“Oh, yeah. Good hit, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Kat preened.
An hour later,Kat pulled cookies out of the oven.
“Smells great.”
He smiled at Rance, who sat at the counter, watching his every move. “They should taste great. My grandmother had recipes for all kinds of things.”
He slid them onto the waiting platter to cool. Rance snatched one off the plate and bit down. “Hot,” Rance whimpered before taking another bite.
“I did just take them out of the oven.”
Jared waltzed into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie. Before Kat could warn him, he took a big bite. “Ouch, hot.”
Kat rolled his eyes. He poured them glasses of milk, which they greedily guzzled down.
“These are really good.” Rance grabbed another even as he held a half-eaten one in his other hand.
Jared took another big bite. After swallowing, he lifted his cookie and said, “Thank you, Grandma.”
Kat laughed. “I’m sure she appreciates the thought.” His grandmother had been strict, but Kat never questioned her love for him. “What did Xavier say?”
Jared laughed. “He threatened bodily harm if anything happened to either of you.”
“Good.” Kat grinned.
“Good that he threatened me?” Jared asked, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “And I thought we were getting along so well.”
“You bit me.”
“You’re fine.” Jared rolled his eyes.
“It hurt.” He held up his wrist, showing off the two puncture holes.
“You’ll heal. Besides, the kid was bragging about your scar cream earlier.”
Kat gave a dramatic sniff. “That’s true.”
It didn’t even really hurt anymore. He just wanted to give Jared a hard time. He deserved it for frightening him and Rance.
“Do you have a container I can put the cookies in?”
“You aren’t leaving them all for me?” Jared pulled out the biggest puppy eyes, which shouldn’t have been possible for a Chimera.
“I’ll leave you half,” he bargained.
“Deal. A box of plastic zipper bags is in the drawer behind you.”
“Great. Once they cool, I’ll pack them up. I want to see my mate.”
Jared waved his hand, the world spun, and everything settled again. “They should be cool now, but you aren’t going to see your mate. I’ll happily give the cookies to Xavier if you’d like. You, however, need to stay here and safe.”
Kat poked a cookie with his finger. It was cool. “How did you do that?”
Jared smirked. “Family magic.”
“Can Xavier do that?”
