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)
Only then did Henri turn to where we were; his lips started moving. He still didn’t seem very happy. Matti gestured us over, his eyebrows up.
“It’s showtime,” I told Sienna as I stood, and beside me, Duncan got to his feet, attention still on the white wolf pup. Somebody was a little obsessed. He was too young to have a crush, wasn’t he? Or was he just in love with the familiarity of someone who looked similar-ish to him? Anytime we’d been around a dog before, he had never really cared much for them. But this was totally different. He’d never seen Matti or Sienna in their wolf forms.
It was like he was seeing himself in the mirror for the first time and couldn’t believe it.
“Agnes,” Henri’s demanding voice called out.
Uh-oh.
I wasn’t sure how I was expecting him to react, but it sure wasn’t the way he did.
“I’m glad you’re back safe and weren’t hurt,” he told the white wolf in a voice that was somehow stern and careful at the same time. “But now it’s your turn to deal with the consequences. Go inside, tell the elders what you did, and see what your punishment is. They’re waiting in the library.”
The ball of poofy anger had already gotten to her paws when my donut did, but she barked at Henri.
“Now,” his reply was no-nonsense, sounding very much like a dad. “You knew what you were doing. We had this talk last time.”
The amount of attitude in her body couldn’t be ignored as she lowered her head and stayed in that position for longer than I ever would have imagined—she was pushing it, defying his orders, even I knew that—but then she took off in the direction of the main house, disappearing around the back of it.
Matti’s cousin blew out a long breath, which didn’t do anything to the tension padding his body. He focused on where we were, and the man I hadn’t seen since he’d been in his twenties dipped his chin. “Thank you for helping the children.”
He was talking to me. “Sure, anytime.”
His hands went to his waist, his jaw—a very defined one—ticked to the side. “Now, you going to come over here so you can tell me what this visit’s about or are we going to keep yelling at each other?” Henri drawled. Not just bossy but blunt too.
We’re here for the pup who has a paw on top of my foot, who can’t live around humans anymore.
Instead of saying that, I reached down, scratched the top of my donut’s head, and held out both hands to him.
“Yes,” he told me, using his gift more often.
I scooped him up before marching over, Sienna at my side. Then I did what I’d told Matti I would do: I let him handle it. For now.
Or that had been my plan.
It seemed like Matti wasn’t fast enough with an explanation when his cousin got impatient two seconds later.
“You didn’t come all this way by accident. What’s going on?” Henri asked… all four of us, really, even if his attention in that moment was centered on the puppy balanced on my forearm, legs hanging off either side of it. His long ears drooping.
He was so cute. He looked like a prince. I would even go as far as to say he made me think of a god in that position, shiny black coat an obvious sign he was well taken care of. The fire obsidian around his neck a subtle flash of color against his body.
Duncan gazed at Henri steadily, making it very, very clear he was something more. He listened, and he understood everything that was said to him and in front of him. He always had. For his age, he followed rules more than I ever could have hoped for.
“It’s not an accident,” Matti agreed, finally finding his words. He made a funny face. “I explained why in the voicemails, if you’d listened to them.”
The mountain of a man he was related to blinked.
“We’re hoping someone might recognize what Duncan is,” Matti kept going. “He’s the pup in Nina’s arms, if you didn’t get that.”
Henri didn’t move a muscle.
“And we wanted to see if the elders would be willing to accept two new members to the community,” Matti wrapped it up neatly, leaving the final part of our visit out in the open, just hanging in the air like a wish upon a star.
The whole marrying part implied.
I’d been watching Henri’s face, and that got him. Dark eyebrows rose on caramel cream skin, and even his clear eyes widened. I wasn’t sure a man who looked like him could peek at someone, but that was the closest word I could come up with to describe the way his gaze flicked over to me for a split second. “You’re serious?”