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)
In my head, I moved him to the bottom of my nanny list. Then again, if I’d been alive half as long as he had, I’d be tired too.
We had barely backed out of Agnes’s room before a soft “Henri” had us both turning to Franklin peeking around the corner of the hall, awake. We’d split up at that point, with Henri saying he wanted to give Franklin our news, and me wanting to call Matti and Sienna. I didn’t think I could wait until tomorrow.
Which was how I found myself in my room after everything that had happened that evening.
Henri and I had kissed a little before wandering around the waterfall, where he’d pointed out up close the majestic and otherworldly trees with their shimmering trunks and three-times-larger-than-normal leaves. He’d tugged one toward my nose, and I’d been amazed at the fact they’d smelled like maple. The whole night had just been… a meteor shower in my heart, especially when Henri asked if I’d be willing to get mated sooner rather than later. Then he’d asked if I’d be willing to do it there, at the bottom of the waterfall, where so many of his brothers and sisters had done the same.
All of them, actually.
That might have been the easiest “yes” of my life, other than Duncan.
I was still struggling to accept just how fast things had escalated, but I wasn’t complaining. If anything, it felt like a load off. More than that, it just felt right.
“You’re mating Henri?” It was Matti who stuttered the question out, stunned face still engaged. Not even his mustache had twitched.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever gotten him to stutter as an adult before. “Yes,” I confirmed.
“When?” Sienna screeched, but at 50 percent power, leaning forward, her face this weird mixture of a dozen different emotions, like her body couldn’t pick one to focus on.
“The next full moon. We said soon, as long as neither one of us changes our minds between now and then. My three-month period here is going to be over in about two weeks.” It said something to me that I didn’t see us changing our minds. I wasn’t wishy-washy, and neither was he. Plus, I’d been the one to bring up that last stipulation, and Henri had just about rolled his eyes. He hadn’t agreed or disagreed, now that I thought about it. “The sooner the better, if you know what I mean.” I winked.
Matti’s expression told me that he either wasn’t paying attention or he was letting all mentions of his cousin having sex go in one ear and out the other. I’d bet it was the first option.
Sienna, though, formed a triangle with her hands. It was her “thinking face.” “Set a date. I can take off work to be there, or I’ll call in sick.” She fake coughed.
That got Matti to snap out of it. He gave his wife a hurt expression. “You’re going to leave me?”
She shrugged, smiling while she did it. “If you can’t take time off, yes. My best friend only gets married once.”
“We’ll be there if I have to call out sick,” Matti claimed, like I’d expect anything else. “But Henri? Really?”
I blinked, thinking he had to be joking.
He wasn’t.
“It was your idea in the first place!” I reminded him. “Did you start having second thoughts and didn’t tell me?”
It was Matti’s turn to shrug. “I didn’t think you’d listen. He doesn’t like being told what to do either.” He sat up straight. “You’ve always been family, but now it’s going to be legal.” Just as I started to touch my chest in pleasure, he ruined it. “Also, I’ve seen his dick by accident once, and I don’t want to know anything else about it. Deal?”
I was laughing while I agreed, and I remained smiling as we talked for a little while longer before getting off our video call. It seemed like they were both planning on coming to visit for the mating, we just had to look at the calendar. And I needed to get in contact with my parents to give them the news. This whole thing was surreal to even think about, but in a good way.
I’d known we felt something for each other. I was still smiling as I turned off the light and snuggled in bed, even as I wondered what Henri had gotten wrapped up with. A small part of me had expected him to spend the night since Duncan was with Agnes, but I managed to fall asleep a lot faster than I probably ever had. It had been a long, emotional couple of days.
And almost instantly, at least it felt like it, a voice spoke into that familiar dream-that-wasn’t-a-dream.
Child
Nina
It is I—
I sat up gasping, like a zombie coming back to life in a horror movie, blinking awake a moment before my bedroom door opened and a familiar body barged in.