Page 20 of Planet Wolf
“I think he’ll beat himself up just fine without anyone else needing to help. By tomorrow morning, I bet he’s in my room, apologizing.”
Carl lifted his eyebrows. “He comes into your bedroom?”
“Not without knocking. Don’t make it weird. We’re like brother and sister. I told you, he’s my cousin.”
He shook his head slowly. “From now on, no one but us comes into your private bedroom. Any bedroom. That’s going to have to be the way it is.”
My mouth fell open. “So, you just assume you’re coming into my bedroom?”
His smile was slow. “Don’t argue just to argue, beautiful. You know we’re going to be in your bedroom.”
“Speaking of bedrooms,” Alfie interrupted. “I think we should get Esther back to hers so we can collect her stuff. We also need to make sure she’s had whatever medicine she needs.”
I blinked. “Where is my stuff going? I mean… I haven’t really agreed todoanything just yet. Talking to Doug about it is not the same as talking to me.”
Jadon held up his hands. “Fair enough. We do things differently on our planet. I needed to remember that and I didn’t. Would you consider coming to stay in the house we were just in with us? For now, we’ll start there and we can work up to you leaving the planet with us.”
“Can we… talk about all of this? Sit down and talk about things, so I understand them? I want to know what it means that you think I’m your mate, and… then we can talk about what, if anything, comes next?”
Jadon nodded once. “We can do that.”
“In the morning,” Alfie interjected. “We can all talk in the morning. It’s late and your scent tells me you’re tired. I don’t want you overdoing anything until I can better understand what’s happening with your condition. Come on, let’s get you home. If you don’t want to stay with us, we’ll stay with you.”
I gaped at him. No, he probably shouldn’t stay with me. I had a vision of them sitting around the breakfast table with my cousins, everyone staring at each other, and Doug shaking in the corner like a scared rabbit.
“I’ll come with you,” I said quickly.
Maybe I could have argued about how they needed to leave me alone and let me stay by myself, but I’d just gotten them back. I didn’t want to leave them. I’d missed them, and the hole that formed where they were supposed to be—it felt like it was filling up again.
“Good.” Alfie nodded. “Let’s go get your stuff.”
* * *
The three Wolfshifters prowling around my bedroom were a strange sight. Jadon showed interest in the pictures I framed and hung around the room. They were mostly of my family, of various places we’d gone, and things we’d done. Carl helped me pack up some clothes, but I wasn’t taking all of them. It wasn’t like I officially decided to go anywhere other than their house for a night. It wasn’t time to start packing boxes, and it might never be. The longer I sat with the idea of being their mate, the crazier it sounded. Despite what Doug said, I wasn’t necessarily automatically on the train to become my mother.
But Carl kept bringing me things he thought I should have and sticking them in my suitcase.
Alfie remained preoccupied with my medicines. He looked at the bottles, wearing his translating glasses, and then sniffed the medicines as if his nose could tell him something the label didn’t. Eventually, we were done.
Right at that moment, my very pregnant cousin Patrice burst through the door. Her mouth fell open as she stared at me. “Esther, tell me what is going on right this very second.”
I motioned toward the guys. “These are the men that saved me. They’ve found me again.”
She blinked rapidly and then stepped into the room. In a quick moment, she embraced Carl, who was closest to the door. “Thank you. I will never be able to thank you three enough.”
“I prefer this cousin,” Jadon said as he turned toward me.
She stepped back. “I’m too cumbersome to be hugging everyone, but consider that a hug from me to all of you. And you’re incredibly thanked. I’m so grateful. But, now, what is happening?”
“I’m going to go with them to another house. Just for tonight. Then we’re going to figure things out. They think… that is… erm, they think I’m their mate. I’m not sure entirely what that entails just yet. I know it would mean I had to go with them to their planet and leave here. Doug had some choice things to say about me leaving and my health, all of them true, but hurtful. Stuff about why they shouldn’t want me.”
She shook her head. “Well, Doug can be an ass, and he tends to put his foot in his mouth when he doesn’t have you telling him what to say.”
That wasn’t true… was it?
Patrice leaned over and kissed my cheek. When she spoke, it was a whisper in my ear. “You have to know what it means to be their mate. We had the same sex talk with Grandma. You don’t need me to give you a quick reminder lesson, right?”
I snorted and covered my mouth. “No, I remember just fine. I’m not sure that’s exactly on the table tonight. Love you. We’ll talk tomorrow.”