Page 15

Mori

It was another three hours before we were all seated inside Mori’s sunlit room at the care home. I had lingered in the corridor as long as I could giving my friends to do all their good morning smooching before breakfast arrived. In fact, I didn’t reenter my room until I was sure Teddy had pants on. I’d seen enough of Ni’s jaguar to know that I didn’t want to fight him. I might’ve been okay if I would’ve actually fought him but I wasn’t willing to hurt my friend just because his beasty parts had its thong stuck up its buttcrack. My pride could take a beating if it was unavoidable.

Somehow we made it through breakfast and them going to their own rooms to get cleaned up and dressed without any fights breaking out. Hell, we’d even made the walk to Dern’s without fighting. Then again, we were all friends even if Othoni was more territorial than normal.

“Oh, you came,”

Dern glanced up when we walked into the room. The heavy door was already propped open and sunshine poured into his room by the bucketful. “Thought you’d forgotten about me or that he changed his mind.”

Dern nodded at Teddy.

“Not yet,”

Teddy shrugged. “I did tell the Rian that he better have patted you down before I got here.”

We all laughed except for Ormund. The old bird wasn’t thrilled with Teddy’s presence. The dead didn’t carry their scents with them but if I could’ve smelled him, he would’ve been fighting mad. Ormund spent centuries -at least – protecting his mate. Teddy had knocked Dern out after getting shot. So of course, the dead phoenix had to size him up.

“Don’t you start that,”

Dern warned. “He ain’t gonna come back if you start acting like a peacock. Save it for tonight, Orm.”

Ormund sat back down next to his mate but he didn’t take his eyes off of Teddy as we all sat down. I retrieved my laptop and prayed to anyone who might be listening in that the alphas could keep their tempers in check long enough for us to get all this over with. I wouldn’t rush Dern but didn’t look forward to the nightmares that were certain to follow hearing more of his story.

“What do you know about my carrier?”

Teddy asked, cutting straight to the chase.

“Plenty,”

Dern sighed. “We only met once but I know plenty because everyone does, lizard pup.”

“Thought you wanted to tell me something to do with her,”

Teddy said, and I glanced at Othoni. While I hated the notion that as omegas it was our jobs to keep our mates in line, I really hoped Othoni could keep Teddy from going off the hinges. Othoni moved to sit on his lap, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Teddy probably wouldn’t toss his mate across the room to attack Dern.

“I do when the time is right. Besides, we haven’t finished keeping the promise yet,”

Dern said. “So, where were we when you left yesterday?”

I almost reminded him that I was dismissed the night before but bumping heads with Dern on such small details wouldn’t get us anywhere.

“I had just saved you and taken you home to the peck,”

Ormund said, his eyes and voice softening when he spoke to his mate. Maybe it wasn’t our job to keep our alpha mates from losing their shit. Maybe we just had that effect on them.

“Not like we’d know,”

my wolf rolled his eyes inside his inner sanctum as Dern began to speak.