CHAPTER 5
“Wow.” Lily looked around the clearing with wide eyes. When she’d worked for the Council, she’d seen pictures of the Institute, but there had been quite a bit of construction since those early pictures had been taken.
To their left, next to a big metal building, was a playground with a group of young women playing some kind of chase game. As they walked by, one woman broke away from the group and ran toward them.
“Sailor! Where have you been hiding? I haven’t seen you in forever!” The young woman was obviously in a Little headspace as she threw herself into Sailor’s arms.
Lily ground her teeth together as she fought down a jealousy she shouldn’t have been feeling. After all, Sailor was not her Daddy, yet. If what he claimed was true, they would be together for the rest of their lives, which meant he should not be hugging another woman.
“It’s been five days since you saw me last. Why are you lying? Your Daddy must not be spanking you enough.” With that, Sailor smacked the woman’s ass several times before releasing her and stepping back.
The woman pouted at him as she rubbed her abused ass. “He spanks me more than enough, thank you very much.” The woman then looked at Lily and jumped as if she hadn’t seen her before. “Hello. Who are you?”
“Manners, little one,” Sailor said as he wrapped one arm around Lily to keep her by his side.
How did he know she wanted to run back to the cabin in the woods before she’d even met any of the other residents of Bratburg Institute?
“Irish, this is Lily Knight, my mate. Lily, this is Irish McCullough-Jones, a friend of mine and Harrigan’s mate. He’s the Institute’s helicopter pilot.”
“Don’t forget, I’m also the reason you came to Bratburg Institute in the first place,” the woman said, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Do you need to potty, little girl?” Sailor asked with a slight frown.
“Sailor! No, I don’t have to pee. I’m just excited to meet your Little girl. What brings you to Bratburg? How did you meet Sailor? Are you two moving out of the woods and into one of the new houses?”
Irish threw so many questions at Lily that she wasn’t sure which one to answer first. Instead of answering any of them, she looked at Sailor, hoping he would take over.
He winked at her before turning to the other woman. “We’re moving into the dormitory for now. The rest of your questions can wait until she’s more settled into life here. Now go back to playing.”
“Thank you,” Lily whispered as Irish skipped back to the playground.
“I’ve got you, little flower. I’ll always take care of you. Now let’s go see where we’ll be staying.”
Holding out one hand, Sailor waited patiently until she laid hers on top of it. Then he laced their fingers together and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She smiled up at him.
“We should have enough time to settle in before dinner. Hopefully the rest of the resident Littles will wait until then to meet you. Or maybe we should stay away from everyone until we figure out what’s going on with your ex-boss. I’m feeling less social than normal and don’t want to hurt someone if they get too close to you.”
Lily stared at the man, amazed he’d said so much at one time. She’d assumed he was always as quiet and noncommunicative as he’d been at the cabin. Maybe being closer to Bratburg helped him open up.
She just wished she knew if that was a good thing or not.
After a moment, they started walking again, heading to the center of the large clearing where she could see the three-story administration building, two-story dormitory, and dining hall, matching the pictures she’d seen while working for The Council. She watched as Lonergan and Kodiak carried the boxes of food into the dining hall. She wasn’t sure why they didn’t take the boxes to the dormitory, but it didn’t seem too important. She would just have to sneak some snack-type food out of the dining hall in case she would need to head back to the capital in the middle of the night.
By the time they reached the patio laid out between the three main buildings, a small brown-haired man was standing at the top of the steps in front of the administration building.
“Sailor, I’m supposed to trade keys with you,” he said as he trotted down the stairs and toward them.
Sailor dropped her hand and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into her side as if to protect her from this man who stopped several feet away before holding out a keyring.
“You’ll be in apartment two-oh-one,” he said.
“Thanks,” Sailor said, as he pulled out a keyring and traded it for the one the other man held.
The smaller man then took a step so Lily could see him and waved. “Hi, I’m Jaxon, the administrative assistant. If you need something and can’t find it, I’m the one you ask to order it. Will you be starting classes with the next cycle?”
Lily blinked at Jaxon’s friendliness despite his slowly stepping back from Sailor. “I’m not sure. I think we’re still figuring that out,” she said before Sailor turned them toward the dormitory building with a grunt.
“Okay. Let me know when you get it figured out, and I’ll get your paperwork and books together.” With that, the man turned and raced back up the steps to the administration building.
