“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, brother,” Semiaza said in sympathy, clapping Arkas on the shoulder.
“Istill haven’t,” Tolas muttered.
Relieved that her new mate wasn’t sick, Oaklie took the mug of tea Zoe handed her.She’d scanned in her mind that she preferred tea over coffee.“Is there a ban on swearing here?”Oak asked.
“Vic used to have a really foul mouth, but changed to almost swearwords when she started working with kids,” Zo explained.“She’s trying to stop cursing completely because of the babies.”
“What babies?”the artist asked in confusion.
Zoe and Wynter both put their hands on their stomachs.“We’re pregnant,” Wyn said proudly.
Oaklie had noticed Zoe’s slight bump.“I thought you were just getting a bit...”she trailed off, deciding against finishing the statement.
“Don’t say fat,” Amaros warned her with a shudder.Zo narrowed her eyes at him.“I’ll find a way to make it up to you, love,” he vowed.He hadn’t even called her fat, but he was somehow still in trouble for it.
“I’m going to be the kids’ schoolteacher,” Victoria said with a huge grin, changing the topic before an argument could break out.
“When will you let me knock you up, female?”Ark asked with a smirk.
“I’m only twenty!”Oaklie replied.“I’m going to need a few years before I’ll start popping out kids.”
“Let’s eat!”Tori said, checking on the final venison and pork chops cooking on the grill.
Ark’s stomach growled again and the cambions snickered.“Go and sit down in the dining room,” Zoe ordered.“We’ll start dishing out our meals.”
The males headed to the room next door and took their usual seats.Arkas left a seat for his female and sank down onto the plush blue chair.“Why didn’t you tell me about the side effect of bonding with Oaklie?”he asked Amaros.
“Call it payback for that prank you pulled on me a few wars ago,” his commander said wryly.
“Ooh, I want to hear this!”Grace exclaimed as the females carried their food into the dining room.
The knights told a tale of Arkas tricking his leader into leaping from a tall cliff.He’d been pretending to be drowning in a shallow pool of water.
“I broke both of my legs when I landed,” Amaros recalled with a scowl as everyone cracked up.“Now we’re even,” he said in satisfaction.
“Ark told me about your mammoth riding competition,” Oak said with a grin.Arkas had wolfed down his meal and was eyeing hers longingly.She’d eaten enough and pushed her plate over to him.He gave her a look of sheer gratitude, then started devouring her leftovers.
“That was so cool, right up until a soldier chopped my head off,” Jacquin said wistfully.
“I remember that war,” Tol said.“Didn’t Ziegel die during a mammoth stampede just before Jac lost his head?”
“That he did,” Amaros confirmed as his brothers struggled to recall the details.
“What happened?”Grace asked.She’d finished her meal and was holding her coffee mug with both tiny hands.
“It was my fault,” Jac admitted.“I started the stampede when I climbed onto the mammoth to see how far I could ride it.”
“Rahab and his men had been watching us,” Amaros said.“They attacked while we were cheering Jac on.Ziegel saw a soldier racing out from cover to attack me.He ran in front of the stampeding mammoths and threw a rock at the soldier.It knocked our foe out, but Ziegel was gored by a tusk before he could leap to safety.”
“Our brother dangled from the tusk like a ragdoll as the mammoths fled,” Tolas said gravely.“It wasn’t exactly a dignified end.”
The males snickered and Grace scowled at them.“Poor Ziegel,” she murmured, feeling bad for the unfortunate knight.“How can one warrior be so unlucky?”
“It’s a mystery, little sister,” Cam said, still chuckling at the memory.
“We left some supplies in our truck,” Oaklie said.“We should retrieve them before someone comes across it.”
“Arkas can teleport us to the vehicle,” Amaros said.“You still haven’t been given a proper tour of our base yet,” he said to Oak.
