. “Yes?” I asked, making sure.

That soft, warm nose edged back toward me, going right for my neck. He was snuffling. Soft puffs of breath had me almost shivering as he smelled me.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I warned him.

Wolf Henri’s nose grazed my neck a little more, and it wasn’t fear that made me tense up exactly, but it was one thing to let human Henri smell one of the vulnerable spots on my body, and it was a different thing to let His Royal Wolfiness do it. For one, because I’d seen his teeth. I had survived Duncan’s teething stage, but just barely. I could only imagine what adult wolf teeth could do. Then there was the other reason—it tickled.

And maybe it did a little more than tickle.

Fortunately, Wolf Henri moved his face, touching his nose to my ear very gently at the same time one of those massive paws nudged my leg.

I reached up, still surprised at him instigating this, and stroked my hand over his shoulder, sneaking my fingers in as deep as I could, not able to reach his undercoat, and followed that up by scratching a spot on his ear that none of the wolves I’d met before had ever complained about having touched. A low rumble worked through his throat, so, so close to my face.

He smelled good even like this.

I scratched him and scratched him, until Duncan jumped onto my legs and almost licked my eyeball, and I cracked up too hard to do anything else. “Okay, okay,” I laughed, opening my eyes to find that all the adults were back in their human bodies. Duncan dropped onto my feet, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth. He was so happy.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him happier.

“I’m so glad you had fun,” I told him, feeling so right, like all my worries and insecurities over this huge step had been worth it for this moment. For this reaction from him.

“We’re going inside for a snack,” Henri called out. “You coming?” he asked over his shoulder, with a human Randall next to him.

“Sure,” I answered.

Did they not sense the gnomes? Maybe I’d wait and bring it up to Henri in private later.

I gave Duncan a kiss on the top of his forehead before freezing. I touched my mouth and nothing colorful came off. It wasn’t blood, just sweat… I thought. I sniffed my fingers; they didn’t smell like pee….

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Agnes take off, catching up to Henri and Randall, then continuing on ahead to the clubhouse. We followed the group inside, but instead of going to the kitchen, everyone headed to the living room. Three charcuterie boards of meats were already on the table waiting—pepperoni, salami, carved chicken, and more pieces of meat that I couldn’t totally distinguish. Who had brought it, I had no idea, but no one acted like it was out of the ordinary.

For once in my life, I wasn’t hungry—I could thank the gnomes for that—so I hung back as the pups rushed over, devouring the food that Ani handed out while they sat; unlike the adults, they hadn’t changed back to human form. Less than ten minutes later, three full puppies were piled together on the hardwood floor, passed out and full.

I snorted at the same time Ani did. “So freaking cute.”

Pascal, the biggest of the three, was in the middle. I could already see Duncan’s mouth beginning to open, his signature move before his chainsaw snoring took over. Agnes had her back lined up to Pascal’s, and my donut was tucked up to the other boy’s chest. I took my phone out and took about ten pictures.

Gratitude I could barely handle made me so happy… so thankful that we’d found this place. That Duncan had not one but about a dozen other puppies who were so good to him, despite their age differences. I loved each and every one of them.

“You want something to drink?” Randall asked just as two ringtones went off.

Both Henri and Pascal’s dad pulled their phones out. The other man didn’t hesitate to answer his, but Henri stared at his screen for a moment before walking out of the room, turning left to go toward the front of the house with a barked, “Blackrock.” I’d learned already that was how he answered when someone from work was calling. If it was someone from the ranch, he answered with his first name.

By the time both men had left the room, Randall was holding up two different bottles. “We’ve got beer.”

I eyed the pile of puppies on the floor and pointed at his left hand. He popped the lid and held it out with his friendly, but not too friendly, smile. He’d never asked again about smelling me, and I hadn’t brought it up either. Randall was very, very nice, but it hadn’t escaped me how fine of a line he walked with me. Unlike Ani and the puppies who were very handsy and touched me all the time, he kept his hands to himself, and his body at a solid three feet away almost constantly.

I’d marked him off my imaginary list of potential mates already because of it.

I eyed the silent blond man sprawled on one of the couches, legs extended out in front of him, as I took the bottle from Randall. I’d purposely been ignoring him. He had his own bottle already in hand, and like before, he wasn’t being discreet about the way his gaze followed me across the room.

Why did he look familiar?

Another cell phone started ringing, and that time Randall pulled his out. “Randall… Yes… yes… we’ll be there soon… yes, I’ll bring help.” He chuckled, then ended the call. “Constance fell and needs help. Ani, will you come with me? She needs to get dressed and doesn’t want me to see her naked.”

“Yup.” Ani slid a look toward the other man, their eye contact lingering, communicating something I wasn’t sure of. She turned to me with a smile that almost seemed brittle. “We’ll be back in a little bit, Nina.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be here.”

She winked. Then she glanced at the man one more time and made a face that didn’t put me at ease.

He glared at her right back, taking a long pull of his beer before Ani and Randall left, turning right to go out the back, the door slamming shut behind them.

I managed to take one single sip of the nearly frozen bottle before an unfamiliar voice asked, “What the fuck are you?”

I almost wanted to snicker at the predictability. People, people, people.

Instead of answering him or wasting my time giving him any attention, I took another sip that I didn’t enjoy half as much as I should have.

Unfortunately for me, he didn’t take the hint.

“Did you hear what I asked?” the blond man tried one more time.

I thought about ignoring him some more, but my gut said that wasn’t going to have the effect I wanted it to. So, without looking at him, I replied, “I heard you.”

“So?” he asked in one of the most annoyingly entitled tones I’d ever heard in my life. One of those voices that had the ability to instantly get under my skin by how demanding it was. There was bossy and then there was passive-aggressive.

I wanted people to like me. I wanted to fit in. But at what cost?

Since we’d gotten here, no one had asked me what I was—other than the kids—and no one had visibly shunned me. It had been nice.

But this was the exact reaction I’d been dreading when we got here.

And he wasn’t going to drop it.

“You listening? I have a right to know,” the werewolf claimed.

He had a point, to an extent, but I still wasn’t ready to answer his question, regardless of how much he believed he wanted to know the truth.

He didn’t.

He just didn’t know that yet.

And that realization was what I was trying to avoid.

Which meant I had to put my polite face on while I said, “I’m not anything you need to worry about,” even though he was being so rude. Plus, my bracelet was on, it wasn’t like he could smell me in the first place.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to hold on to my patience. Tried to hold on to my understanding. “It doesn’t, but what you’re asking is personal and rude,” I told him, trying my hardest to be polite. I even looked at my instant serotonin boost—Duncan—lying there, sleeping, to remind myself why we had to make this place work.

It helped, but not enough.

Especially not when the man scoffed.

I took another sip of my beer and tried again, for Duncan. “Look, your elders said I didn’t have to share that information with anyone, and I hope you can respect my wishes.” See how nice I could be?

Not nice enough though.

“If you have nothing to hide, then why can’t you tell anybody?”

I focused on the bottle in my hand, trying not to let frustration get the best of me. I didn’t like being ambushed. Confrontation wasn’t my thing either, at least not when I was having a perfectly good day. It was one thing for Spencer to call me something that hurt my feelings, and it was another to deal with someone annoying… very annoying.

“Folks hide things when they have a reason to,” the blond kept on.

I should’ve seen that coming.

He wasn’t wrong. At the same time, I thought about the elder with the bracelet that I knew I hadn’t imagined. Did he give Franklin shit about it? I doubted it. But just thinking about the elder rekindled my curiosity about his magical nature. “I understand why you think you should know,” I tried to reason. “I’m not like you. I’m not going to pretend like I am, but I hope you understand that you can trust me. I’m here for the same reason everyone else is. I just want to raise my boy in a nice, quiet community where he can be safe.”

The man’s expression went dark, and I did not like that. “I don’t know you. I don’t need to trust you,” he just about spit.

My magic fluttered in my chest. “No offense, but I don’t know you either, and I have no reason to trust you. And what you’re doing is the same as me asking how big your balls are, the only difference is that I don’t care because I don’t want to see them, the same way my ancestry doesn’t affect you either,” I replied, clenching my teeth almost the whole time.

The man’s ears started turning pink. “You’re going to have to marry one of us. Whoever it is, is gonna have to know.”

“He will, sure, but not everyone else needs to, and that includes you.”

His eyes went squinty, his mouth almost pouty, and it sure seemed like he gritted his teeth.

If he thought I was going to cower, he was out of freaking luck. Was this what Phoebe had meant about being nervous around werewolves? If some of them acted like this, it was no wonder. This guy wasn’t just being pushy, he was being a dick.

And I really didn’t like bullies.

The man leaned over, elbows going to his knees, his whole face, his energy, so aggressive. “You don’t get to tell me what I should know and what I shouldn’t.”

I wasn’t going to win this argument. I knew it. I couldn’t. Not when this MFer was this hardheaded.

Butttt I needed to play nice. I didn’t want an enemy, no matter how rude he was. This is for Duncan. Who had just had the time of his life. Who was thriving here. Who needed this place.

When people said being a parent was hard, they never brought up the little things like having to be the better person. Marrying a stranger was nothing compared to having to suck crap up.

Forcing my best impression of Henri’s neutral face, I focused all my attention on the blond. I knew I’d seen him somewhere. He was handsome in his way. He was fit, had more facial hair than Henri, but there was a mean glint in his eye that was very, very obvious.

There was no hiding it: he was definitely an asshole.

“What’s your name?” I had to ask.

“Dominic.”

I wasn’t sure I managed not to flinch. That’s why he looked familiar. It was the same man from the diner. The thorn in Henri’s ass… paw. No wonder. I didn’t even need to know his name to not like him on principle.

Phoebe’s reaction to him explained a lot.

If he could get under Henri’s skin, no wonder he could do it to other people.

“So?” the guy who had punched Henri weeks and weeks ago asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “They say you smell sweet. You a gingerbread woman or something?”

I deserved a medal for not rolling my eyes. “No, I’m not a gingerbread woman.” Was he going to ask me if Pinocchio was real next?

I swear I could feel the condescension radiating off him.

“You a bogeyman?” Dominic goaded after a minute, with a nasty little sneer. “’Cause that’s what everyone thinks.”

He was mocking me, saying “bogeyman” like he was convinced there was no way that was possible. I wasn’t sure I’d ever wanted to smile smugly so bad ever before in my life. But I didn’t. Instead, all I said was, “I’m too old to care what anyone thinks.”

His sneer became even worse. “Henri had us running around like dumbasses looking for that river monster, and you conveniently show up the same day. Nobody knows anything about you, and they’re letting you move in? How does that make any damn sense? You’re going to be helping raise our kids. How do we know it isn’t them that need protection from you?”

I wasn’t about to let anyone make me do something I didn’t want to, especially not this asshole.

Not like this.

As much as I might want him to tolerate me and might want everyone else here to do the same, I wasn’t going to bend over backward to get that to happen. I decided that right then.

I would do anything for Duncan, but I wasn’t going to let some dickhead be rude to me for no reason.

I looked him dead in the eye and blurted out one of the last things I probably should have said, “I’d never do anything to the kids. But people who hurt them? Who hurt me? I can’t say the same for them.”

If his face had been pink before, it was bordering on coral by the time I finished talking. “You threatening me?”

“I’m not threatening you. I’m telling you.” There was a big, big difference.

And I should’ve shut up or walked out of the room when he’d started, I knew that then, but it was too late, so now I had to ride this out.

Across the room, he rose out of his seat. Six four to my five six, I guessed. He had to have at least fifty pounds on me.

“That sounded like a threat to me,” he argued as he stopped a couple feet away from where I was standing.

Maybe it was, but he needed to get out of my face. “I don’t need to threaten anyone.”

He took another step, and there was no way I was going to be breaking eye contact now.

I knew I was daring him. He was an agitated werewolf with an attitude problem. For most people, this whole situation would be a terrible idea.

But if he was this pushy and rude with me, how would he be with other people? Did he try and bulldoze them too? Something told me this wasn’t anything new. He was too good at it.

Dominic took another step closer. “Do you know who the fuck you’re talking to?”

I had my head tipped back to keep making eye contact. Anger pulsed deep in my stomach, and my magic flared again in me, reminding me of the part of it that was always there. You don’t need to take this shit, Matti would have told me.

There was nothing I needed to prove. Not to anyone. Especially not to him.

But despite knowing all that, I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t turn off how much I disliked a bully.

And I dropped my voice to say, “The problem here is that you don’t know who you’re talking to, precious.”

Something funny crossed his face as he stared down at me. I’d surprised him. Shocked him, maybe.

“What’s going on?” Henri’s voice cut through the room like a battle-ax.

I almost stepped back, but I refused to risk having Dominic think I was doing it because of him. In front of me, his forehead furrowed. He was still angry, but there was something else there too in his eyes. Something that hadn’t been there before.

“Dom was trying to intimidate Nina,” Pascal’s dad answered from the back of the room.

When had he come back? How long had he been here? I hadn’t noticed or heard him.

“And you’re just standing there?” Henri shot back as he stormed into the room.

“She didn’t need my help,” the dad countered as a familiar body got right in front of me, so close I had to shuffle backward to give him room.

But he wasn’t listening anymore. At least not to Pascal’s dad.

His attention was on Dominic.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Henri demanded, his voice flat and cool, and I leaned over, my cheek going to the side of his arm.

He was standing almost nose to nose with Dominic.

Henri was in his space, all in his face, a few inches taller, his build bulkier, Henri’s expression even fiercer than the one he’d had when he’d dealt with Spencer the day he’d been a jerk.

He was pissed.

I might even use the word infuriated to describe him at that moment.

But as much as I would’ve been willing to pay for a front row seat to Henri going big and bad on someone—because I knew, I knew he had it in him, that quiet intensity wasn’t fooling me—this wasn’t what I wanted. I’d been trying to stand up for myself and all the other small potatoes that this asshole intimidated. Fluff had enough reasons to dislike and argue with this jerk. I didn’t need to add onto it more than I wanted to avoid being a pushover.

More than anything, I didn’t need to be one more person who made Henri’s life harder. I refused to be that kind of friend unless I had to, and in this case? It wasn’t worth it. Dominic wasn’t worth it. Maybe I’d given Dominic something to think about, and maybe I hadn’t, but it didn’t matter anymore. I set my hand on the carved biceps beside my face, and whispered, “I’m okay, Henri. He doesn’t know I’m not the little pig in this story.”

At my words, his head turned. Those clear eyes met mine, and I saw the strain on his face. The anger. It wasn’t just him being mad or annoyed; he was dang near furious.

That couldn’t mean anything good.

I had done this, and I needed to fix it. So I did the first thing I could think of when he leveled me with his attention: I oinked at him. Then I squeezed his arm.

Fluff blinked.

“He hasn’t heard the myth of Big Jaws,” I whispered, still trying to deescalate the situation.

His blink was even slower the second time, and just as I was about to try and come up with another comment to distract him, Henri grumbled in a voice so low I felt it along my spine. “Get the fuck out of here, Dom.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Dominic started to argue before Henri snarled, his head whipping around to face the other man.

The sound made my hands tingle, and not in a bad way. There was something wrong with me. I leaned around Henri’s arm to peer up at him.

“You and I are going to talk about what you have and haven’t done,” Henri murmured in that deadly tone.

“She’s fine,” the asshole replied. “She was talking shit back. She wasn’t scared.”

Henri’s face darkened, and I was pretty sure his pupils went wide like a great white shark. “You’re goddamn right she wasn’t. If she had been, this would’ve gone down a whole lot differently.” He sounded even scarier, all flat and emotionless.

And here I’d thought him controlling his facial features so well was impressive. He was even better at being intimidating at a low volume. I had to fight the urge to tug my collar away from my neck.

My newest protector leaned forward so he was nose to nose with the other man again. “Go home before I change my fucking mind about letting you leave.”

Since I wasn’t looking at Dominic, I didn’t see if he made a face as he left. From the sound of his footsteps, he was pissed, but screw that guy. The second I stopped sensing his magic, I finally took a step back, only to find Pascal’s dad had moved closer to us.

Just how much had he overheard? Did he hear me threaten Dominic?

I opened my mouth to apologize, but a small, very careful smile crept over his face when we made eye contact.

I closed it.

That careful smile turned into a full-blown one. Was there a tear in his eye? “That was pretty badass how you stood up to him.”

Who were these people?

It took me a second to get my reply together. “Thank you…?” My face felt hot.

“You ever thought about a career in⁠—”

Henri’s hand rose between us, and he pointed at Pascal’s dad, his “No” sharp. The other man rolled his eyes but held up both hands.

Henri eyed him for a second before dropping it, the lines at his throat flexing. “Help me put the pups up, would you?” he asked, his tone still all grumbly but not anywhere near as intense as it’d been when he’d been dealing with Dominic.

I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but Pascal’s dad and I both moved toward the puppies.

But halfway to Duncan, I happened to notice Agnes’s eyes were open. She closed them the second I busted her. I wished she hadn’t heard all that. I didn’t want to be a bad example.

The one small blessing was that Duncan, at least, had slept through everything, which was a surprise since he was usually so in tune with me. When he wasn’t exhausted, that was. Pascal’s dad collected his son, Henri hoisted a fake-sleeping Agnes over his shoulder, and I carried my donut. Pascal Senior went out the back door, but Henri and I went the other way; the silence not stifling, but it left a little knot in my stomach.

I hoped he wasn’t mad at me.

While Henri headed to her room, I took the stairs with the small body that was getting heavier by the day.

I cuddled my boy, my thoughts drifting back to the asshole wolf who liked to pick on people smaller than him.

If only he knew….

Back in our room, I set Duncan on the foot of the bed and covered him with his blanket. Then I took my phone and snapped a picture. I was in the middle of texting it to Sienna when a knock came at the door.

I sighed.

“Why are you sighing?” Henri’s voice came through the other side, reminding me yet again that there was no hiding anything living here, much less from him.

Nothing in this world could have prepared me for Henri Blackrock becoming the nosiest person in my life.

And he was right there when I opened the door, arms crossed over his chest, looking like….

He raised his eyebrows, asking me again with them what I was sighing over.

My shoulders dropped. “I was expecting you to give me a hard time for what I did,” I answered.

His eyebrows went up a little more. “Why would I do that?”

I shrugged.

“Knowing Dom, he asked for it.” Henri tipped his head to the side, showing off that strong jaw. “I’m glad you didn’t back down.”

“You are?” I squinted. “Why?” This sounded too good to be true, or maybe I was that paranoid.

“Because now everyone is going to know the truth.”

“That I’m stubborn sometimes?”

The muscles at his cheeks tightened. “That you shouldn’t be fucked with,” he explained.

That wasn’t what I’d been expecting him to say. Not today, not tomorrow, not in a million years.

“We admire strength.” He nodded to himself. “Good for you.”

I didn’t say anything. I was too surprised by his support, even though it made sense. He was right, werewolves took strength as a gift, though they accepted those weaker as well. It had been easier before, when I’d been a kid. The rules back then had been totally different though. Children were cherished and protected, above all else.

Now? I had no idea where I was, and at this point, there were still a couple of things I wanted to keep a secret… which was why Henri had put himself between us.

He’d been trying to protect me again.

I lifted my chin. “Thank you for standing up for me against that… person.” More like a moron, but I was trying to be diplomatic because of ears.

The man I liked to think of as my friend looked at me. Really looked at me. It was a long, serious inspection that made me want to squirm because I couldn’t tell what was going through his head despite the fact he had just said what I had done was a good thing. His forehead scrunched and his voice was low. “I used to wonder what you were going to be when you grew up.”

He had?

He drew his palm down his mouth. “How old were you when your magic finally kicked in?” he asked.

Here I was, feeling shy all over again. “Sixteen.”

That seemed to surprise him as much as it had me when it had finally happened. I’d started to think it never would, that maybe that “different thing” everyone else had always brought up with my scent was a fluke. I had assumed I was half human, and because of that, I’d kept my expectations low. That maybe that was why I’d been given up to a magical couple.

Mythical beings didn’t have kids with humans because there would have been no hiding what they inherited and would eventually become.

As for children of other magical beings who could pass for human, there wasn’t a whole lot on them. Most of the stories I could find of demigod kids in mythology didn’t have happy endings. For all I knew, maybe nothing about them changed either. Maybe for some of them, depending on who their parents were, they never even realized there was something different about them.

Then it had happened.

My parents had burst into my room in the middle of the night, the moon bright and full in the sky, because they’d smelled something different in the house. Something that shouldn’t have been there. That had never been there before.

I wasn’t sure who’d been more shocked to find that the only thing that had changed was me.

One moment, I’d been awake, the same as I’d always been. Then I’d fallen asleep, and when I was woken up, there had been this feeling in my body that hadn’t existed before. This thing that felt like a very calm butterfly in my stomach.

It hadn’t left me since. It had gotten easier to ignore, or maybe to live with… as much as I could. When we’d learned just what my magic meant, I’d had to accept real quick that while I could pretend it wasn’t there, I had to keep control of it at all times.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have a temper; the most I did was talk a whole lot of crap when I was mad. I never really wished ill on anybody, and I was definitely a lover more than I would ever be a fighter.

At least until a loved one was endangered, then, even if I didn’t have in me what I had, I would’ve found a way to torture someone.

“I’m not asking what your magic means, but I am asking how much control you have over it,” he explained, probably seeing the borderline panic on my features. “You said something about the fertility aspect being involuntary. That’s not all though, is it?”

I hesitated, but then I shook my head.

The fact he wasn’t asking about my ancestry said he might have some vague suspicions. Or maybe he thought I was a chihuahua; I might not be the biggest or the baddest, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going after your ankles and whatever else I could reach.

Henri didn’t look concerned though.

But I was. Because I hadn’t wanted to talk about this, and he might have a good feeling that there was something in me that was different from most other magical people. I could tell everyone here not to worry as much as I wanted, but he’d made it clear from the beginning that he protected the ranch’s residents.

He wanted to know if my bite was as big as my bark or if I was just bluffing. So what was I supposed to say?

I couldn’t lie.

So I fidgeted, and I shrugged. “It’s more complicated than just having control over it, like how all you need to do is think you want to be a wolf and it happens. Right? Then how, when you want to be this version of Henri, you come back to it and your clothes are on. My body doesn’t change. The fertility, I have no control over.” That reminded me of the gnomes’ comments. We could circle back to that. “The other parts of what I am? I do feel that in me, and I choose whether to let it… make my hands tickle or not.” Did that make sense?

I wasn’t sure it did. Not entirely, and he confirmed it when he murmured, “Your hands tickle?”

I nodded.

He wanted to ask. He wanted to know so bad, but I wasn’t willing to tell him yet. We were on the right track to being friends, and I was sure he liked me. We’d spent too much time together to think otherwise.

I liked him. I wasn’t going to deny that. But none of those feelings were enough to share the one small truth that could change everything—the other active part of the “gifts” I’d been given.

Henri rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, his face watchful. “Most people don’t like Dominic. He’s got a temper, and he’s been used to getting what he wants by talking enough shit. Half the residents here avoid him. But there you were, squaring up to him like you knew there was nothing for you to be afraid of.”

The smile I gave him was so freaking weak, and he knew it.

His nostrils flared, and he stared at me for so long I was sure he was about to lecture me on why he deserved to know what I was hiding. He didn’t though. “You have nothing to prove here, Nina, no matter what anyone says.” His jaw went tight before he lowered his voice. “Has Agnes said anything to you about her parents?”

“Nothing.” I tugged at the collar of my orange T-shirt that said Oregon in block letters. “I’ve wondered, but I haven’t brought it up. We’re still working on our relationship.”

“I should have said something about it to warn you.”

Warn me?

“Dom is Agnes’s dad.” That sounded like it cost him to admit it. “It’s complicated.”

“The blond hair makes sense now, but….”

Somehow, his jaw went even tighter. “He and Agnes’s mom weren’t in a relationship when they had her. Her mom was young and couldn’t raise her. She gave her to Dominic, who….” His palm came up and dragged over his mouth before he palmed his throat. “She’s ours now,” he summarized.

“He gave her up?” I whispered.

“We made him sign away his rights.”

I took a step closer to him, lowering my voice even more. “Does she know?”

“She knows. She can smell it,” he explained. “We’ve never kept it from her.”

“I can’t believe that dickhead is her dad,” I told him even though… I kind of could. Maybe that’s where she got her attitude from. But just as quickly as that thought entered my head, I realized it went deeper than that, maybe to an extent it was genetic, but I’d bet it had to be her reacting to her situation in the first place. Maybe.

What would it be like to see her father around, knowing he would rather she live in a clubhouse by herself than be with him?

Just when I thought I couldn’t dislike that asshole any more, I proved myself wrong.

It was my turn to grit my teeth. “They don’t spend time together? At all?”

“Other than pack runs and the twice a year he had to agree to spend some time with her—if she wants—no.” Henri took the baton for teeth clenching again. “The only reason he goes on the runs is because he’s part of the security for the ranch and it’s mandatory.”

“Doesn’t he have other family here that could’ve taken her?” I thought about the blonde woman who worked at the diner.

Henri’s face clouded over. “They declined.”

Wincing, I wanted to give Agnes a hug so bad it made my throat hurt. “Is that why he’s such an asshole to you? Because you’re more of a dad to her than he is?”

Henri’s body straightened, and I watched his eyes bounce from one of mine to the other. His mouth went a little flat. “That’s….” It looked like he poked at the inside of his cheek with his tongue. “That’s not the whole reason why, but I’m sure it’s part of it. He doesn’t agree with a lot of our rules, and he thinks he can run the ranch better than we already do.”

“So he’s always been an asshole?” I muttered.

That got Henri’s mouth to twitch at least. “Basically.”

I smiled a little. “But where is Agnes’s mom now?”

“She’s not from around here. They met when she was visiting. She might be from Denver, I don’t know.” He didn’t care, it didn’t make a difference to him, was what he was implying.

I sighed. “Well, now I feel terrible for her, but that man….” Lifting my hand between us, I shook my fist so he could silently get my point.

He smirked again. “He doesn’t deserve a conditioner bar.”

“He deserves some spit in it, more like,” I snickered.

The corner of his mouth hitched, but just as soon as he did it, the expression disappeared again. “Keep your eye on him. He’s been all bark, and he’s good security, but I’ve broken up him and Ani getting into it. You might not be scared, but I don’t like the idea of somebody getting in your face.”

“I’d be fine, Fluff,” I tried to assure him, but he started shaking his head before I’d even finished my sentence.

“I don’t want you getting hurt, and I don’t mean just physically,” Henri said, looking me right in the eye while he did.

I regretted going into that room with them tonight to begin with. All of this could have been avoided if I’d walked away when Dominic started his BS. If I’d been an even bigger person.

He was being really nice worrying about me.

“I understand. I’ll try to keep my distance from him,” I promised.

His features twisted. He wanted to know what I was. It was one thing not to fear him or Spencer at a distance. One thing to scare a swamp crone, but that moron had been in my face. I could’ve smelled his breath, and that hadn’t been enough to get me to step away.

And that made me mad the more I thought about it because how many people had he intimidated before by doing the same crap he’d done to me?

Those bright orange-brown eyes moved over my face, his forehead furrowing all over again. “You make people fertile, but you also scare the shit out of beings four times bigger than you,” he stated, walking the intrusive line perfectly.

A small part of me wished I could have denied it, but in for a penny, in for a pound. I shrugged to play it off. “Something like that?”

My answer rolled around in his head, and he plucked my words apart, trying to figure out how they fit together. How they could make sense. I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t know either.

“I don’t want anyone to be scared of me,” I admitted. I didn’t want him to be scared of me, more like. Matti wasn’t. Neither was Sienna. But they knew me.

Henri, though, didn’t say he was scared. He didn’t say he wasn’t either. The only thing he did was keep watching me. His mouth formed a flat little line after a moment.

“Look.” I hoped I didn’t regret saying what was about to come out of my mouth. “Dominic can think whatever he wants. He can paint runes on his door to make himself feel better, but… I don’t want you to be scared of me, Fluff. That’s all.”

The way his eyes widened, maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but for some reason, admitting that to him felt kind of relieving.

I gave him a little smile. “But you probably aren’t scared of a whole lot, huh?” The nerves were there, in my voice, in my skin, in my soul. “I guess there isn’t a whole lot that could scare you or bully you. Agnes, maybe. The way she looks at me sometimes is intimidating. She’s got her glare locked in.”

Look at me trying to change the subject.

Fortunately, he either felt generous or the idea of him being scared of me was so ridiculous he could move on from it that fast.

“I wasn’t bullied when I was young. Now…?” The corner of his mouth gave the world a faint half smile that I liked as much as I liked a full-blown one. “The pups make up for it.”

I hoped the universe would bless him ten lifetimes for letting me move on from talking about myself. “I guess it’s a good thing Duncan can’t talk back yet.”

Henri’s eyes flicked around me to the side of the door, taking a peek at the puppy passed out on the bed. “He’s a good pup.”

“He is,” I agreed. The best one.

He focused back on me, jaw tense. “I didn’t want to bring it up in front of everyone, but the elders are going to want to talk to you about the gnomes’ visit tonight.”

Ah. That’s why he was here. “Right.” I stood up straight. “I was planning on talking to you about them, but then all that happened downstairs….”

“They say anything I need to know about?”

“They said so much stuff I didn’t understand, Fluff,” I trailed off, going through the list in my head. “It was two of them today, the oldest of their clan. They said that they were there to be around me?”

He raised his eyebrow that mini amount that was standard for him, and I nodded.

“I might be imagining it, but that sure sounded to me like they thought I could help them have kids or something. Then they brought up my father—my DNA dad, not my werewolf one—and how they thought he was dead but they were happy to hear that he isn’t?” I rambled out in a single breath, feeling as overwhelmed as I had in the moment when the conversation had gone down. “I said that they probably had the wrong person, and they claimed that they didn’t. That the person they’re talking about is him.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and threw out the last part. “Did you know that obsidian doesn’t hide magic from them?”

That dark eyebrow went up another millimeter, and he must have been used to dealing with people on the verge of hysteria because he didn’t seem bothered by my rambling at all. “I didn’t know that,” was what he decided to respond with first.

I remembered something else. “They also mentioned that their ‘brethren’ in the south lived with my DNA mom at some point, and that’s how I understand them. How does that work?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Gnomes have been said to have long memories. There’s a lot we don’t know about.” He paused. “I met a man once who could do things to plants that you wouldn’t believe. I’ve heard of other beings who could do things there aren’t explanations for.” He said that looking me right in the eye. “Do you remember the man who lived across the street from you? With the eye patch?”

“Oh yeah. I know who my parents thought he was.”

Henri nodded slowly. “He’s who they thought he was, Nina.”

That’s what I’d been afraid of. Not actually afraid, but…. “You really think so?”

“I know he was.”

So had I, but it had still been wishful thinking. If that man had done half of what stories said he had, no wonder he’d been feared and revered at the same time. A benevolent god, he was not known for being.

And how or why the man who had once been called Odin had ended up in a tiny town in New Mexico was something I would never understand either.

Henri had already moved on though. “The gnomes didn’t say any names?” He almost sounded hopeful.

“No, but they called him the son of night.” I shrugged.

Henri stayed quiet for a minute before saying, “The elders are going to ask about what you talked about. We’ll have to tell them you saw them, but the rest can wait.”

Was he telling me to lie?

He must have seen the question on my face because he added, “You know what? You told me about it. That’s good enough. If you want to say something, I don’t see how them wanting to be around you would change anything or give anything away.”

I focused on his thick throat, covered in short, dark hair that needed a shaving before he went to work again. “I don’t want to do something that ruins us being here,” I admitted.

“It won’t.” He shook his head. “You’re not lying about anything. I’m telling you it’s fine; if they have a problem, they can talk to me. All right?”

My gaze slid up to meet his again, and I took in every bit of that ruggedly boned face that got better looking the more I saw it. “I don’t want you to get in trouble either.”

“I won’t,” he seemed to promise, his expression so serious. “And you don’t need to put up with other people’s shit. Nobody has a right to pressure you into telling them anything, even them, not if it isn’t their business. You’ll let me know next time there’s a problem.”

He wasn’t asking me. He was telling me I would.

The urge to insist I could handle it was in my mouth, but his offer did something to the part of me that wanted him to like me, so I kept my mouth shut and asked, “You’ll back me up?” Like I couldn’t believe it.

Maybe because I couldn’t.

That muscle in his cheek flexed, and those beautiful irises burned straight through my flesh and into me. “I will,” he confirmed.

I took his offer to heart and nodded.

And then he said the words that were going to get stuck on a loop in my head for probably the rest of my life. “I don’t need to know what you are, because I’m seeing it, and I’m not worried about you, Cricket.” The chest that had stood as a barrier between me and that asshole minutes ago, rose and fell. “There’s nothing scary about you at all,” Henri Blackrock claimed. “Got it?”