As soon as her lids were closed, she felt Dec jump and snarl. Jen’s eyes popped open to find Cyn standing in their suite with a wiggling, blue baby girl in her arms.
Chapter Twelve
“You can run but I will follow. You can hide but I will find you. You can, ah crap, you get the idea. If you mess with those under my care, I’ll take you out.” ~Perizada
Jen wason her feet in the blink of an eye, reaching for Thia. Immediately Cyn handed the girl over and gifted Jen with one of the fae’s rare smiles.
“She’s alright,” Cyn said. “Though I do not know what happened to make her blue.”
Jen laughed and stared down at her daughter through tear-blurred eyes. “Fane and Costin happened,” she said, and Thia’s eyes popped open and collided with hers. “Yes, you’re home mini-me,” Jen told her daughter who was beginning to squirm even more earnestly.
“Could you please bring me our pup.” Decebel growled. Jen turned to look at him and remembered that Peri had confined him to the couch.
“Thank you so much, Cyn,” Jen said as she walked over to her mate and lowered Thia into his arms. “There is nothing we could do to repay you for bringing her back to us, but we are in your debt. Yours and Peri’s.”
“You would do no less for us, Jen. There is no debt incurred from helping those we love,” Cyn said. “Peri should be back momentarily to fill you in on the details. First, she has a matter to which she must attend.”
“In other words, she’s taking out her anger on the kidnapper?” Jen asked.
Cyn smirked. “Something like that. Let Peri know I’m headed back to our realm.” She flashed, leaving Jen and Decebel alone with their daughter.
“I think she’s hungry,” Decebel said as Thia sucked voraciously at his finger.
Jen grabbed a receiving blanket from the stack that was sitting on the end table and sat down beside her mate. “Hand her over.”
Decebel passed Thia to her but added, “I get her back when she’s done.”
Jen went through the steps shown to her by the lactation specialist then forced herself not to squeeze the girl too tightly. There were no words to express what it felt like to hold her baby after four long hours, all of which Jen spent imagining the worst possible scenarios. Decebel wrapped an arm around Jen and pulled her to his side as they watched Thia nurse.
“She’s perfect,” Jen whispered. “I don’t care if she’s blue. She’s absolutely perfect.”
“While I would rather have her home safe with us and blue versus the alternative, I would like to see if Perizada would remove the dye. If for no other reason than to remove the constant reminder that those two pups did this to her.”
“Pups? They’re grown and married,” Jen pointed out.
“Compared to me, they’re pups,” Decebel said and then nudged her. “Make her eat faster. I want her back.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “She’s not a water toy that you can squeeze and then release to pull fluid inside of her. She eats at her own pace.” Jen switched Thia to the other side and laughed when Decebel sighed. It was almost as though he thought Thia was purposefully nursing slowly.Silly wolf, Jen smiled to herself.
Just as Jen pulled her shirt down and handed Thia over to her mate, who was muttering something about it being ‘about damned time.’ Peri appeared across from them, sitting on the loveseat.
“Good, Cyn made it back safe and sound with the munchkin,” Peri said as she smiled at them. And though there was a smile on her face, her eyes were dark with a mixture of emotions.
“Are you alright, Peri?” Jen asked.
Peri nodded. “Thia is home safe where she belongs. That is all that matters.”
The door to the suite opened and in walked Sally and Jacque, their mates trailing behind them. The girls’ arms were full of food, but the moment they saw Thia, Jen’s friends dropped everything and hurried over to fawn over the infant.
“She’s safe,” Jacque said breathlessly and repeated it over and over as if saying it repeatedly would keep it true.
“Yes,” Decebel said and leaned back from the two girls. “And, no, you cannot hold her.”
Jen laughed. “Good idea. You two”—she pointed at her two best friends—“have to earn back your baby-holding privileges. And I don’t think you’ll ever get bathing privileges.” Now that Thia was safe in their home, joking about the incident would no doubt become a source of amusement for her when she got bored.
“Hey, we aren’t the ones who dyed her blue.” Sally frowned. “It was these two.” She pointed at Fane and Costin.
“Way to throw us under the bus, Sally mine,” Costin grumbled.
