Stella tapped her lip, then shook her head. “Nah, we healers don’t keep secrets from each other.”
“When did that rule go into effect?” Jewel asked. “Nobody told me about that one.”
Rachel looked at Stella. “Are there other rules?”
“Girl”—Sally waved the older healer off—“there are so many rules in the Girl-Code handbook, you wouldn’t believe it. Then you throw in the specific chapters for subgroups like gypsy healers, and it gets crazy. You’ve even got subchapters of subchapters, like the one on gypsy healer-witches. Trust me, it’s a fat book.”
Rachel grinned. “Even fatter than Jen’s Ho’s Before Bro’s book?”
“No book is fatter than that.”
Kara wished they could hang out and just chat and catch up, but they didn’t have time. “Jewel and I need to take our consciousness back to our physical bodies so we can figure out how to go about visiting Alice without giving her a heart attack.”
“Good point,” Sally said. “We’ve been floating out here for long enough. I’ll have to show Rachel the book another time.”
The girls hugged, and then Jewel and Kara went flowing back along the golden cord until they reached the end of their own. When Kara opened her eyes, she and Jewel were still in the Colorado pack mansion’s living room, but they were no longer alone. And Tassi had a wicked-looking knife clutched in her hand.
Chapter
Thirteen
“I don’t want to chain her or stifle her. But the urge to keep her safe, to protect our unborn child, is stronger than ever before. The wolf within me craves for her to be close at all times. But the man in me knows that it would be like severing a bird’s wings to make her stay by my side.” ~Nick
Kara pressed a hand to Nick’s chest and pushed. Though she wasn’t really strong enough to move him, he took a step back to give her some space. “Don’t stand so close to me. That’s creepy. Tassi, would you mind putting the sharp object away.” The fae woman looked ready to stab someone.
“They surprised me, and you two were still in some sort of trance,” Tassi explained as the blade simply disappeared.
Kara looked back at Nick. “You’re still being creepy.”
“As creepy as finding you standing here unresponsive, looking like a weird statue?”
Kara narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you saying I look weird?”
“Pick your words carefully, Beta,” Dillon said from behind him.
Nick glanced over his shoulder to see that those who had come back from their recon mission had taken seats in the large living room.
Nick felt a poke in his chest, and he turned back to see his mate still looking up at him, waiting for an answer. “Of course you don’t look weird. You’re beautiful, yeah?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah.” She smiled, her eyes softening. “I am.”
Nick laughed and pulled her into his arms. She felt good. Then again, she always felt good. If he could just spend the rest of his life holding her, he’d die a happy man.
“You’d eventually get bored,” she told him through their bond.
“You underestimate my ability to find things to do while holding you.” He gave her bottom a light smack.
She giggled and leaned in for a kiss.
When Nick was a hair’s breadth from her lips, he heard Dillon’s voice. “As cute as you two are, let’s fill Jewel and Kara in on what we’ve learned and ask them why they were standing there looking like weird statues when we arrived.”
“You just told me to pick my words carefully.” Nick pulled away from his mate and found an empty spot on the couch. He pulled Kara onto his lap.
“And I don’t know what you told her through your bond.” Dillon raised his eyebrows. “But it was apparently enough to get you out of trouble. I didn’t tell you to engage in any activities that are better done behind closed doors.”
Tanya, sitting next to her mate, nudged him with her shoulder. “Behave.”
“Or not,” Myanin said. “Misbehaving is coming back in style.”
