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When the knock on the door came again, I assumed it would be our lunch, but it was Kirsten, the two vampires, and Collosa.

“Aaron has a safehouse for me to take you to, so we can get you back into your own realm,” Kirsten told us. “You’ll all have tablets to use on the Wi-Fi, but they’re locked so you can’t log into anything — no social media, banks, or anything else. The televisions will be logged into most of the streaming services, but again, no way to log into anything with your personal accounts. Not ideal, I know, but better than being here without internet, television, or even a window.”

“Will Animal and Silver be going with us?” Will asked.

“Animal and Silver are at my house, just outside of Chattanooga. Ghost and Hailey are staying at the RTMCcompound. It seems safest to keep your bandmates apart from you at this time. We don’t expect anyone to be ballsy enough to defy…” She shook her head. “Logistically speaking, it’s easier only having three people to keep alive. Your bandmates need to be protected so they can’t be abducted and used to draw you to the bad guys, but we feel the biggest threat is with the three of you, at this time.”

“Can I talk to them?” Will asked. “Especially Animal and Silver, but Hailey, too. I want to make sure she knows I accept her. She hasn’t hurt us yet, no reason to think she will in the future.”

I knew the answer before Kirsten answered. “Sorry, any communication runs the risk of telling the bad guys where you are. I can pass on the message to Hailey, though.”

“Thank you,” I told her. “For keeping them safe, and us. It’ll be nice to be back in our home realm. I’m okay with the magic here as far as control goes, but I’m itchy with it.”

She nodded. “Completely normal, based on what other shifters have told me. If I can get everyone to pile onto the loveseat?”

We landed in a little foyer area, and Kirsten left with the loveseat once she’d put us face-to-face with our security team and made sure we all knew each other.

Sometimes, time doesn’t remain parallel between the realms, and we discovered our day and a half in Alfheim had been nearly a week back home, which stressed Davy because it put him that much closer to our Alaska trip.

“Have you changed your mind about going?” Will asked him.

“No, Master, I’m just…”

He wrapped his arms around himself, and Will pulled him into his arms. “I don’t suppose it’ll do any good to order you to stop creating so much anxiety around this, is there?”

“I’ll try to do better, Master.”

Will shook his head, which Davy likely couldn’t see, and I said, “You’ll continue to be honest with us, is what you’re going to do. If you’re stressed, you’ll let us know. Don’t you dare try to hide how you’re feeling from us.”

He shook his head while his face was still buried in Will’s chest. “No, Sir. I know better than that.”

I looked at Will, hoping he’d know what to do, and Will kissed the top of Davy’s head and said, “Let’s see what’s stocked in the kitchen.”

Fifteen minutes later, the little cabin in the woods was filled with the aroma of garlic and onions.

Will pulled his hair up into a bun, and I clipped mine up and out of the way. I frequently control it with large clips while working, so I happened to have one with me. Davy chopped ingredients, and I sauteed them while Will searched the kitchen for more ingredients we might use in our lasagna.

Spices, sausage, beef, there was even ricotta cheese, which is what’d given me the idea for lasagna.

Will handed Davy the tomatoes to chop, and I took stock of where we were. Water set to boil so we could cook the pasta, with the onions and garlic ready to add to the meat once it was a little more cooked, and a large pot to make the red sauce.

It took a while, but finally, it was time to build the lasagna with layers of pasta, red sauce, meat, and cheeses.

“That’s too much cheese, Master!”

“No such thing as too much cheese,” I said, and added a little more than Will had piled on, which had admittedly been a lot.

We made a double batch because we intended to feed the security team as well. When the casserole dishes were finally in the oven, I looked over the disaster we’d made of the kitchen. It’s nice, having a slave to clean up after us, but since we’d all made the mess together with such camaraderie, it felt better to clean it up together as well.

“I’ll wash,” I said. “Davy can bring me things to clean, and then dry them and put them away when I finish.”

“I saw a shelf of games and jigsaw puzzles in the main room,” Will said. “I’m going to look through them and see what we might do later to occupy ourselves, and then I’ll come back and wipe the counters and island down.”

That made sense because he couldn’t wipe anything down until I’d washed everything currently on those surfaces.

While Will was looking at the games and puzzles, he found a stack of jeans and t-shirts in our sizes, along with several changes of underwear for all of us. They were stacked on the living room coffee table, so it was an easy assumption they were for us. Four changes of clothing, only in our sizes. Also, the brands of jeans we all prefer. Okay, so it was the brand of jeans Will prefers to put Davy’s ass in, but close enough. Also, the brand of underwear I wear, in the correct cut and size. And on the floor beneath the clothes, sneakers in Davy and Will’s sizes. Brand new, still in the box.

I figured Venom had looked up the details while he was in our heads and told Aaron or Nathan.