Really, she shouldn’t have been surprised that he was fully equipped. Silas told her that Tal wanted a body so badly because he wanted a second chance at finding a mate and having a family, so it stood to reason that he’d want the whole kit and caboodle.
Petra thought she could be forgiven, however, since she never could’ve expected the caboodle to be the size of a wiffle ball bat.
“How’s your balance?” Silas asked, thankfully derailing her train of thought safely away from his brother’s genitals.
Tal shifted slightly, testing it, before he answered, “Good.”
“Test your resistance.” Silas patted his chest. “Push.”
He’d seemed large on the table, but standing, Tal was a behemoth. He dwarfed even Silas, who was a large man in his own right. When Tal pressed his palms against Silas’s chest and pushed, her mate staggered back sharply before he caughthimself. Her mate looked incredibly pleased when he declared, “You almost knocked me flat on my ass!”
Petra had no idea how Silas had managed to make Tal’s face so human and inhuman at the same time, but he had. At rest, his features were a little too bold, his glowing eyes uncanny, but when he smiled, it wasreal.
Tal shook out his arms and began to move from foot to foot, obviously testing his limbs. He rolled his shoulders and paced a few steps. Each new movement seemed to bolster his confidence. Every stride was a little more graceful. In a matter of minutes, with a bit more testing and prodding from Silas, Tal moved naturally, with a straight spine and easy balance. Speech came easier, too.
“How do you feel?” Silas asked after about an hour of experimentation.
Tal ran his palms over his short horns and answered, “Good. Very good.”
“Do you feel strong? Stable?”
“I feel like I could… take on Tem-pest himself.”
Silas uncrossed his arms. A warning bell rang in her mind when he cocked an eyebrow and asked, “You strong enough to take a hit?”
Tal paused for a beat before he gravely answered, “Yes.”
Those bells rang even louder. Speaking up for the first time since Tal sat up, Petra asked, “Silas, why are you asking him?—”
Before she’d even finished the sentence, Silas’s fist shot out to clock Tal clear across his cheek. His head whipped to the side, but he didn’t rock backward like a normal person might have. He merely shook his head and lifted a hand to rub his jaw.
Aghast, Petra hurried over to get between them. Pushing on Silas’s shoulders, she demanded, “What wasthatfor? He’s barely been here an hour!” Craning her neck to peek at Tal over her shoulder, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“He knows he earned that,” Silas assured her with a roll of his eyes.
“Forwhat?”
“For letting you get hurt,” Tal answered, like it should have been obvious. He didn’t even sound upset that Silas had punched him as hard as he could. And she knew he had, because the knuckles of his right hand were busted and bleeding. “You were my responsibility and I failed. This makes things square.”
“He’s lucky I don’t want to ruin all my hard work,” Silas muttered, drawing her closer with a hand on her waist, “or else I’d take a crowbar to one of his new knees.”
“Silas!”
“What? I’m not gonna.”
Petra wiggled out of his hold to stand back a bit, allowing her to glare at them both. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but you should not settle scores with your loved ones with violence.”
In any other circumstance, it would have been cute how they wore identical expressions of confusion.
“But it’s more efficient,” Tal argued.
“You literally just got a body back and he welcomed you with a punch to the face,” she replied, exasperated.
He nodded. “If I were in his… place, I would have done wo-rse.”
Great,she thought, pinching the bridge of her nose,there are two of them now.
“Tal, come here.”
