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)
Matti wasn’t short at six foot three, but Henri was taller by a couple inches minimum. Other than that, where Matti’s skin tone was a tan slightly darker than mine, Henri’s was a perfect mix of two very different ancestries—a heavily indigenous side that I assumed had to be Amarok based off his size and family connection to Matti, while the other was descended from Scandinavia... if my memory served me correctly.
Their hair color wasn’t all that similar. Matti’s was a dark brown, and Henri’s was a distinct shade of black that might have a touch of gray in it, but I couldn’t confirm because of our height difference.
The truth was, there wasn’t much I knew about the man my best friend was related to. He was a decade older than us. When we were children, they hadn’t spent a whole lot of time together, considering the age difference. Henri would come and visit for the summers before he’d moved in with Matti’s family for almost a year after he’d graduated high school.
After that, it had become even rarer to see him. He’d joined something—the military, maybe? Or had he just moved away? I couldn’t remember, and it wasn’t as if Matti talked about him. I had only learned that he eventually lived on a special ranch after Henri had come around and become Matti’s guardian.
Irises a color I hadn’t seen on anyone else other than him flicked back in my direction over his cousin’s shoulder, then landed on the puppy in my arms who was still growling like the tiniest chainsaw in the universe. The notch between Henri’s eyebrows went nowhere. If anything, it got even deeper as the line of his jaw went even more defined, like he was suddenly gritting his teeth. His chest—very noticeably muscular under the dusty long-sleeved white T-shirt he had on with the sleeves shoved up his thick forearms—rose and fell as he watched us before returning his attention to Matti.
He had a wound on his elbow that was bleeding too, I noticed with interest.
There was no way he’d gotten that tackling me.
Look at me being observant. Sienna was going to have to start calling me Nina Holmes.
“What are you doing here?” the big man asked, his tone not exactly what I’d call welcoming.
That didn’t bother Matti. “Hi, Matti. Missed you too,” my friend mocked in a deeper voice than usual before holding his arms out wide.
The other man hesitated before raising his arms as well and wrapping them around his not-so-little cousin. One Henri cheek met a Matti cheek as they thumped each other on the back. They were so cute.
Just as quickly as the hug started, Henri pretty much shoved him away. “Why are you here?”
“Hi, Sienna.” Matti chose to ignore him again, talking in that different voice, gesturing toward where his wife stood, still on alert.
Henri didn’t look over, but he did raise his voice to call out, “Hi, Sienna.”
Kind of rude, I thought, but Sienna didn’t exactly seem all that disappointed not to give him a hug. “Hi, Henri,” she greeted him in return. She was smoothing her hands up and down the front of her bell bottoms, one of her nervous gestures.
Matti hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “And you remember Big Jaws—Nina—and Mini Jaws is—” A scream tore through the air, cutting Matti off.
All of us turned to find a body that had two long, brown, slender legs and an upper torso that was very much a woman with a tank top running through the woods by the homes on the other side of the main building.
“Uh-oh,” Shiloh muttered loudly.
“Pascal!” another voice, a male one, bellowed from another direction. It was a man in jeans tearing through the woods, heading over too.
I glanced at Pascal and watched his already small body deflate.
But only for a second.
His hands formed fists, and out of nowhere, he started speed walking… right on over to me.
Me?
He stopped at my side, hooked a foot around mine, and his fingers reached for my shirt.
Did he expect me to protect him?
When I tried to get Sienna or Matti’s attention so they could see what was happening, I caught Henri’s instead. His gaze swung to Pascal. Big Henri Blackrock frowned even more.
“What happened?” he asked slowly to no one in particular.
There was so much authority in his tone that even I felt the need to answer him. How did he do that? Was it practice or was it magic?
“You’re going to be grounded for the rest of your life!” the satyr woman shouted at the top of her lungs while running.
“Not just this life but the next one too, Pascal!” the man on the opposite side of the woods called out, also not slowing down.
“What. Happened?” Henri demanded again, louder that time, voice even gruffer, his frown morphing once more to a scowl.