Page 13

Othoni

That night I fell into bed too stuffed to think about doing anything more than snuggling with my mate. If he minded the lack of pre-sleep orgasms he didn’t say anything. Instead, he petted my hair until I fell asleep with my head resting over his heart. I hated to admit it but Mori’s version of Dern’s story clung to my thoughts as I dozed off. Who discovers someone is different and then wants to literally hack away the difference? Was that why my carrier didn’t want outsiders around? I almost poked him over the family link to ask what he would’ve done if I met Teddy with the potion’s aid? Would’ve he have tried to force me to take a chosen feline mate? Would’ve he have disowned me like he did my brother?

“NO! NO! NO!”

Mori roared.

“Huh?”

I sat up ramrod straight and patted around for him. We didn’t always share a bed but sometimes we fell asleep talking.

“He’s having a nightmare,”

Teddy said, squinting at me through the dark.

“I’ll be back,”

I stumbled out of bed, feeling around for my shirt and deciding that it wasn’t that important anyway. I blushed at opening the door to a corridor full of guests all staring at Mori’s door. I pushed my way through them and tried the knob. It was locked. I poked at Mori as gently as I could over our little link and prayed to the ancestors he’d hear me over his own fears.

“Mate,”

Teddy’s voice reached my ears a moment later.

He was once again out of the room in only his underwear. This time he squatted down at the knob with some sort of pin and wiggled it around until the door opened. The bird man from the front desk appeared in his robe mumbling about how he had the key.

“Go on,”

Teddy said, opening the door slowly.

“You too,”

I said, taking his hand and pulling him inside the room with me. I wasn’t about to leave my mate standing in his underwear surrounded by strangers. Most shifters weren’t prudes, but Teddy was good looking and if one of them did anything more than look, I’d have to claw out their eyes and eat them. I wouldn’t have said no to a midnight snack but I wasn’t in the mood for eyeballs.

“Mors,”

I whispered, crawling into bed with our friend and gently rubbing his shoulder.

“NO! AH! Ni?”

he blinked, holding a hand over his heart. “You scared the bear shit out of me!”

“I scared you? We heard you calling for help all the way down the hall! We had to pick the lock,”

I whispered.

“I’m sorry,”

Mori sank onto his back and glanced at Teddy. “Sit down somewhere. It’s weird. All of us half dressed and you standing down there like you’re gonna get a show.”

I laughed despite how uncomfortable everyone else smelled. We were all friends here and I wanted to make sure Mori would be okay.

“It wasn’t a vision,”

Mori clarified before telling us anything about his dream. “Just a dream. Just a dream.”

He repeated that a few more times as if trying to convince himself more than me or Teddy that whatever he saw was indeed merely a dream and nothing more.

“We know,”

Teddy said. “We believe you.”

“I was tied to a table, and they were just chopping me up. They had a list on the wall of names of the omegas who were next,”

Mori rambled, and I swallowed hard. Maybe hearing more of Dern’s story was a bad idea for him.

“It’s not!”

Mori snapped, picking up my thoughts. “Seriously, it’s a small price to pay. Just because people live on other worlds doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be protected too.”

“Mori, you can’t save everyone,” I sighed.

“Not everyone needs saving,”

Teddy said. “Some places are okay. Some places….”

He yawned.

“I’m not saying we need to save everyone or that it’s even possible,”

Mori said, taking advantage of the pause Teddy’s big-mouthed yawn gave to the conversation. “What I’m saying is Dern’s story is important because he’s not the only person this has happened to. I bet his isn’t the only world it happened on.”

“Is that what you think you’re dreaming about?” I asked.

“No,”

he shook his head. “That was a nightmare. The list is the representation of what I’m afraid of. There are untold horrors going on every second and there is nothing we can do to stop them.”

“Oh, crap,”

Teddy whispered under his breath.

“What, mate?”

I glanced at him.

“This is an existential crisis,”

he frowned. “Nothing we say will help him. We can keep trying of course.”

“Huh?”

I blinked at him. I was familiar with the term but wasn’t sure how it applied to Mori right then.

“It doesn’t matter how much we do – us or anyone else – it will never be enough. The universe, this one and every other one out there, is a cruel place to be. We can pour buckets of kindness into it and it will still chew us all up at some point. Even if we can accept death as inevitable – natural causes or otherwise – we’re all left to wonder why it gnaws on some people their whole life and why some folks are left with bite marks and others aren’t.”

“Is that what you’re thinking about, Mori?”

I asked him.

“I wouldn’t have put it like that but yeah. How can I even consider just doing paranormal investigation or spirit work when so many people are ---”

his words trailed off.

“Because no one can do everything by themselves,”

Teddy yawned again. “Seriously, Mori. We all do our own little piece of it. It’s like the universe is a town. Not everyone needs to be a doctor, dentist, or a farmer. Only some of the people. As long as everyone does their part life is tolerable for most of the townspeople most of the time.”

“Is this really a conversation we want to have in the middle of the night?”

I asked, looking back and forth between my best friend and mate. “I mean at some point we probably need to talk about the business possibilities but this is heavy and it’s dark outside. Everything weighs ten times as much until the sun comes out.”

“But some things are easier to talk about in the dark,”

Mori countered and I let out a long slow breath. I wasn’t sure what to say to him or Teddy. I wasn’t sure how much of what Teddy said reflected his own feelings on the universe and how much of it was meant to comfort Mori so that he didn’t feel alone.

“The world isn’t perfect. Not ours or anywhere but I don’t think most people are bad,”

I said firmly.

“No, they’re not. They just let bad things happen,”

Teddy said.

“You’re not helping, mate!”

I snapped and Mori laughed.

“Don’t argue over me,”

he said a second later. “You’re both right and hey, at least we know Dern turned out okay in the end.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Have you met him?”

Teddy laughed.

“Teddy!”

I scolded but Mori laughed. Then I laughed too. It wasn’t funny in the haha way. It was funny in the morbid way all true things are funny. Dern was who he was good and bad because of what happened.

“Come here,”

I beckoned Teddy. “Come cuddle.”

“Is this a trap?”

Teddy asked not standing up. “Earlier you were pretty adamant about keeping me all to yourself.”

“I’m not sharing anything with Mori besides your body heat. We’re furry. We cuddle. We touch. It’s what we do. You know that. You’re part furry. Come over here and cuddle me. My back’s going to get all cold and you have that big ole fire ---”

“Is that what he calls it?”

Mori teased and I bit his ear playfully.

He yelped and Teddy laughed as he joined us up at the top of the bed with all the pillows. He snuggled in behind me and I grabbed his arm to wrap it around both of us. I wasn’t willing to share Teddy as a lover with anyone else. My jaguar wasn’t having it but I’d share him as a protector because the ancestors knew both of them needed to feel useful in this world. I buried my face in the back of Mori’s neck, letting him know we were both right here with him. No one from anywhere was going to get through us and hurt one of us. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever. If a wolf, a jaguar, and a dragon couldn’t handle it, the world was probably ending anyway.