Crush froze. Then he bit his lip, his chest trembling as though he was holding in a laugh.
Killian rubbed his face. “Mouth: 1, Me: 0.”
In a throaty purr, Crush replied, “I’ll make sure you’re properly eaten the next time.”
Killian covered Naddie’s ears. “Oh, rabbit gods. What did I do in my past life?”
“You were probably just as great, to be honest,” Crush said plainly. He ran his hand over Killian again, just a casual, heavy touch that didn’t seem sexual.
Actually, Killian was starting to smell increasingly like the forest, more likewolf.Incredulously, he blurted, “Are you scent-marking me?”
Crush rumbled. “Yes?”
Killian’s heart thumped. “Why?”
“Because you’re mine.”
Killian spluttered. “H-how? When? You said there wasn’t any weird wolf bonding thing!”
“I didn’t say there needed to be one, in order to claim you.”
“Oh, heavens,” Killian groaned. Secretly, his instincts shivered.
Then his mouth betrayed him again. “How did you get the scars on your face?”
Crush went completely still. Then he blinked, and smiled a little. “I’ll tell you about it another time. Not in front of babies, sweetheart.”
“Oh.” That sounded bad. Then again, all scars were bad; they wouldn’t exist without an injury.What was I thinking?
“Let’s get back into the cabin,” Crush said after a while. “I may have set up defensive spells, but unless I’m mistaken, those were not invisibility spells.”
Killian sagged. “I should’ve thought of that too.”
“No, don’t blame yourself. You didn’t have a lot of time to put that list together, and Uriel didn’t have much time to get those spells to you, either.” Crush dropped a kiss on Killian’s head. “You did great, considering the circumstances.”
Killian’s face grew warm. Aside from Gran, no one in his family had complimented him; no one had seen any value in him, since there were just so many of them. Then there were his kidnappers, but those weren’t the same. “I’m... not special.”
Crush growled. “You are. You’re a fuc—fudging special rabbit, Kil, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
“How? I’m not spec—”
“I’ll prove it,” Crush said, so firmly that the protests dried up in Killian’s throat.
Oh,he thought.
A camera shutter clicked in the quiet forest. Both of them turned.
Hansel was grinning gleefully, phone held up. “That’s going into Howl Master’s photo album. ‘The Very Horny Beginning.’”
Crush bared all his teeth. “Show that to anyone, and I’ll rip off your—”
“You’ll have to catch me first!”
With flailing arms, Hansel disappeared into the cabin. Crush sighed heavily.
Naddie giggled—she had shifted back to a human child.
“This is something she likes, huh?” the alpha asked, peering over Killian’s shoulder at Naddie.
