“Morbid.”
“He named his shop Mori’s Mementos after Memento Mori.”
“Remember you too shall die,” Vallis nodded.
“Well, not you. You’re exempt from that,” I laughed.
“It seems so since I already escaped the grave,” he said, pulling me closer as we walked over to a picnic table to sit down.
The guard on duty, Jeth, came over and was about to tell us the party didn’t start until dinner time until he saw me.
“Eh, the party can start whenever for a pregnant bear,” he said instead. “If you eat all the little party favor bags, try to limit it to under two hundred. That’s all the extra they have.”
“Noted,” I laughed, but ravenous hunger hadn’t over come me yet. “Jeth, this is Vallis. He’s my mate.”
Vallis stood up to shake Jeth’s hand, and they did that alpha thing of looking each other up and down. I was never sure if it was a fighting thing or a checking each other out thing. Either way, neither of them had much to worry about. They were both good-looking bears, even if I was biased toward Vallis. Plus, they couldn’t fight around me. Participating in an unneeded fight within twenty feet of a pregnant person was grounds for reassignment or retraining for Nightshade Guards.
Vallis sat back down and I wrapped an arm around his middle, leaning my chin on his shoulder. I didn’t hang onto him because I thought Jeth wanted to steal him away, but because not touching him hurt something inside me and I wasn’t in the mood to ache. We’d spent so many weeks already doing that. Vallis relaxed against me and Jeth grinned at us in the way shifters often do at recently met true-mates.
“I’m going to London,” Jeth announced, sitting down at the closet picnic table, but facing away from the table itself so that he could see us.
“To find a Moonscale boyfriend?” I teased him, because I was a mated omega now and the tone was all different. I wanted Jeth to find someone he cared about. I wanted all the members of the Nightshade Bear community to have someone like that, if that’s what they wanted.
“No,” he said, his face turning serious as he ran his fingers through his light brown hair. “Xenos asked me to go as a guard to the egg because I graduated with my nursing degree too. I took a class on the care of dragon and bird eggs for an extracurricular credit too and have that certification. Never thought I’d actually use it, though.”
“And you became a guard?” Vallis asked.
“We’re encouraged to attend college or trade school even if we plan to live here forever and be a guard,” Jeth explained. “It’s not required, but everyone knows Barry will try to talk you into it if you don’t. Lots of us have met our mates at one of the academies too.”
Vallis’s eyes flickered to Jeth’s shoulder. It was covered by his standard issue Nightshade Bear Guard uniform.
“Not me,” he laughed. “I wouldn’t be asked to sail across the Atlantic if that was the case.”
“Of course not,” Vallis nodded.
For a split second, I wondered if Grandpa had seen him meet his mate. Maybe Wess had. I clamped my thoughts down as soon as they passed through my head. I didn’t want them leaking onto the group link and getting Jeth’s hopes up. He was a decent guard with a nursing degree. He was a good fit for the trip. Plus, neither Mori or Preston had ever dated him and that counted for a lot.
The conversation turned to how things were in Heartville. I listened to the alphas chat and marveled at the curve of Vallis’s neck. He wore a turtleneck because it was still chilly out but underneath that cotton was my claiming bite on his shoulder.He was mine all mine. I caught myself untying the ribbon from around one of the party favors and Jeth shot me a knowing smile. What did Grandpa expect when he put so many chocolate-covered nuts and raisins in little to-go bags? It was pregnant people food. Okay. Everything was pregnant people food.
“Should we go home and eat?” Vallis asked.
“This is good for now,” I said and popped a chocolate-covered raisin into his mouth.
I caught the barest trace of a jealous look in Jeth’s expression and tossed a chocolate almond in his direction. He caught it in his mouth and both of the guys laughed. It wasn’t Vallis that Jeth was jealous of. It was both of us. I remembered that feeling and wondering why fate smiled upon everyone except me.
Eventually we did go home for a nap before Mori’s going away party. I woke up all wrapped in Vallis’s arms. His muscles had grown since I first saw him in the hospital. They were almost as big now as his astral muscles were. His chest hair was growing back in thick patches too. I ran my fingers through the soft, fur-like hair and kissed him as we lounged half-asleep together after our nap. He was hard again and the mere feeling of his erection pressing against me was enough to drive me wild and make my body react.
“Want me to get you off?” I whispered.
“I—uh— The answer to that is always going to be yes.”
I grinned because I’d caught him off guard with the question. I wasn’t sure he was up for the full act but a hand job never killed anyone.
“But I want to get you off too,” he said, pulling me closer and stealing a kiss before I could respond. “Also--- It’s been a while.”
“I’m aware of that,” I laughed. “I was the last person you were with.”
“I mean in my body,” he said and I nodded, waiting for him to say more. “You know how when it’s been awhile it can happen quick and you’re so--- You, Lero. You’re so you and I don’t want you to think it’s always fast – if it happens fast at all and…”
