“He’s a polar bear. I bet he could hunt deer in a single bite,”my bear continued.
“He could hunt hares in the winter. He’d blend right in with the snow,”he said a second later while I was washing my hair.
My inner beast continued listing reasons that our true-mate was wonderful. I had no doubt that Wess was wonderful. Afterall, I chose him in the Other World before all these Earthside lives. We decided we loved each other enough to go round and round the door of life and death and always feel incomplete unless we were together. Hell, maybe I could get Mori to unlock those memories for me. It was out of his wheelhouse, but if anyone could do it, it would be Mori.
After I finished washing, I stood under the hot water for a few long, silent moments. I took a few deep breaths and sank into my bear’s head. The world was simpler inside his thoughts. Either things were loved, to be eaten, to be avoided, or to be buried. Those were the only options. Everything went neatly inside those boxes. Beautifully inside those boxes.
Wess was here to love us, of course. To spend our lives together. No one with bad intentions gave you a massage and cleaned your living room. This was just my brain now – constantly on edge because of Sharon Claudis. I couldn’t even say I regretted letting Venal fuck my brains out because if we hadn’t hooked up, Baby Andy wouldn’t be here, and I loved him more than I knew it was possible to love another person.
Eventually the water ran cool and I turned it off. After drying off, I stepped into my sweats and pulled on a t-shirt. Sure, some people would’ve dressed up for their true-mates but if we were going to bed soon, I didn’t want to mess up any of my good clothes. Didn’t want to kill these pants either. They were my favorite grey sweatpants but at least they were easy to take off.
I found Wess in the living room sewing up the throw pillow. It looked like the pillow Frankenstein’s monster might take to bed. It had been sewn up more than once before but it was Andy’s favorite thing to kill and I didn’t have the heart to toss it out yet. I leaned against the edge of the hall wall and watchedWess’s nimble fingers working the needle and thread through the fabric. He’d found my cookie tin on the top of the fridge that held most of my sewing supplies. I let him work in silence a few seconds longer before padding barefoot across the room to sit down in my favorite armchair.
“Enjoy your shower, mate?” he asked without looking up from his sewing.
“It was nice and quiet,” I nodded, picking up my yarn and hooks. I might as well work on the blanket I was making while Wess’s hands were busy. “You sew quickly.”
“Grew up making our own clothes,” he shrugged. “Most demons on Earthside like to stay off the grid. Hmmm…. You know how I said I can see things about true-mates?”
“Yeah. Did you see me before we met?” I asked, glancing up at him through my lashes.
“Not exactly. I knew I’d meet you here but that’s not what I meant. It seems I’m getting feelings about you too.”
“I’d hope you had feelings about all this,” I teased him, trying to break the tension filling up the living room.
“You’re being spied on. I can feel it,” Wess said a second later, glancing up at me from his sewing.
The baby fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I dropped my yarn back into the basket and reached for my machete that I kept under the chair since coming home. I reached out for Mori and swore under my breath, stopping short of wrapping my fingers around the handle at the last second and glanced at the window. Mori stood there in front of the big picture window, holding a sniffling Andy. I nearly tripped overmy own feet getting out of the chair. What was wrong with my baby?
Mori waved and moved toward the door, holding up his keys to signal that I didn’t have to get up, but of course I did. That was my baby who looked like he’d been crying.
“What happened?” I asked, torn between empathy crying and hacking someone up with the machete.
“Nothing,” Mori said as I took the baby from him. “He wanted to see you. If he were a little older, I’d have tried to distract him more but once he started crying, I realized that I am the sort of sucker who was going to bring him right to you.”
“Da,” Baby Andy said and nuzzled into my chest. “Da.” He peeked over my shoulder at Wess and giggled before hiding his face in my chest again.
“I think he just missed you,” Mori said. “I’m sure once he sees you for a bit, he’ll be okay.”
“Was it Mori you felt?” I turned on my heels to ask Wess.
Mori came inside properly and shut the door behind him.
“Maybe,” Wess said, crinkling his nose.
“Da,” Baby Andy said again and clutched my t-shirt in one of his little fists.
“Looks like you two are staying here tonight,” I said. “It works, though, because then tomorrow we can get the tree up before our parents’ have their tree in a few weekends.”
“Think we’ll be able to dig it up with all this snow?” Mori asked.
“I haven’t met frozen ground I couldn’t move around,” Wess said. “So, we should be fine. Do you do that thing where you dig up a living tree and drag it inside to dress it up before taking it back out in the spring?”
“Yeah. Mori won’t let me kill a tree. He’s evil like that,” I laughed.
“Ev Mo! Ev Mo!” Baby Andy laughed as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
“Want to go play in your room?” Mori asked Baby Andy. “Looks like Wess has sewn up the murder pillow.”
