Page 18 of The Baby Hex (Mori’s Mementos #2)

Crilus

I dragged Mori off into the woods surrounding Moonglow Cabin. I knew better than anyone how infuriating family could be. We both had too many siblings to count on both of our hands and parents with heavy pasts that made them overprotective at times.

“What is this really about?” Mori snapped when we ran out of paved stones to walk on. “Are you showing me where Reve died or something?”

“No! I don’t think of him often. Mostly what I remember about that day is that damn murder dog trying to get me to leave before he was ever a murder dog.

Apparently, he liked me better than the iguana man.

This is about you losing your shit. I get that this is probably an appropriate time for you to lose your shit, but I can’t right now.

This is my time to lose my shit and that’s exactly what’s happening. ”

“What?” Mori blinked at me. “The answer to your problem is easy!” He threw his hands up and tried to start back toward the house.

“Nope!” I sprinted in front of him. “Not until you get your shit together! You’re going to hate yourself later! If you go in there and stress him out again while he’s pregnant, you’re going to hate yourself! If he decides to go no contact or shut you out, you’re going to hate yourself!”

“What if someone hurt him? What if that’s how he got pregnant?!” Mori growled. “What if they made him---”

“Then I will hold the fucker down while you carve out his spleen with a dull, rusty spoon. Then we can do the same to his testicles!” I grabbed Mori’s shoulder. “But we don’t know if that’s what happened!”

My hands trembled and my every sense was heightened. I knew what it was. It was Pierce. No that wasn’t fair. It was my reaction to Pierce.

“If it was a hookup or something, why didn’t he tell me?” Mori asked, his eyes shifting back to his wolf’s.

“Look, I don’t know why he didn’t tell you, but I think you’re asking all the wrong questions.

Is he okay? Does he need help? Do we need to cut out the guy’s spleen?

Those are the questions you ask!” my fingers dug into his shoulders.

“Mori, it feels like if I let go of you, I’m going to slip off the face of Earthside. ”

“Did you really bring me into the woods so that you can rant about how unfair life is? About how you can’t just accept that you’ve found your true-mate and that it’s a good thing?” Mori growled.

My wolf growled inside his inner sanctum, but I shoved him back down. I wasn’t about to fight Mori. Even if I was pretty sure I could kick his ass, I wouldn’t win.

“No, I brought you out here because you looked how I felt! I can’t do anything about Pierce! We can do something about Preston! We can help him! You just need to breathe! You’ve been off since you fainted!”

“Yes, I’m off! Dern is an asshole and I’m so stupid! I trusted an asshole because he told me upfront, he was an asshole!” Mori growled.

“Did he hurt you?”

“NO! He’s making me keep really big secrets and it’s killing me.

I feel like he’s making me into an asshole!

” Mori said and sank down onto the forest floor.

Only elven grace saved him from getting a literal stick up his butt.

I sat down next to him, and we scooted back until we found a tree to lean against.

“I’m sorry life is so fucked up! I’m sorry our home got attacked! My shields should’ve held. They should’ve made it impossible---”

“They did hold!” Mori said. “They held! That’s why it was only the windows. Same with whatever magic is here at Moonglow. When I find out who tried to hurt my brother and blew up your bar in the process – I’m going to carve their spleen out with that rusty spoon you have hidden away.”

“Deal,” I nodded and leaned my head back against the tree.

“So, we have three things to deal with,” Mori said. “Preston’s pregnant, someone wants to hurt him, and you’re losing your shit because you met your true-mate.”

“Four.”

“Four?” he asked.

“You’re losing your shit because you think Preston doesn’t trust you.”

“Fair enough,” Mori nodded.

“Will Teddy be able to help with that?” I asked him.

“Maybe the rusty spoon part,” he shrugged. “He’s supposed to be the muscle of the operation.”

“You know I’d kill someone over you and Preston, right? That Pierce would too? And my dad.”

“I know,” Mori said, losing some of his steam. “I know all of that.”

“I think we’re passing panic around. You smell so angry.”

“You smell so defeated with the whole Pierce thing,” Mori shot back at me.

“Mori, it feels like I’m going to die if I’m not with him and like both of our lives are going to be blown to smithereens if I am with him. And he’s saying all this shit like he’d rather die with me tomorrow than live without me and I don’t know if I can be the reason he dies and live with myself.”

“Are you going to kill him? Is there something else you’re not telling me?” Mori asked.

“I’d never hurt him on purpose but ---”

“But what? Your grandma was crazy? Have you heard about my uncle?” Mori asked.

“I know you have. That was a shitty question. They were crazy. Maybe they had reasons. Things that drove them there. That doesn’t make it okay.

What they did will never be okay. They killed the people they were supposed to protect. ”

“What in the fuck are we going to do?” I sighed.

“I’m going to check on my brother and try not to be an ass and you’re going to come to some agreement with Pierce.

What else can we do? And somewhere in the middle of all that we’ll figure out who is behind all of this and handle it.

Then we’ll have a baby shower and a mating feast at your bar.

We’ll knit all sorts of stuff for Preston’s baby and yours, if you two decide to have one. ”

“I want a baby,” I whispered because if I spoke too loudly the universe would hear me and fuck up my wishes.

“I think you should have one. I think that you should have everything you want, Crilus. Life is hard. Life is so fucking hard. Even with good parents, it’s hard sometimes but you deserve good things.”

“So do you.”

“I’ll settle for my brother having a one-night-stand-baby because I think they’ll be less spleens to carve out that way,” Mori said and then bit his lip.

“If it’s a bad thing, don’t react right away. I mean in what you say to him. If it’s bad, he’s already dealt with a lot.”

“Do you think he’d have told me?” Mori asked.

“I don’t know. I’m not him. It’s hard to say.”

“Can we go back now or are you going to sit on me if I try to get up?”

“Have you cooled down?” I asked him.

“As much as I’m going to until this is all over.”

“Then you’ll be worked up forever. Life never really calms down all that much,” I shrugged.

“Then figure it out with Pierce because do you really want to handle every problem life has in store for you while also trying to ignore your true-mate?”

“Not particularly,” I admitted.

“If I go batshit like her, you’ll kill me before I hurt someone, right?”

Mori thought about it for a second and nodded his agreement. That was the closest thing to a promise that I was going to get from him. So, I took what I could get and stood up.

“Let’s go see if the cabin is still standing,” I sighed and held out my hand to help him up.

“Let’s wolf it back. I know it’s not far, but a good run will do us both some good.”

Agreeing I gave in to my wolf. Maybe he had a better perspective on all this than I did.