Page 18 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)

Chapter Sixteen

Beal

Moonscale London

I woke up to the smell of meat on the grill. Raiel must’ve found the big backyard grill and set to cooking. I hadn’t seen the grill with my own eyes, but I knew it was there because Nic knew it was there.

“He better be watching the kitten too,” my cat rambled off into my thoughts as I snuggled into Nic’s back.

He was warm and cozy and smelled so fucking content that I hated to budge up for a shower but eventually I convinced myself to get out of bed. He’d wake up hungry soon and I wanted to be ready as quickly as possible to go downstairs with him.

“He needs cleaned up too,” my cat pointed out.

He did but one thing at a time was all anyone could do.

Besides, he was the one sent to the hospital, not me.

I took a quick shower and dried up the bathroom from all the water we got all over the place earlier in the day.

By the time I made it back to the bedroom Nic was up and scrolling on his phone.

“News?” I asked, unsure of what he was looking for. I didn’t bother with the mobile phones that Earthsiders loved but knew a lot of them claimed they were reading the news.

“A lot of coverage,” he nodded. “Shiny Butt isn’t being dragged, surprisingly. A lot of people are commenting about Jon and them, though. Apparently, they were just slimy.”

“I’m sorry he was a slimeball who had to die,” I said. “Do you want to shower and I change the bedding?”

Nic glanced down at his stomach and back up at me.

“I don’t know if you’re pregnant or not. I helped make the mess. So, it’s only natural that I help clean it up,” I shrugged.

“I’m going to take you up on that offer just in case offers like that don’t keep coming,” he grinned.

“Do you know how long I lived alone? No one changes the sheets for me. I do it. Cleaning is a survival skill not an Alpha/Omega gene thing.”

Nic stole a quick kiss and disappeared into the bathroom. I almost followed him, but we might’ve gotten caught in a loop of showering and romping. Which would be fine later, but it was well past lunchtime and Nic needed to eat.

“Just in case he’s pregnant,” my cat said.

“Because he’s hungry,” I chuckled.

I made my way downstairs to the laundry room with the sheets and started the machine before heading to the backyard to find Raiel at the grill.

He was turning over hotdogs while the little orange kitten stared up at him like he was the one who stole all the milk.

He mewed when he saw me and went straight into telling me all about how Raiel wasn’t sharing all the meat he hunted from the box and that he was a big fat thumb-weilding bully.

“Oh really?” I laughed and held out my hand for the little guy. He ambled over for me to pick him up.

“If he thinks I’m a bully wait until he meets the vet,” Raiel grinned.

“Has it been quiet today?” I asked, looking up at the early evening sky.

“Yeah. No one’s made a peep since you two passed out except for him. He’s been grumbling since I took the stuff out of the fridge. Some of these hotdogs are bigger than he is!” Raiel laughed.

“Ah, be nice! He’ll grow big and strong, won’t you, buddy?”

The consensus was that he would NOT grow big and strong, and it would be all Raiel’s fault. Which he made sure to attempt to tell Nic as soon as he walked barefoot into the back yard only wearing a pair of light blue pants that looked both really sexy and really comfy.

“I think I got most of that,” Nic laughed. “Who knew the best way to learn a new language is to get bit by a native speaker?”

After we ate, Nic went to peek in on his mother and Raiel went off to relocate the rest of the cats.

Alone with the kitten, I wondered what my mate would call him.

With the others gone, I fed him tiny pieces of cold hotdog that he growled at while he ate.

He wasn’t so different from the kids back home except that he’d never shift into a person.

A short-ish dragon walked by the back fence in a guard uniform and I rolled my eyes. I didn’t need to ask to know where he was headed.

“Eating his face might be easier than letting him talk to Nic,” my cat chimed into my thoughts, and I clamped down on the words as quickly as I could before they drifted up to where my mate was checking on his mother.

“Hey!” I called out. “You coming here?”

“Beal?” the guard turned toward the fence.

“The one and only as far as I know,” I nodded.

“Is there any chance that I can speak to the lady of the house?” the guard asked.

“Uh… Do you require that she speaks back?” I asked.

“What?”

“Do you require that she speaks back?” I asked again.

This guy needed to clean his ears out.

“I know no one wants the guards to show up on their doorstep unannounced but the lady of the house hasn’t been answering her phone.”

The kitten growled and hissed, warning the guard away. The corners of the dragon’s lips curled into a grin.

“Well, I don’t reckon she would,” I said.

“Clarence is trying to confirm that she is in fact okay.”

“He’s just worried about bad press,” Nic walked up behind me, having spotted the guard from the window. “She’s not making a statement to anyone right now and no we won’t promise not to discuss the events that took place with the public. We’re not making any promises or signing anything.”

The guard blinked.

“I’m not a lawyer,” he said a second later.

“Then don’t argue about it with me. Tell Clarence she’s fine but that’s all he gets for now,” Nic said. “We’re on our matingmoon and do not wish to be disturbed.”

The guard opened his mouth and shut it again. The kitten hissed and Nic took him to hold the orange ball of fur against his chest. He sniffed his little head and eyeballed me. He knew I gave the baby pieces of hotdog and all that salt wasn’t great for him.

“I’ll let him know,” the guard rubbed the back of his neck.

“You do know Clarence didn’t do this, right?

He causes a lot of problems sometimes, but this wasn’t about him.

We have to investigate crimes especially when such wild rumors fly around.

He’d like me to take her statement on what she knows about Sharon Claudis. ”

“Not much,” Nic said, stroking the fur on the kitten’s back as it dozed off warm, cozy, and with a full belly.

“We found one three second clip of them walking together,” the guard said.

“Who knows why crazy people do anything? You’re not accusing my mother of being an accomplice to her, are you?” Nic asked.

I crossed my arms over my chest and stared into the guy’s face. He took a step back and I’d have put good money on the hair on the back of his neck standing up. Modern shifters hated when we turned our primal gaze on them.

“No, but if she has any information that may help us capture her, it would be appreciated.”

“I didn’t know my mother was on the guard’s payroll,” Nic said. “It seems to me she’s given the flight enough free labor by being forced to defend our family against three men with known criminal backgrounds.”

Annila had never asked for help and she hadn’t started the whole ordeal either. Still, protective Nic was sexy. I raised an eyebrow in the guard’s direction, waiting for him to speak.

“Will you ask her to give Clarence or Medwin a call if she has any information to share?” the guard asked.

“Sure,” Nic nodded.

“Do you want a hotdog?” I asked.

Bemused, the guard shook his head and took his leave.

Nic laughed and leaned his head against me.

I wrapped an arm around him as we watched the guard leave together.

Whatever Sharon Claudis did, she had also managed to get my mother-in-law out of a potentially scary situation.

The new information that Clarence gathered about the shebear was confusing.

If Annila knew anything about her, she hadn’t told me and if she told Nic he was managing to keep it to himself and I was just fine with that.

If Sharon was as crazy as everyone in London made her out to be, she’d get caught eventually either way.