Page 14 of Lion Conquers All
“I don’t know what to tell you, Mr. Roberts, I’m simply relaying what I was told. I’m on my way to speak to Gretchen’s father. I’ll keep you updated if I learn anything.”
“Yes, well…thank you, Deputy. I appreciate the update.”
Aarav ended the call and continued the drive through the park back toward Mystery. He’d told Connie he would update her too, but he’d wait till he talked to Hardisty first. She was busy with that class at the MCC anyway.
She wouldn’t want to be interrupted…and not by him again.
6
PENNY
Penny stared down at her babies and her mate all sprawled all the floor together on a pile of thick, soft blankets. He was cooing at them and dangling little baby toys with bells. She really couldn’t believe this was her life.
She had children.
Four of them.
Two girls and two boys.
It was like insta-family with one pregnancy. And the same thing had happened to Naomi, though she’d only gotten three kids out of her pregnancy. The other women in the tribe were equally as concerned about when and if they got pregnant.
Although, Ava seemed to be as nonchalant as ever. She was a Reylean by birth. She said she’d only ever heard of twins on Reylea. And that multiple births weren’t common. The men had agreed.
Penny glanced down at her beautiful children again and frowned. Obviously, something was different here. One multiple pregnancy could’ve been chalked up to a strange occurrence.
But not two.
Two was a developing pattern.
“Do you think Connie will ever come around to Aarav?”
Kann put the toy down between Angela and Erik. Both babies watched the toy with greedy eyes and reached out with their cute little chubby fingers, but they weren’t agile enough yet to roll over. They were getting close though. Mia had almost done it last week.
“It’s been what…almost nine months?”
“I think Connie was hurt a long time ago and I think Aarav is slowly building trust with her. I’m not sure there’s much we can do.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“Good. I don’t like that she’s denying thesoul call.It’s got to be killing them both.”
He knew she wanted to fix it. She always wanted to fix things. She didn’t like people being at odds with each other and Connie was in their circle. She was as close to Tribe as you could get without being “in the club”.
“She’s never talked about anything. How do you know she was hurt?” Penny grabbed her water bottle off the dining table and then returned to the living room and sat down next to Kann.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezed, and kissed the top of her head.
“Little things. If you watch her and think about interactions she’s had with other people and the Tribe.”
“Like what?”
“Like she doesn’t like to be alone with males, human or Reylean.”
“Wha—” Penny started to object to the claim and then paused, running through all the times Connie had been around. She couldn’t think of an instance where Connie would’ve been alone with one of the guys. Maybe it was something Kann had picked up on at some point, but she’d apparently been blind. Because she couldn’t see it. Couldn’t remember any type of clue that Connie was uncomfortable around men.
Connie hadn’t dated. Ever. Not that she could remember, but Penny had only been in Mystery a little over a year. And not dating wasn’t a reason to say that she was afraid or uncomfortable with the opposite sex.
“I don’t see it.”
