He took my breath away with his bliss. Kept stealing my heart with his words. At that moment, it was as if he held all the wonders of all the worlds imaginable.
Chapter
Eight
ELIAS
“What time will Javier be home?”I asked for the third or fourth time.
Teddy rolled her eyes as she bit down on her grin. “When he finishes hanging out with his friends. Now that they have the design on the skateboard I told you about, they wanted to practice riding it some more before they come over.”
I grumbled. It wasn’t that I minded him being with friends. Quite the opposite. I was happy he’d made friends and was spending time being a regular kid, especially since life had robbed him of that opportunity far too many times. I simply wanted to tell him and the girls our news. It didn’t matter that he already knew; I wanted to share this moment with all the younglings. And I wanted to see if his friend that Teddy had mentioned could contact Brenton from our realm.
If not, I’d have to get permission from his parents to take him to the human realm through the secret tear I’d created.
I didn’t simply want Brenton back to tell him about Teddy’s pregnancy. We needed to regroup and start planningour raid on the first compound. Now that we had Sebastian’s map, none of us needed to search aimlessly.
In the middle of our front yard, the girls played with Hee-haw. He maintained a firm grip on the rope he tugged on, and the three girls pulled their end as hard as they could, grunting and shouting at each other so they wouldn’t lose yet another round of tug of war to our silly pet.
Without the girls noticing, I sent snow beneath Hee-haw’s feet that I froze to make him slip. This time, when the girls tugged harder, Hee-haw fell to his butt and glided toward them.
Their raised hands and cheers made me grin.
Sitting on the wooden swing, Teddy poked my side, making me yelp. I grabbed her finger and kept it captured in my hand.
“Cheater.”
I scoffed. “I would never.”
As if he knew exactly what I’d done, Hee-haw glared at me with what I swore looked like malice. I laughed, but when he let out a derisive bray, I held my hands up in a sign of surrender.
“You win,” I said. “I apologize and will make sure you get extra treats for dinner tonight.”
Teddy shot me an amused look that warmed my chest while Hee-haw made his way to the patio. He nudged the first step and let out an annoyed grunt before striding up the two steps.Strange beast.With an even louder snort, he sat in front of Teddy, who crouched in front of him, petting him between his two large ears while the donkey stared at me. If he could speak, I was certain he’d gloat about the fact that Teddy now held him instead of me.
I was tempted to show him my middlefinger, a gesture Teddy used all too often, but I didn’t want the girls to catch the offensive signal.
“I’m sorry that mean fae is being a bully to you,” she said, kissing the top of his head.
Hee-haw brayed in agreement.
I caught Alastor and Javier’s scent, along with the three foreign scents of his friends, before I saw them. I shot to my feet with excited nerves drumming through me. At my sides, my fingers twitched in anticipation.
“I take it Javier’s home?” Teddy asked from where she still sat with Hee-haw.
“Alastor too.”
When Teddy shifted to rise, I offered her my hand, and with her free hand, she brushed the dirt from her jeans before she stepped to my side where I hugged her to me. I dug my nose into her thick hair and took in her soft, distinctive scent. And simply because I could, I focused on the extra heartbeats, that were faint but strong.
“Looks like we’re gonna have a full house to share our news.” She beamed, her fears from earlier no longer present.
Although I worried about what she’d said, I didn’t let it show. She was right, though. I wanted to be here for her pregnancy. Knowing I’d leave her again made it hard to fill my lungs.
Alastor lifted his brows at me in greeting as if he sensed the eager anxiety surging inside me. Teddy noticed the disheveled look of Javier’s clothes before I did, and she rushed to him. Our news burned in my chest, too bright to hide, and suddenly my hands and feet felt oversized and clumsy. I crossed my arms, tucking my hands into my armpits.
“What happened?” Teddy asked when she stood in front of Javier. “Are you hurt?” She reached a hand to a cut acrosshis lips before she looked at the other two young males and the single female in their group. “Are y’all hurt?”
“We’re fine, Mama Teddy,” one of the males said.
