Page 13 of Bitter Heat
Kerry shook his head.
“I see. Are you sure?”
Kerry shrugged.
Janus’s footsteps fell heavily in the path behind him. “So…it’s just you and your father living here?”
Kerry nodded.
“No one else? Maybe a regular friend who comes over?”
Kerry narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that Janus was trying to ask about the alpha who should be living here with themgiven the circumstances. He must have finally scented Kerry’s state. It sometimes took a stranger longer exposure to recognize that a pregnant omega’s scent was not his alone. Kerry didn’t answer the question and waited for Janus to push again.
But Janus did no such thing. Instead, he said, “Your pater said you used to sing.”
Kerry continued to walk ahead silently.
“I’m sorry. Am I being too forward?”
“I’m not interested in chit-chat,” Kerry said, pitching his voice loud enough to be heard over the lively forest sounds, and firm enough to hopefully shut down Janus’s efforts to befriend him.
“You were chatty on the beach.”
“A mistake.”
“Clearly.” Janus sounded injured, and who could blame him?
What had possessed Kerry to bring the towel down? He should have let this strange alpha’s tender bits freeze off. Wolf-god alone knew what Janus might have done with them in the past, what harm he may have committed. City alphas weren’t to be trusted. If only younger Kerry had known and believed that, he wouldn’t be in this predicament now. Compared to what he’d lived through, pairing off with one of the sweeter local alphas would have been a better choice by far.
Janus said nothing the rest of the walk back to the house. Kerry held the front door open for him, allowing him to pass into the furniture-crowded front hallway. The brush of Janus’s arm against Kerry’s chest as he passed was accidental, but it sent a small shock through Kerry’s whole body. He both wanted to rub the touch away and press it deeper into his flesh. He frowned, annoyed.
“Goodnight, Mr. Heelies,” he said, sweeping past Janus to mount the stairs.
“I thought we agreed to Janus and Kerry?”
“Perhaps we were presumptuous,” Kerry said.
“I don’t think so. You’ve seen me in my bare skin. I insist on Janus.”
Kerry stopped halfway up the flight, feeling the fairness of Janus’s words. Eventually, he continued up, and it was only when he was shutting his bedroom door, and he heard Janus’s feet on the landing, that he gave in. “Goodnight, Janus. May wolf-god bless your dreams.”
He was met by silence and then a confused, “And yours, Kerry.” He waited a bit longer, heard Janus shut his bedroom door, and then locked his own.
He supposed he deserved worse. Janus had behaved admirably all evening while Kerry had been a confusing, unfriendly brat. Kerry might have judged the man too harshly.
Kiwi slept soundly with her head beneath her wing. Kerry went to the window and sat on the sill again, staring down to the lake. He pressed a hand to his stomach and pondered the possibility of sleep. Would it come to him, or would he see the dawn again? Or worse, would he wake in the night sweating from terrible dreams?
He lingered on the windowsill, pushing against his stomach.
Only time would tell.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dr. Crescent’s officewasn’t an office at all.
It was a re-purposed, open-air stable used when the weather was nice. Or so Janus hoped. Surely the doctor didn’t make sick patients wait outside when it rained or snowed? But Janus didn’t have a chance to ask.
He arrived, panting and on foot, after a steeper-than-he’d-like hike up the mountain from Monk’s House, to find a line of patients waiting to see the doctors already wrapping around the stable beside the one-story cabin that must be Dr. Crescent’s home.
