“I’m going to make some lunch,” Crush said, turning away from his butler. Hansel gave a wolf whistle.
“What was that about?” Killian asked, confused.
Before Crush could answer, Hansel did. “Who knows? But you know what, Howl Consort? I have plenty of Howl Master’s embarrassing childhood stories.”
Crush stiffened and spun around. “No, don’t tell him.”
Killian frowned. Crush? Embarrassing stories? “Surely they can’t be as bad as my foot-in-mouth disease.”
Hansel looked overjoyed. “You havenoidea. This is gonna be so good.”
“No!” Crush growled. He looked slightly worried. “They’re horrific stories.”
“All of them?” Killian asked.
“There are several that will make you cringe,” Hansel sang. “All of them areso entertaining.”
Crush bared his teeth and stalked toward Hansel, but Hansel shook his feathery tail at them.
“I could poop on you,” Hansel said to Crush. “Bet you don’t want that.”
Crush flipped him off. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything but that.”
“Wait,” Killian said. “I still don’t know how Naddie escaped from the shopping cart.”
At that, all eyes turned to the cart.
It flipped its front wheels slowly, backing away as though it felt guilty.
“Hey, I don’t think it’s your fault.” Killian reached out with one hand. Crush understood and carried him closer to the cart. “We’re not angry with you. I just want to understand what happened.”
Slowly, the cart rolled forward, nudging its basket against Killian’s palm. Killian smiled and patted it. “If I hand Naddie to you, could you show us how she got out?”
The cart lifted its flap once.
Killian gently placed Naddie on the rumpled clothes in the cart. The cart squeaked its wheels and rocked back and forth, as though it wanted to rock Naddie to sleep. Then it lifted its flap, nudging Naddie’s side.
Naddie squirmed away. For two minutes, nothing happened. Then she shifted into a coyote pup. When the cart lifted its flap again, Naddie wriggled through the hole left by the flap, landing neatly on the floor below.
Killian gasped. Naddie wasn’t hurt, though; she shook herself and trotted over to the leather couch, tail wagging as she sniffed under it.
As though she hadn’t just caused a panic in all the adults present.
Killian laughed weakly. “Oh, hon.” To the cart, he said, “I’m guessing you followed her all the way to the door, trying to get her back into your cargo basket. That was why you made all that noise.”
The cart lifted its flap, like it was shrugging half-heartedly. Killian felt so bad for it; the cart couldn’t have known that Naddie would escape.
“It’s my fault, not yours,” he said, patting the cart again. “I should’ve known that would happen. You can hold Naddie in your basket again, just no more lifting your flap if she’s there!”
The cart flipped its wheels excitedly.
“Cart’s a real sweetheart too,” Crush rumbled, rubbing Killian’s chest. “Good news is, Naddie doesn’t smell hurt.”
Killian sighed. “I guess I have an escape artist of a child.”
“You’ll want to be careful when she gets older,” Crush said dryly.
Hansel coughed fakely into his wing. “Guess who was a—”cough“—terror tot.”Cough.
