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)
Chapter
Eleven
“I think you’ve gained at least two pounds this week,” I told Duncan as I carried him down the stairs, positive I was straining more than I had the night before when I’d done the same thing. My right arm was getting tired, and I was huffing. Huffing!
When he’d shown up in my life as a newborn, he’d weighed a little over a pound. Over the course of the first year of his life, he’d reached twelve pounds and stayed at that weight for the next year. He’d had a little puppy belly, a soft innocent face, and he’d been all paws and preciousness.
But in the month since we’d arrived at the ranch, he’d gained six pounds.
Six!
He was taller, his feet were definitely bigger, and the boy had been asking for more food after meals. There was no doubt about it, my donut had thrived over the last four-ish weeks, physically and emotionally.
Me? I wasn’t exactly blossoming into a new person, but I hadn’t been unhappy. Things were going okay at the ranch—as long as I didn’t take into consideration how I still spent almost as much time alone as I had when it had only been the two of us in our RV.
It was all right, and that was exactly what I’d told Sienna when we’d video chatted a couple of days ago. “We’re good,” I’d promised.
She’d just blinked at me.
But it was the truth. Since dropping her and Matti off at the airport, I’d started working again, and when I wasn’t doing that, I volunteered at the nursery slash summer day camp, as I liked to call it. Shiloh and Pascal had gotten an early release out of prison—being grounded—and were now spending a few hours a day with me. When I wasn’t with the kids, Duncan and I did a lot of walking around the property at night. Mostly, we spent time in our room, doing the same things we’d done in our RV—playing tug, we did nose-work games around the clubhouse, we watched television, Duncan did puzzles, and then we headed outside for our midnight games of tag.
Which was what we were doing at the moment.
“I’m going to need to start lifting weights at this rate,” I kept talking to him as we went around the short landing before the other half of the staircase. I peeked at his face. “It’s all right. I’ll start bodybuilding if I have to.”
The cutest puppy in the world blinked ruby red eyes at me.
“Yes,” he told me.
He was worth lifting weights for. Having denser bones would just be a bonus.
“I’ve been thinking about it, Dunky, and I’m pretty sure you know you’re some kind of rare magical prince who has lived a hundred other lifetimes having people cater to you, and this time, it’s my turn, so you don’t expect any different. Say yes if I’m right.”
Duncan put a paw on the arm I was using to support the top half of his weight. “Yes,” he communicated, and I laughed.
That was another change, other than the weight gain, his telepathic abilities had gotten stronger.
He’d been communicating with me a lot more often, and his “voice” was louder and clearer. That part, I loved.
“I’m glad you know your worth.” I snickered as we came to a stop on the first floor. Leaning forward, I peeked around the staircase, down the hall where Agnes was usually standing—trying to scare the crap out of me, I knew it in my gut.
But she wasn’t there.
That was another of the biggest changes in our lives over the last month—Agnes had turned into the third member of our Musketeer party.
To be honest, she was mostly in it for Duncan—only in it for him—but it had been almost two weeks since the last time she’d snarled at me in her puppy form.
The little girl, who stayed in her wolf form 80 percent of the time, had joined us for the first time the day that Matti and Sienna had left. Since then, she went out with us every night we played tag. She was still as quiet and moody as she’d been on day one, but Duncan had worked his magic on her, and she’d turned into his poofy bodyguard. And even if that hadn’t been the case, I would’ve been nice to her, but her devotion to my donut made me like her so much more.
She was the person from the ranch I spent the most time with, since Franklin was still on whatever trip he’d taken that no one seemed to ever talk about. The three of us had breakfast together every morning, dinner almost every evening, and then our midnight playtime. Some days after the nursery, she went home with a different pup and their family, but she was back before we started eating most evenings. Then Duncan and I hung around in the kitchen until Liddie, one of her nighttime caretakers, showed up to get her, or the other one got there, and Agnes went to her room to find her, before we reconvened later on.