Page 35 of April's Fool
So while Dessi and Hana were such good parents, they were a tad overbearing. Okay, more than a little. Gone were the stolen moments with bone melting kisses. There was no chance of a blow job or hand job in the orchard, with them liable to pop up at the most inopportune time. Just ask Cody, who had already quietly complained multiple times about being caught in compromising positions with Toth. It kept happening to them, which shouldn’t have been hilarious, except it was.
Cody loved having grandparents. He just would have liked to have them at more of a distance.
Hard same, Cody. I wanted some time alone with Mori to see where this thing was going between us.We’d tried to get away several times with no success. Neither Mori’s parents, Keren, or Cody wanted us out of their sight. Frankly, it was ridiculous. I was a trained killer! I could protect Mori. We’d broached the subject many times but they always used the hit on me as an excuse.
We were into March, weeks of relaxing in the sunny demon realm making me lazy, when it happened. I got a call from Parker.
“We’re in the clear! I’ve got Basil and any sympathizers out of the group. I’ve scrubbed our identities. Everything from that old life is gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean?”
There was a long pause on the line to the point where I moved the phone away to check it was still connected to the call.
“I thought you wanted out, too.” He sounded hesitant. “So I made it look like the oldest versions of us were dead and that our current identities, Parker and Damon, were clean and sparkly. Nowhere near the dark web and just normal security consultants. Did I do the wrong thing?” The worry in his voice cut me to my soul.
“No.” I let out a breath. Parker had given me such a great gift. “No, I wanted out. It’s just there was nothing for so long and now it’s over, y’know?” The weight of my past didn’t completely fall free from my shoulders,but it eased knowing that I could start fresh, be someone that Mori might want to keep around.
“There’s something else…” Parker trailed off. I could sense his unease. The small hitch in his breath let me know this was a big deal.
“Oh-kay,” I said, drawing it out. “What else?”
“When I was cleaning our identities, I changed a few things.”
The anticipation was killing me. Was he feeling guilty? Was it really that bad?
“Well?”
“I, uh, made Magnus our dad and us brothers. We all share the same last name of Miller.”
A smile broke across my face. “How’s that going to work, hon? We look nothing alike.” Parker was taller than me with warm terracotta skin, deep brown eyes, and silky straight black hair he wore tied in a man-bun. Then there was me with my cool fawn skin that burned a little too easily for my liking, had too many freckles thanks to the damn sun here, and light blue eyes.
“Right, well, Magnus and my dad were both white and obviously both shifters, so it’s fine.” I could practically hear him shrug.
Parker had been unclaimed by his alpha father and raised by his omega mother. The pack he had grown up in had easily accepted Parker as a bi-racial child of a single mother since shifters were gaga for babies.His mother’s family were first-generation immigrants from Bangladesh who had cast her out of their small pack when an arranged mating had gone wrong. Both families had believed she was infertile, when clearly, the alpha was the problem. She found refuge in a new pack. Then, a few years later, after a contraceptive potion gone wrong at the heat club, Parker had come along.
He had taken after his alpha parent with his shifter side. His mom had been a clouded leopard, but he’d taken after her in beauty. Unfortunately, being an omega can be hard. They had a pretty good life until another pack took theirs over. His mom was taken, not quite willingly, as a mate to one of the enforcers when Parker was fourteen. She did everything she could to get him ready for life on his own, perhaps knowing she wouldn’t make it through her next pregnancy. Magnus found him at fifteen.
“But shifters can’t have kids with humans. So he clearly couldn’t be my dad.” I hated to pick holes in his fantasy he’d concocted.
“No, but here it has him adopting you and then having me after. So maybe not by blood, okay? But you and me are family. Now we just have the paperwork to prove it.”
“Thank you,” the words came out choked. “I’m proud to call you my brother.”
There was a sniffle on the other side of the line. “Same. Gotta go.” Then he ended the call.
***
“Everything okay?” Mori found me looking out of our bedroom window down into the vegetable gardens below and out towards the orchard where Toth grew his amazing apples. I wouldn’t admit it, but I was growing to be addicted to the hellspice apples in particular.
“Hmm?” I turned to face him, struck as I always was at how attractive he was, not just because he had a pretty face, but with the warmth and genuine interest he had in me. It practically shone from his pores. Mori was partially in demon form as he seemed to prefer with his parents around. His wings were away, as were his talons, leaving his ears, horns, eyes and skin color to be that of his natural demon state. His tail flicked lazily behind him, reminding me of a cat’s tail. Mori had also given up on wearing a shirt, wandering around like Toth and Keren did most of the time just clad in pants.
Not that I was complaining. The view was wonderful. Ten out of ten would look again. I loved tracing my fingers over Mori’s toned chest when we made out whenever we had the chance. Every quiet moment we could get, especially that lovely, sleepy time just before we would drift off, wrapped up in each other.
The gorgeous pink demon was making me feel things I wasn’t prepared for.
“Are you okay? You’ve been up here a long time. Do you need a break from it all?”
Mori got that I was one of those extroverted introverts. Sometimes I needed to charge my social battery. Being around so many people all the time was wearing. I never thought I’d have shit in common with Toth, but let’s just say I had a lot of sympathy for him.
