“I’m glad someone trusts me.” I turned, and my stomach shifted from knots to flutters in an instant, the way it did every time I saw Wolfe.
His hair was mussed, sweat damp on his forehead. He must’ve been training before he came here. Even though he was no longer a guard, he still got in his daily training sessions, but now instead of doing them alone at his cabin, he was coming to the castle and training with Cillian and Nevan.
He strode toward me, and Morton groaned. “Oh, great. You’d think after four months of this, you two would be sick of each other.”
“Morton,” I said over my shoulder as Wolfe swept me into his arms. “Be nice.”
“Or I’ll spoil the ending of a book you haven’t read,” Wolfe warned.
Morton gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I jabbed Wolfe in the chest. “Stop goading him. You know, you two are going to have to get along. You’re both going to be part of each other’s lives for a very, very long time.”
Morton slithered up onto the arm of a chair next to us. “I’d be more amenable if he would actually smile once in a while.”
I gave Wolfe a look, and his lips twitched. He was loving this, and I suspected this was his form of payback after having to listen to Morton, Jerome, and Nevan geek out over an alchemy book Morton had found for them in the library. They’d spent hours at our last family dinner talking about it.
“Well, maybe you should smile at me,” Wolfe shot back.
“I can’t smile! I’m a bookwyrm!” Morton huffed, smoke puffing from his nostrils.
“Wolfe,” I warned.
He rolled his eyes and stepped toward Morton. “Fine. I actually came here to see you.”
Morton’s shaggy eyebrows shot up. “Me?”
“Mm-hmm.” Wolfe reached into his vest and pulled out a thin book. “I was hoping you’d eat this for me.”
I pressed my lips together, watching Morton tilt his head as his gaze flicked between the book and Wolfe.
“You want me to read something for you? But you hate books.”
“I don’t hate books,” Wolfe said. “I just have never been much of a reader, and I realized now I don’t have to be because of your abilities.”
Morton bristled, as much as a bookwyrm could bristle. “Well, I suppose I could give it a try and report back to you.” Wolfe stretched out the book, and Morton curled his tail around it, placing it next to him. “We still have a lot of packing to do,” Morton reminded me as he slithered away.
I turned to Wolfe, who rubbed my arms up and down, the gesture a comfort. “How are you feeling?”
“Not as terrified as I should be,” I said. “The castle is moving. That’s... crazy.”
“But we’ll be okay,” Wolfe assured me. “And we’ll be together.”
“I do like that part,” I said.
“I like you,” he said, and I fluttered my eyelashes.
“You know, you’ve mentioned that once or twice.”
“Only once or twice?” He tsked. “I have a lot of work to do then.”
“Oh?” I asked, drawing a finger down his chest.
“I should be telling you how much I love you at least four or five times a day.”
“Please don’t,” Morton shouted from somewhere behind the bookshelves.
I laughed and roped my arms around Wolfe’s neck. “You do a pretty good job of showing me already.”
