I’d delivered plenty of animals in my career. I’d never once woken up thinking about the person who’d handed me the towels.
Sofia peeped from the bathroom counter, watching me through the glass shower door with her round, knowing eyes.
I turned off the water and reached for my towel, catching my reflection in the fogged mirror. My hair was a disaster. Myeyes looked different. Brighter, maybe, or just more awake than they’d been in months.
Abagail chose us both.
The words had lodged in my spine and refused to budge.
When a snugglethorn chooses two, it means those two are bonded through her care. She’d decided we belonged to each other because we both belonged to her. What was I supposed to think about that?
I’d made plenty of life-changing decisions in my life. Vet school. Taking over Dad’s practice. Selling out my partnership. Even moving into Dad’s cottage after he died.
None of them had involved a seven-foot orc who wrote my name in his notebook as if he was writing a love letter.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
Brovish.
Duchess Filandra appears to be refusing breakfast unless you’re present. That’s my assumption of her behavior.
I smiled at the screen, my wet hair dripping onto my shoulders.
Tell her I’m on my way.
A pause followed before he replied.She indicates that’s acceptable.
I pulled on clean clothes that didn’t smell like cave and amniotic fluid. My hands fumbled the buttons on my shirt twice. This was ridiculous. I was a professional, and professionals didn’t get flustered about seeing their colleagues after spending one night in close quarters during a medical emergency.
Except we’d kissed, and it had been amazing.
And he’d written in his notebook that I spoke to hours’ old creatures like I’d known them all my life, and I’d held his hand under a blanket while listening to him breathe, and?—
Sofia launched off the counter and landed on my shoulder with enough force to make me grab the sink edge.
“Okay,” I said. “I get it. Time to head back to the rescue.”
She settled against my neck, and I drove back to the facility thinking about absolutely nothing except the road ahead and definitely not about what would happen when I saw him again.
The lie lasted until I pulled into the parking lot and spotted his truck.
The transport vehicle bringing in new creatures hadn’t returned yet, but it would soon.
I made quick rounds out back, making sure the creatures were safe and healthy, stopping at the driftwhisp enclosure on my way back inside. Five shapes pressed against the inside of the netting, their silver tendrils already lit.
Brovish had repaired the gap in the mesh, and they couldn’t escape to reach me.
I leaned closer while they fluttered at face height. “Aren’t you all beauties?”
They quivered with excitement. Steven floated closer, his black feathers puffed forward. The others arranged behind him like they’d discussed the order in advance.
I unlatched the gate and tilted my head. “Come on out, guys. I’m feeling unadorned.”
They filed out one by one, each choosing a spot on my head as if they’d had a lengthy discussion and knew where they needed to be.
Steven threaded his tendrils behind my right ear, clutched clumps of my hair, and went still. The second and third settled behind my other ear. The fourth went to the crown of my head and the fifth hovered a moment, assessing, and settled at my right temple.
With a laugh, I continued my rounds before going inside.
