“Would you like to explain this to me?” Atlas asked.
“It smells like us. Mating. I like the smell,” Bel replied. “Do you want me to—”
“Why is this room practically barren?” Atlas demanded.
“Oh, uh…” Bel hadn’t realized just how much he’d gotten done while Atlas had been finishing the paperwork for the day.
“Where are all your collections?” Atlas asked.
Bel waved his hand toward a new door. Well, technically there were two new doors.
Atlas narrowed his eyes before crossing the room.
Biting his lip, Bel forced himself to remain where he was. Was his mate mad?
Atlas opened the door and stuck his head into the new room. Then he backed away and strode to the second door and opened that.
Bel waited to see what Atlas would say.
Atlas turned toward him and blew out a breath.
He squirmed. Maybe he should have talked to Atlas?
“That makes sense to me,” Atlas said, pointing at the second new room that Bel had materialized. “And that is a gorgeous cream color.”
“We can change it!” Bel said quickly.
“Of course we can,” Atlas said. “A wave of a hand and the room will be whatever color we want.”
Bel nodded. That was right.
“That’s not what concerns me,” Atlas told him. “Why did you remove every single thing from our bedroom?”
“It was messy?”
“Are you asking or telling me?” Atlas questioned.
“Telling you?” Bel offered but it was totally a question.
Shaking his head, Atlas returned to him. “Bel, what is going on?”
His frustration surfaced again. Bel hadn’t meant to change everything. He also hadn’t meant to decide on the nursery color. It just happened.
“Mate!” Atlas grabbed his cheeks. “Look at me.”
Bel realized that he had started to hyperventilate. He nodded and slowed his breathing.
“Why did you empty out our bedroom?” Atlas asked calmly.
Gripping Atlas’s elbows, Bel instantly felt better. Steadier. “I was walking past one of the bookcases and stumbled into it. A heavy shadow box fell, and I was too slow to catch it. Then I thought what if it had been the baby that bumped into it. The baby could be hurt!”
That brief moment of panic still left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Okay, that’s understandable,” Atlas told him.
Bel relaxed, thankful that his mate understood.
“But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You didn’t have to move every single thing out of the room,” Atlas said. “Now there’s nothing of you in here.”
