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)
Time had been good to him, I noted. Real, real good, I confirmed, really taking him in. Henri looked like a mountain man now if I’d ever seen one. His massive size, all those muscles, his clothes….
He was the complete opposite of his cousin in his khakis.
I could admit it already: he was unbelievably handsome.
Was he married?
The tiny chainsaw in my arms got louder all of a sudden.
Stroking my hand down Duncan’s side, I whispered, “It’s fine, Donut. It’s okay. Thank you for protecting me. I know you could’ve messed him up if you wanted to—”
Amber eyes caught mine, and I shut my mouth.
Sensitive hearing, right.
“I cannot believe you, Shiloh!” the satyr woman was still shouting as she got within twenty feet of us, her steps finally slowing down as she fumed. “What were you thinking, honey? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“Somebody needs to tell me what’s going on. Now,” Henri demanded.
Somebody was bossy.
“They snuck off,” the man who was approaching answered. “We’ve been looking for them. The elders called saying someone brought them back.”
One glance down confirmed Pascal, the wolf boy, had his cheek pressed against my hip. I didn’t need a good nose to tell he was nervous. I set my hand on top of his head, not sure whether to comfort him or peel him off me. If Duncan had pulled this crap….
I’d swear Henri stood up even straighter, and he was already crazy tall. “Again?”
I winced. It was going from bad to worse. Again?
“Again,” the woman confirmed as she got to us, her face pale and strained. She was worked up for sure.
And wow, the bottom half of her was goatlike. She was shorter than she’d seemed at a distance. At most, the top of her head reached my shoulder. She suddenly blinked, her brown irises flicking in my direction, her nose twitching noticeably.
I lifted my hand at her.
The best approach when meeting possibly skittish strangers was to give the initial impression that you were harmless.
Because sometimes the absence of my scent also made people upset. They thought I was trying to hide something, which I was, but not in a way anyone needed to worry about, unless they meant me or my loved ones harm. And even then, I had hesitated to do what needed to be done before. Not once but twice. They weren’t my finest moments.
Earlier with the swamp thing… it had been a step in the right direction, but….
“She’s nice, Mom,” Shiloh said softly, apparently reading the room. “Nina saved us.”
The adult satyr didn’t look convinced, but for once in my life, I felt about ten feet tall.
I had a child I barely knew clinging to me, and two defending me—one a stranger and the other my greatest treasure. I didn’t think I’d ever felt so special before. Actually, I was sure I hadn’t.
A warm nose nudged at my neck, and I stroked Duncan’s side some more.
“Saved you from what?” the man who had been hollering at Pascal asked, his eyes darting around the group standing in the lot. His nostrils quivered, and I watched him glance at me, look away, and then look again.
His eyebrows went up. He took another sniff. His expression was a curious one. I raised my hand at him too and got a wave right back.
“We aren’t completely sure,” Matti spoke up, drawing my attention back to him, “but it might have been a Jenny Greenteeth.”
“A what?” It was the man who threw out the question.
I couldn’t believe Matti knew what it was, and I didn’t, but I had never really looked into English mythology much. I was going to need to brush up on it some time.
“A river crone,” Henri answered, the big frown still on his face. “You saw one here? On our land?”
He had a nice voice, mad and all, I decided. It kind of reminded me of a lion somehow, the way he managed to bellow and project.
The satyr woman stepped back, and he must have noticed because he wiped the frown off his face and replaced it with a neutral expression instantly.
Matti nodded. “She knew she was trespassing. I didn’t ask her what she was, but she was tall and looked like half a Ninja Turtle. Smelled like shit too. She threatened all of them.”
The thick line of Henri’s brow furrowed, replacing the almost serene expression he’d worn for all of ten seconds. “What happened to the Jenny Greenteeth?”
Matti smiled. “Nina happened.”
Every word that had come out of his mouth was the truth, and yet he’d managed to keep a lot a secret too. I loved how sneaky he could be.
“She went east, if you want to look for her,” my friend added.
Pascal’s maybe-dad and Henri both visibly tensed, growls vibrating from their chests simultaneously. The other man was around Matti’s height, his eyes light colored, his hair around the same shade. He was definitely magical; he felt a little wild, like all werewolves did.