Anton
THREE YEARS LATER
Leaning in, I kissed Ker’s cheek, and Spark—a young phoenix that decided Keryth and Gemma were his best friends and wanted nothing to do with anyone else—chirped in irritation at me.
Ker snorted and murmured to him, “Be nice.”
The bird ignored him.
“Yeah, good luck with that.” With a chuckle, I headed for the fridge to grab some food. We had a couple of hours before we needed to leave for our date, so we were making the girls lunch and planning on spending some time with them before everyone went their separate ways.
Our other young phoenix chick, Fury, started dancing on the kitchen island when I brought the food over. She apparently thought I was making her a snack. I was not, no matter how many tricks she did and how endearing she was.
Keryth laughed. “Don’t act like you’re not making her a snack.”
I supposed he’d heard my thoughts, and he wasn’t wrong.
“I’m never wrong.”
That made me snort and shake my head. “Uh-huh. Right.”
He chuckled and moved closer to nudge my arm affectionately before he gave Fury a few pets. Unlike her brother, she actually liked everyone in the family, although she had her favorites. I counted myself lucky to be among them, along with Kat and Saranor.
Jed was sad that neither Fury nor Spark had chosen him, especially considering he was the one who’d found them in a nest that had fallen out of a tree in the Adenavale Territory. He’d searched for and waited for their mother, but she never returned to the nest. We’re not sure what happened to her, but we suspected someone had captured her since that was a big problem in that territory. By the time Jed had shown up, Fury and Spark were the only chicks that survived—three others hadn’t been so lucky, starving without their parents.
We’d had to hand-feed the little chicks, and everyone had fallen in love. In fact, I was pretty sure everyone was sad when they outgrew that stage. Technically, they weren’t even chicks anymore, but everyone still referred to them as such, even over a year later.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild because they both had one wing irregularity that affected their ability to fly. One of their wings didn’t grow in all the way. We weren’t sure what happened to them, but we suspected they’d been injured while still in their eggs.
Whatever the cause, they were the sweetest and prettiest little birds in the world, and we were all happy to have them join our family.
“Girls!” Keryth yelled. “Come and eat!”
Saranor yelled back, “Coming, Dad!” But the other three didn’t respond, and Keryth rolled his eyes with a sigh.
I patted his back, hiding a grin, before I slid a plate over to Zell’s spot at the kitchen island since she was the first in the room, despite not answering her father. Fury immediately ran over to it, and Zell laughed as she climbed onto her seat, trying to guard her food from a pecking phoenix.
The other three girls came in, and all wound up sitting at the island while both phoenixes hopped around, made them laugh, and let the girls feed them little treats.
When I caught Ker taking a few pictures of them with his phone, I wasn’t surprised and walked over to him, stepping behind him and wrapping him in my arms. He leaned back against me without hesitation, and I nuzzled his neck.
We settled in that way, and I soaked up the comfort and calm joy of the moment. I could’ve stood there with him in my arms for the rest of the day, if I was being honest.
As the kids were finishing up, the front door opened, and Jed walked inside, carrying a large cardboard box. The second I saw his face, I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever was in that box.
“What did you do?” Keryth asked him, taking the words right out of my mouth.
Jed smirked at him. “Soooo… I was hanging out at the bookshop, right? And since I was being nice, I decided to take out the cardboard after I helped unpack the new arrivals. Imagine my surprise when I heard little cries coming from the dumpster down the alley—the one the coffee shop uses.”
The box wiggled, and I sighed. “Jedediah, what’s in that box?”
He set the box on the island, and all four girls crowded around, Sara and Zell kneeling on the stools and leaning on the island to reach better.
Alsira said, “Oh, my Mother, they’re so cute!”
“Oh no,” Keryth breathed out. “He brought home more animals.”
With a grimace, I squeezed him and buried my face in his neck again with a sigh. “What are we going to do with him?”
“I have no idea, but he and the girls are already half in love with whatever’s in there. I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get rid of it.” He stepped forward suddenly and scooped up both phoenix chicks before leaning back against me as he cradled them in his arms. “I don’t want them getting near whatever that is.”
“Probably a good idea.” To Jed, I again asked, “What’s in the box, Jedediah?”
He smiled widely at me. “Four kitsune kits!”
I blinked at him, and Keryth groaned out, “Jed, kitsunes are dangerous!”
Jed looked shocked and offended. “They are not. They only get dangerous when they’re like hundreds of years old and someone’s mistreated them or they’ve been kicked out of their family group or whatever. These guys are babies, and we’re going to take super good care of them. As long as we treat them with kindness, they’ll be kind in return.”
I said, “Some of them shapeshift into people, Jed. They’re not meant to be pets. They’re intelligent beings.”
He waved me off. “Again, that only happens when they’re hundreds of years old. They’re basically like little foxes for the first hundred years or whatever. People raise them all the time. We have nothing to worry about.”
I sighed, and Keryth groaned, saying, “How are we gonna take care of them?”
“Don’t worry. I called my vet friend, and she’s going to come over to check them out and give them shots or whatever. She’s also bringing me some books about taking care of them, but I’m pretty sure they’re similar to having cats in your house.”
Ker lifted the chicks up. “What about Fury and Spark?”
“I asked about that already. Since they’re so young, we can teach them not to go after them. Plus, those two can just light them on fire if they get too bitey.” He snapped his fangs together in demonstration, as if we didn’t understand what bitey meant.
“Because we obviously want them lighting fires in the house.”
Jed waved Ker off. “It’ll be fine.” He reached into the box and pulled out a tiny white ball of fur, holding it out toward us. “Plus, look how cute they are! They need a home, Ker. How can you say no to this little face?” He turned the ball of fur so we could see a tiny nose twitching and little black eyes blinking against the light.
Good grief, that thing was adorable.
In my head, I heard Keryth say, “Well, shit. It’s so stinkin’ cute, I think I might be half in love with it already too.”
I snorted and sighed, ready to give in. “Fine, Jed. But you better teach them some manners. I will not have Fury and Spark hurt. Nor will I have cruel shapeshifting people in our den in two hundred years. As long as they’re nice, kind, and learn some manners, then I suppose you can keep them.”
He smiled so widely you’d think I’d offered him the moon. “Don’t worry. I have it under control, and these guys already love me, so I can put their beds and stuff in my room.” He tucked the one he was holding against his chest, and it leaned up to rub its head against his chin like a cat.
“Fuck, that’s so cute.” Keryth passed me the phoenix chicks, but Spark immediately jumped onto his shoulder. Keryth didn’t even notice. He just lifted his phone and snapped a picture of Jed and the kit.
When the others all came down to see what was going on, Ker walked over to take a few more pictures of the kits and our family. He was going to have to send me some because I was sure they were good ones.
When he finally finished, he walked over to me with a bird on his shoulder—I had the other on my shoulder—and he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen. As he headed for the stairs, I lifted a brow.
He let out a chuckle. “Everyone’s occupied, so I figured we could go get ready for our date.”
I checked the time and was surprised to find it so late. We must’ve been drawn into Jed’s ridiculousness for much longer than I realized.
When we reached our room, we both put the chicks on the large tree in the corner—nearly every single room in the house had some kind of perch for them—and I headed for my dresser.
Before I got there, Keryth wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me into him. I rested my arms over his shoulders and leaned in for a kiss. He complied, then stared up at me with a soft smile.
He looked so sweet and warm as he spoke. “If we don’t stop Jed soon, we’re going to live in a zoo.”
A surprised bark of laughter came out of me. “I really expected you to say something romantic just now.”
He grinned. “I know you did.” He pecked my lips. “But that really needed to be said. I love animals, but he’s going to get out of control if we don’t rein him in.”
“I think we’ll be okay.”
He hummed. “I’m so gonna say I told you so if he comes home with more pets.”
I laughed. “I’d expect nothing less.”
With a chuckle, he pulled me harder against him and captured my mouth for a scorching kiss. Just as I decided to ask him if we should stay in tonight instead of going on our date, he broke the kiss and panted out, “We need to get ready.”
“You sure you don’t want to stay in?”
He laughed and gave me a squeeze. “There’ll be plenty of time for that after our date.” He smacked my ass and backed away. “Now, get ready before we lose our chance to get away. I love our family more than anything. But, Anton, we finally have a chance to go out, and I want to take it.”
“Fair enough.” But before I let him get too far, I tugged him back to me, kissed him soundly, and whispered against his lips, “I love you, my darling Keryth.”
He smiled against my lips. “I love you too.”
With that, I released him and we both hurried to get ready. He was right. We needed a date night out, just the two of us.
We had the rest of tonight, the rest of forever, for everything else.
Thank you for reading Anton and Keryth’s story.