Page 2

Baby, I Love Your Way

Chess

After Dolly hears my embarrassing, geeky secret, we settle back in with our knitting.

We’re both making tiny gifts for Raina and her crew, though she’s moving slower than me.

I’ll probably end up doing more than one, but honestly?

She’s catching on fairly quickly, unlike my brothers and the gargoyle.

I like that we’re all sharing hobbies now; this family unit stuff is much healthier than the Khan boys were when my angel arrived.

It’s good for grumpy old ancients, too, because they isolate far less.

Dolly Drew may have healed herself piece by piece, but she’s also healing the broken spots in us as well.

“ Raawwwwwwwwr! ”

My angel shrieks and I jump about a foot in the air, almost stabbing the intruder who came up stealthily behind us has to be our mate. “ Holy. Goddamn. Fuck!”

Lowering the knitting needles, I look at Fitz reproachfully as he gives us his best psycho grin. “You realize this is supposed to be our ‘safe place’, you dickhead. Look what you did to our girl.”

His eyes dart to Dolly as she heaves a long, slow sigh, probably trying to calm down her bunny. “Aw, Baby Girl… I didn’t mean to really spook you. How can I make it up to you? I’m game for anything you want.”

Dolly’s eyes go from wide to wicked in a blink, despite her racing pulse. “I might forgive you if you help me with something. I can’t tell you now , obviously, but… you have to agree to it, no matter what.”

That’s dangerous as hell. Fitz would be crazy to ? —

“Anything means anything, Baby Girl. You’re on.” He gives me an even crazier grin, and I groan inwardly. The two of them are practically unmanageable when they’re together, especially if it rises to a challenge.

I clear my throat and say, “If it’s dangerous, Felix and Aubrey will lose their shit. You realize that, right? I mean, we all care, but those two are… particular about keeping everyone safe.”

“Ah, but they don’t own me, Chessie. No one ever will again, so as the Queen of Anarchy under this roof, I decree that Fitz and I are scheming.

” She presses her lips together, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she wiggles in her seat a bit.

“But… to make your heart stop thudding, I promise it’s not dangerous. It’ll be fun, I think. Is that better?”

Fitz ruffles my hair, messing up the careful topknot. “Sure it is, D. Chessie is cautious by nature and he’s always been a peacemaker. You know exactly how to get him calmed down… and riled up.”

His brows bob and I crack my neck as I try not to let his implication affect me.

The rest of the guys will be here soon, and there is much to discuss.

Our mini ‘conclave’ with the others led to decisions about how we would all contribute to hunting down clues once the Council lifted the ban on leaving campus.

We’re allowed to leave in two days, which means I have to wrangle my less organized family members into getting ready.

Everyone has their assignments, and as soon as we confirm ours, we have to skedaddle.

“Stop that,” I grumble as he leaps over the back of the couch to wiggle in between us and put his arms around our shoulders. “You are not always the main character, my love.”

That gets a snort out of him that is hard enough to hurt. “Of course not, baby. She is; weren’t you listening?” Fitz taps his ear playfully, pretending to be put upon. “Baby Girl, I think he needs his ears checked. You should use your tongue.”

Dolly socks him in the thigh, even as she giggles. “Fitz, you are extra horny today, which is making you impossible. We can’t drop everything to fuck all the time; it’s ridiculous and impractical. Sometimes, we have to focus on the tasks at hand.”

“People in your dirty books don’t seem to think so,” he pouts, batting his lashes. “I think my mates aren’t nearly as accommodating as the ones we read about. They get to fuck in the middle of battles, and in classrooms, and on camera… I’m being persecuted for my needs. That’s what it is.”

“Fitz, between the six of us, we have enough sex to breed a fucking herd of cattle.” Winking at our girl, I shake my head.

“My angel is right; there’s a time and place for everything.

Right now, it’s time to get our shit together so we can leave for our part of the summer sleuthing.

If it makes you feel better, we can fuck on the train? ”

His eyes light up and Dolly squeals, too. They share a manic grin as they both say, “I’ve never done it on a train before.”

When they realize they just ‘twin talked’, they high-five, then dissolve into laughter.

Aye-yi-yi… they’re going to be a handful on a wacky European road trip—I can feel it in my bones.

“The Captain and his crew will leave early in the morning on Monday. They’re headed for the remote isle where the puffin elder and his clan live when they are not traveling.” Renard is draped over his chair, his tail swishing like a cat’s as he looks at our family.

“Good,” Felix replies before he sips his whiskey.

“I think using them as proxies will make the prey shifters feel more comfortable than if we’d gone ourselves.

The Princess is an odd mixture of both, but they would have been able to sense the pred in her.

I’m not sure we would have gotten as much information with their natural instincts telling them to run from us. ”

Aubrey snorts, arching a brow as amusement crosses his face. “You’re probably right, Raj. I don’t know the makeup of their motley crew, but given Raina claimed it’s a circus? They probably have a wide variety of species, many too small to withstand extended visits from apex preds.”

“Farley said he and the badgers are digging in Paris. He wants to find out more about the cult we stole from, and the Council connections of the staff here.” I push my glasses up as I look up from my tablet, waiting for someone to jump in. “That only leaves your friends, Angel.”

Dolly sits up, grinning broadly. “Rufus, Cori, the triplets, and Coach Z are heading to Oxford to meet with the big guy’s colleagues.

Ru-Ru is out of his mind excited because West End theater is incredible, but the real reason is to have the Kavarits get them access to archives at the college and the British Museum.

Their connections will help them get to documents we might need to piece everything together and stop a war. ”

“They won’t be able to read them,” Aubrey grumbles. “Fucking sphinxes are useless with translation, and none of them know Fae like Rennie.”

The gargoyle in question winks at him. “Don’t respond; you have no idea how much complaining he’s done in private about missing that brief journey. I’ve done my best to soothe it, but I hope like hell your friends and Z can get scans and pictures for us to examine or he’ll never shut up.”

“Research isn’t Zhenga’s forte, but wrangling stubborn, privileged preds is part of her skill set.

She’ll keep them on task and ensure the trip isn’t wasted time, Aubrey.

” Felix shoots him a stern look before he continues.

“We have to delegate, even if you hate it. There’s too much to do, too many people involved, and the result of failure is not one we can afford. ”

“True,” I say as I beam my screen on the TV.

“Which is why we are waiting for the response so we can book our train tickets and accommodations to the eastern part of the continent. The trip from our destination to where the gargoyles are hiding will take some time, and we have no idea how that’s going to go.

That’s why we can’t pivot and do this other shit ourselves. You know that, Aubrey.”

“Fine,” the dragon huffs, rolling his eyes as he does the closest thing to a pout I’ve seen on him yet.

I wonder if he’s been taking lessons from Fitzy? No matter.

“Oh!”

Everyone turns to look at our mate and she gives Aubrey a positively evil grin.

“You can stop being grumpy about the dusty old books because Chessie reminded Fitz and me that we can have sex on a train . That’s a new one for the list and we have a long ass trip to the launch point for the gargoyle hunt. Isn’t that fabulous?”

Aubrey’s jaw drops, Felix groans, and I cover my chuckle as she bounces on the couch excitedly.

Fitz just leans back, looking smug as he soaks in our reactions.

When the dragon finally gets his shit together, he huffs a few smoke rings, then nods.

He looks mollified as he grumbles, “Okay, that helps. Thanks, lunchable.”

“See? I told you they’d be happy when you said that, Baby Girl. Old Briquette Balls is pretending to be mildly interested, but the nose knows , gentleman. You all like that plan, and we’ll rock the fucking car like it’s an earthquake when it happens.”

“For fuck’s sake, Fitz!” Felix growls as he shakes his head. “You have to cool down or we won’t get anything done. Stop acting like we’re fifteen again and it’s your first boner.”

Dolly rises, automatically sensing our need for soothing.

She walks over to Felix and drops onto his lap, her hand cupping his face.

“I know you’re worried about this because it might hurt Rennie, but we have to face our pasts to move on.

You and Fitz will have to do the same with your father, I will with Lucille, and Aubrey may have to do it with his parents. ”

“They said ‘okay’, by the way.” Renard’s casual interjection makes us all turn to look at the languid gargoyle in surprise, even Aubrey.

“Well, to be precise, la famille royale ? 1 extended an invitation to visit their lands for myself and my ‘clutch’. I doubt they wrote the letter themselves, as it was very stilted and formal. That’s the work of some underling, I’m sure. ”

I don’t believe his laissez-faire ? 2 attitude for a second. “Ren, you don’t have to pretend like it didn’t hurt you. We’re your actual family ; you can be pissed in front of us.”

The gargoyle sighs, not looking at me as he shrugs.

“Chester, mon ami , I have spent centuries knowing that no one in my community wished to mend fences. Even though the ‘danger’ was gone when they supposedly killed and buried her, they chose to send me away and leave me in exile. I had no illusions that contacting them would fix this rift. I simply did so, because we need their connections to the magicals. If anyone knows where they have settled after the Veil closed, it is the gargoyle network.”

“That doesn’t mean their cold, pat response didn’t upset you,” Aubrey rumbles. “I expect much the same from my clash and it will hurt. I can’t avoid it, obviously, but knowing that tradition and punishment outweigh blood is never easy to swallow.”

My angel tilts her head as she looks at her other fully bonded mate.

“And I , like the big guy, can feel how it wounded you. So there’s no need to put on a mask in front of everyone.

We are here for you, Rennie—no matter what.

If your damn ex-family won’t share, we’ll fuck right off to the next thing. ”

“We can’t leave without their information, ma petite .”

“Bet me. We will exit stage right with swift fury if they so much as give you the stink-eye when we arrive. I won’t put up with anyone abusing my mates.

There’s nothing they could offer me to allow it.

” Dolly crosses her arms over her chest and sticks her chin out.

“And know this… all of you. If one fucking person lays a finger on any of you, I will rip their head off and eat it, too, because that seems like the only effective way to get rid of people anymore.”

I blink, then the laughter takes me. Within a few moments, the others join in as our girl stubbornly holds her ground.

Looks like the gargoyles better mind their Ps and Qs or they’re going to be on the menu for a feral rabbit.