Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I turned to Fluffy. “That was weird and amazing, wasn’t it?”
The last thing I expected was for him to look troubled as he palmed the top of Agnes’s furry head. “Yeah….” He trailed off.
A nudge at the hand holding a half-melted popsicle—when had I dropped the other one?—had me lowering it so Duncan could lick it since he had already moved on from the experience of meeting magical gnomes. “Why are they back?” I asked, like he’d heard something I hadn’t.
The question got Henri to snap out of it. “You tell me. What did they say?”
I glanced in the direction they’d gone. “What do you mean?”
“I heard them, and I understood what they said to me, but whatever they told you wasn’t for my ears,” he answered, narrowing his eyes the same way he’d done when we’d first gotten to the ranch.
“You couldn’t understand them?” I was so confused.
Henri shook his head.
“What? You think they spoke in a different language?”
He did that head shake again.
What the…? “My Spanish is excellent. But that’s it. I don’t know any other languages.”
His head turned back toward the trees. It took him more than a moment to say, “You know more than that.”
How was that possible, and what did it mean? I wondered as Duncan licked at the remainder of the popsicle, like rare magical beings coming in and out of his life was no big deal. I was glad someone was resilient.
I looked around the clearing like I was trying to find a clue that would help me understand what had just happened and what it meant. But the only thing I found was what was left over of the popsicle I’d dropped on the ground before we’d scooted closer to Henri. It was covered in dirt and pine needles.
Something nudged at my hip.
Henri was holding out what was left of his. He lifted it an inch higher. “You can have two bites.”
I met his eyes.
“Only two,” he specified with a straight face.
We’d just been approached by rare gnomes, and Duncan had acted like it was no big deal while Agnes shook like a leaf, and Henri and I were in shock, and the gnomes had spoken to me in a language that he didn’t understand…
And this man….
This man….
“Two whole bites? That’s how much you’ll let me have?” I cracked up.
One corner of his mouth went up a millimeter. “Half,” he compromised.
That made me snort. “That’s so generous, but I’m all right, thank you.”
I was the only one still stuck on the gnomes, it seemed from the way he’d moved on. “Take a bite. There’s not much left anyway,” he egged me on.
He would share with Agnes if our roles were reversed. It was a pack thing. Sharing. Community. It was great and exactly what I was familiar with and used to. How many times had I shared food with every werewolf I’d ever cared about?
I leaned forward and winced as the cold hit my teeth, the faint taste of lime slipping over my tongue. “Thank you,” I mumbled around the ice.
He kept holding it out. “Take another.”
I shook my head. “That’s perfect, Fluff, thank you.”
He shot me a look as he bit into the rest, savoring it as Agnes started in on what was left of hers too, even while her eyes flicked around nervously, especially in the direction of where the gnomes had gone.
“They won’t hurt you,” I told her, even though I didn’t know that for sure. I did, but I didn’t. “It’s okay, Agnes.”
Her eyes slid to me, but I was pretty sure I saw a sigh leave her lungs after a minute.
Everything was good, and there was no reason to think the gnomes were going to sneak out and kidnap Duncan. Henri would be able to sense them, and so would Agnes and the donut himself, if he wasn’t too focused on a treat nearby. I needed to tone it down.
I wasn’t weak or defenseless. And Henri was here. Every instinct in my body told me he’d protect the kids. He’d stood up for me in front of Spencer before, hadn’t he? I winced thinking about the sasquatch.
But I still didn’t need Henri if it came down to it. I forgot that part sometimes. It wasn’t that I was alone here, but I also couldn’t expect to rely on anyone else, not when we lived with hundreds of people and I’d only met handfuls of parents, who were polite but kept us at a distance—or kept me at a distance.
Matti had mentioned again during our last call that they hadn’t been that friendly when he’d first moved to the ranch, and I reasoned with myself that they were more than likely doing the same.
But that didn’t change the fact that until we were accepted by more than Maggie, the nursery teacher, and Phoebe the satyr and her husband, who had been very, very kind, and the children I spent so much time with, that we were on our own.