“One of these days, I’m going to find that place and build a bloody house there. I’m sick of this disappearing shit.”
“He feels her if he tries hard enough because of the portal.”
“Then go to her, you git. Bring her back,” I growl, frustrated and raw beyond the telling of it.
“I can’t. I could only go because she was there and opened the portal, dragging me in. I can’t pop places myself, you know,” Rafe shakes his head, frowning.
“Great,” I mutter. “Minx can find the place, but she’s too weak to pop. You can feel her, but can’t pop. I can pop, can’t feel her, and don’t know where it is. It’s like being in a fucking Tolkien movie. Anyone got any bright ideas?”
My wife looks up at me for a moment, her expression tired and sad. “I’m trying. I’m reaching out. Maybe I can get through—give me a few.”
I sigh, holding her close, cradled in my arms with my hands splayed over her still flat tummy. Maeve is in there, and it makes my heart warm, soothing away some aggravation of the day to connect with the wee little princess.
She finally looks up and sighs, smiling wanly. “She’s coming home. She and I will have to talk about ‘appropriate reactions’, she says, but she’s coming back now.”
I try not to show my surprise, as I’ve waited days for Talia to trot her rear end back from that place, and it took my wife minutes.
If she doesn’t know she’s the star of this show, I can’t see how she’s missed it.
Kissing her forehead, I murmur, “Good. She can find the stoat and stay with him for a bit, then tomorrow, she can have you to talk to. We’ve got to settle this soon as we’ve got well over a week before that blasted party and we gotta be a united front.”
I fear that is going to be the worst trial we’ve faced yet, and we’re not united enough to take them all on in person.
The Blade And The Artist Find Their Home
RAFE
Talia returned to the sprawling mansion where my primary and Simba live, but she headed straight for the guest room she claimed for us. She wasn’t ready to chat with anyone but me, so I said goodbye to them both, loping down the long hallway to the room I’d previously shared with Taurus. When I arrived, she was standing in the middle of it with a sad look on her face that I couldn’t understand.
After all, everything up to my woman stabbing herself went exactly howshearranged it.
“We need our own space.”
Frowning, I looked at the determined expression she now wore and said, “There are a fuckton of guest rooms. We can switch to one if you want, or go back to my place.”
“No. While I’m fond of the place where we first mated, I’ve never felt comfortable in that house. It’s got too much baggage.”
I didn’t disagree, but I wasn’t sure exactly what the hell she wanted me to do about the cat and me having a past. We weren’tgoing to up and move our entire family plus the outlying areas to make her feel less shitty about us being normal folks with exes. The damn place took years to customize as it was.
“We’re moving into the guest house.”
That made me confused because I didn’t even realize this placehada fucking guest house. It’s massive as it is and has more rooms than either of our mates could ever use. “I suppose we could do that…”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the balcony, pointing out over the gardens to a small cottage that I supposed was built for staff. I doubted Taurus would allow staff here, so it made little sense, but it looked like a nice little place we could probably inhabit.
“We can move our stuff there tomorrow from the other houses. It will be just ours.”
A closed-off space where no other family members, likely including our other mates, will go.
“That’s fine with me, I guess. The cat spends more time here than at home, so I doubt our other family members will mind. If that’s what makes you happy, let’s do it.”
I probably should have seen the red flags that came along with this sudden plan, especially after the dust-up, but my wife was smiling again. It didn’t occur to me to worry about it, so I didn’t. I was a bit naïve and too worn out to question it more, so I let her lead me to bed in that spare room, hoping this would be the thing that helped her find peace.
And that ended all discussion of the stabbing or even the rest of the problems from the previous days.
It wasseveral days later before we got everything moved in. I stayed with Talia in our new little home, putting together the house while she was off working during the day, and when she showed up at night, everything went as well as before the drama began. I actually believed that we were making good progress together, and I’m sure our mates were re-connecting just as solidly. That’s what we need for the damn party we can’t get out of, so I had little to complain about.
The little ‘cottage’ we took over is right nice. It’s not a far walk up the path through the gardens to the main house, and since the cat has been filling the garden as if it’s going to be a wonder of the world someday, it has privacy. I wasn’t sure if my wife would mind, but I’ve had Hex in twice to work through making it a home. He’s been having a good time planning the schemes for each room and working on all the creature comforts with me.
