Despite our portion sizes, I still beat Linus to cleaning my plate and had to cheer him across the finish line.
“We’ll be on our way.” I stood, ready to carry my plate into the kitchen, and he did too. “Thanks for the room and for breakfast.”
“No problem.” Lethe rubbed her nose against Hood’s. “See you later.”
“You don’t want to know what Linus found out? About you? Getting poisoned?”
“You heard the woman.” Hood shooed us. “We’ll catch up later.”
Linus and I hit the kitchen, fed the dishwasher, then exited the house.
We caught one of her favorite lieutenants and asked him to sniff the ring, which amused him to no end, and to search the area where Eva found it. He came up empty on both counts. No scents present that didn’t belong there.
Whoever chucked it at the window had been careful not to leave hints for sensitive gwyllgi noses. Had I not spent the night at their den, the ring would have been waiting on my lawn to find. Probably with my bare foot. As much as the idea made my skin crawl, I preferred that violation to them involving Eva. But I hadn’t been home, and my absence would have been obvious since I left Woolly crawling with cleaners.
“That was extreme,” I said once we were alone. “Even for them.”
“She’s trying to conceive.”
“What?” I must have misheard him. “Now?”
“I overheard the pack talking when I sneaked back in this evening. There’s apparently concern about the life expectancy of her firstborn. They would feel more settled if she gave birth to a spare under more natural circumstances.”
“Lethe fell for that?” As my brain gained traction, I answered my own question. “She’s always wanted more kids.” Hearing her pack might pressure her into reproduction had thrown me, but she wouldn’t do it for them. She would do it for herself and her family or not at all. “She and her brother are tight, and she wants that for Eva.”
“I preferred being an only child,” Linus confessed. “It meant I didn’t have to be sociable.”
Though he would never admit it, perhaps not even to himself, he had been lonely. I was an only child for my parents, and for Maud, and I never missed having a sibling. I had friends, a chosen family, to keep me from being alone except when I wanted to be. Linus…hadn’t had that. Accepting a friendship as genuine was still hard for him, but he was getting better.
“Two years was the gap Lethe was aiming for, but she kept putting it off to focus on Eva’s development and on establishing the pack.” It was easier discussing her than our childhoods. “Now Eva is older and healthier, and so is the pack.” We started down the hill to Woolworth House. “It makes sense.”
“But she didn’t tell you, and that bothers you.”
“No, she didn’t, and yeah, it does a little.” Maybe more than a little. I was shaken she had made such a huge decision without first consulting me. It was stupid to let my feelings get hurt over a private decision between her and her mate, but I had gotten used to us being a thruple when it came to making decisions based on my necessary involvement with Eva’s healthcare. “Usually we tell each other everything. In gruesome detail.”
“Maybe she wanted to wait until after the wedding?”
“I could see that.” The knot tightening in my chest loosened. “She wouldn’t want to steal my thunder.”
“It has taken us a while to get here.”
“Nah.” I laughed softly and leaned into him. “Only most of our lives.”
Woolly sensed our approach, and light swept throughout the rooms, spilling onto the porch to welcome us home.
Taking the front steps at a jog, I hugged the nearest column. “Did you miss us?”
Woolly beamed me an image of children of all ages racing through her halls.
“Yes.” I chose to misinterpret her not-so-subtle prodding. “We did see Eva. She’s growing up so fast.”
The front door opened on a sigh, and I patted the frame on my way past.
Behind me, Linus chuckled, and I didn’t have to guess what she was showing him. “How many?”
“I counted five, but there was at least one baby crying in another room after a sibling stole her toy.”
“I would like to enjoy being married before I do the mom thing. Kids are nice, but they’re also forever. I don’t think it’s asking too much to at least get through the honeymoon without your mother shipping me ovulation kits and mine bombarding me at all hours of the day and night in the hopes of brainwashing me into catching baby fever.”
The vent nearest me blasted warm air up my leg, and Woolly’s presence wrapped around me in apology.
“I’m not saying I won’t break ground on the baby factory you and the Grande Dame have your hearts set on, but I would like to enjoy being an obligation-free adult before I have to worry about changing diapers.”
An obligation-free adult in charge of the welfare of an entire city, who was also the custodian of a sentient house, and the adoptive mother of a ghost boy, and the godmother of a gwyllgi child warped by my magic.
Yeah.
Obligation free.
Woohoo.
“You are the only person who gets to decide if and when you get pregnant. It’s your body, not theirs. Or mine.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason.” I did a quick examination of the house, but everything appeared to be in order. Thankfully, Woolly wasn’t too traumatized by the whole ordeal. “Are you sending the ring to your team in Atlanta?”
“I have a local contact who can inspect the piece before we turn it over to the cleaners.”
“You’re not worried about smudging prints?”
“There are no whole ones.” He flashed a spent sigil on his palm. “The partials are much too small for an adult. I’m certain they belong to Eva.”
About what I figured, but it sucked to hear it out loud. “Do you want to pay him a visit?”
“She ought to be open by now.” He checked the time on his watch. “You might remember her shop. It’s where Lethe had your necklaces made.”
Last year for my birthday Lethe presented me with a golden donut charm missing a bite that said best. Her half was a mirror image that said friends. We strung them on chains and never took them off. It made Hood roll his eyes, but he didn’t get how hard it was to make friends, let alone best friends, when you were a woman with power. The rules for us were different, and the pool of candidates was shallow. In more ways than one.
“Oh good.” I rubbed my hands together. “I was thinking of getting Lethe a charm made for her necklace. Her birthday is coming up in a few months. It could be our thing.”
“Do you have a design in mind?”
“A strip of crispy bacon that says bite me. What do you think?”
“She’ll love it.” He eyed the keys hung on a peg by the door. “Do you want to drive, or should I?”
“Pfft.” I snagged the ring and jingled it. “You wish I would let you drive.”
These days rideshare apps were too risky for me, and I had to give up my chauffeur once Hood started teaching. It took me a while to work up to spending the small fortune it cost, but I bought myself a new car. Well, an SUV. A Volkswagen Atlas.