“Two cat dads—I’m surrounded,” Harlan threw over his shoulder, though his smile was obviously teasing.
“Shush, you.” Chase poked at his boyfriend’s shoulder as they headed through the stacks for Raum’s office. “You love our babies just as much as I do. You spoil them rotten.”
“What’s the point of a pet if not to spoil them? They deserve it.”
Ezra nodded, agreeing with Harlan.
“Who are we spoiling?” Raum asked, stepping out of the stacks just as they reached the open area with the tables by his office. Ezra jumped, startled, his heart racing.
Raum gave him a bright smile and Ezra’s heart sped up even more. “Hi.”
“Good morning,” Raum said to everyone, but the smile went megawatt for Ezra, and Raum made sure to come over andscratch Lilith under the chin in greeting. “Are we spoiling you today? I’m on board with this plan.”
“Me? Or Lilith?” Ezra asked, brain flatlining at Raum’s proximity. He was so close that Ezra smelled wildflowers and cedar again.
“We can spoil both of you,” Raum replied easily, eyes twinkling. He was so beautiful, and Ezra sighed happily, entranced.
A cough from a few feet away tried to get his attention, but Ezra was so happy to smile up at Raum while Lilith purred that it took a much louder “Ahem!” to get him to snap out of it.
“What?” Ezra jumped, blinking, realizing he had been staring up into Raum’s golden-brown whiskey eyes and ignoring everything else.
Chase was grinning like a madman. Harlan rolled his eyes and pointed to the table. “End of the world stuff to do.”
“Oh! Yes, that’s right. End of the world stuff,” Ezra blushed, smiling ruefully at Raum and shrugging one shoulder. “Work and…stuff.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RAUM
Ezra was adorable.
No other word for it but utterly adorable.
“I’m really bad at flirting anyway, so work sounds good,” Ezra blurted out, face red. He then seemed to realize he said that out loud in front of the sergeants, as his face grew even redder and he sighed, shoulders tight in embarrassment.
“I don’t know, you’re doing great so far.” Raum was charmed and hoping for a successful lunch date sometime soon.
Ezra smiled, delighted, and he hugged Lilith to his chest, the Lykoi purring with the smuggest expression Raum had ever seen on an animal.
“But, we’re here to work,” Ezra sighed, and he gently leaned over and set Lilith on the floor. He straightened and asked, “I brought some food and water for her, is there someplace I can set it up out of the way? We might be here all day again.”
“Next to my office door is perfect,” Raum answered, pointing.
“Thanks,” Ezra replied, and went to where Raum directed, taking out a bento box and setting up a feeding station by the door of Raum’s office against the wall. Ezra fussed and knelt down, scratching Lilith as she came for pets and to investigate the bento box, sniffing. Raum got an eyeful of Ezra’s firm, pertass, and he broke off staring when Harlan cleared his throat loudly.
Harlan was staring at him with a mixture of suspicion and amusement, which Raum found to be funny. The sergeants clearly had assigned themselves to be more than Ezra’s government minders, and he liked that about them—Ezra struck him as lonely, small hints of it seeping past Raum’s barriers despite his best efforts not to dissect the curse-breaker with his aura-sight.
“I found some more books that might help our search,” Raum shared, speaking loudly enough for Ezra to hear. “I also sent a request through the Dean to your Major for permission to contact my parents.”
“Why are we calling your parents again?” Chase asked, setting up his MERS laptop at the table.
“Both of them are Elder fae hybrids,” Raum shared easily—it was no secret, his ancestry, but sharing it openly was new to him. He figured the situation warranted sharing some details. “As far as I know, my Elder fae grandparents are deceased, except for my paternal grandfather, and he’s half human, half High Court Sidhe. He married another Elder fae, but she passed not long after my father was born. My grandfather is very old, and might know something of the skull, or who they were before they died. My dad knows how to reach my grandfather, since he ignores his phone most of the time.”
“That’s lucky,” Harlan said, but without the sarcasm Raum might have expected. “I’ll call the Major and see if I can’t get things moving faster in that regard.” Harlan left his coffee on the table and pulled out his phone, wandering into the stacks to make his call.
Ezra left Lilith to sniff over her food and went to the table, hanging his bag on the back of a chair, eyeing the stacks of books Raum set up before their arrival. He looked excited to start, andreached eagerly for the short stack closest to him, sliding the books closer as he sat in the chair.
Raum smiled and went to his office for his phone, hoping permission to contact his family about the skull would be granted. He saw his family often, as they lived nearby, and his grandfather was around a lot, despite living quite a distance away—his method of traveling was a family secret, nearly as dangerous as Raum’s secret. Nórr, his father, had a close relationship with his own father, and they saw each other often as well.
