“You know I love you, Alex,” he grumbles. “But it’s too early.”
“Wasn’t my idea,” Alex mutters. “These two wanted to come so early.”
“I don’t want Aloysius to get suspicious,” Durant says quietly. “If I leave too often during the day, he will sense that something is off.”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Silas tells him. “But since you are here already, do you have something for us?”
“Yes, Aloysius recently made a whole list of human women he slept with,” Durant explains.
“Please tell me you know the names on it.”
“I do.” To my surprise, Durant indeed hands Silas a piece of paper with names scribbled down on it.
“There are a lot,” I remark.
“Humans are easier to seduce with our powers,” Julianus explains. “It’s actually pretty gross to do that, if you ask me.”
I can’t believe I am agreeing with him on something, but I have nothing to add to it. He is right. It’s gross.
“Marc, Silas!” I hear a high-pitched voice calling out to me, making me turn around to see Maddie running towards me. She stumbles over her own feet, but gets up again and giggles before running towards us.
Silas catches her and picks her up. “What are you doing so early in the morning?” he asks, gently poking her cheek.
She giggles. “I heard your voices.”
“You heard us from that far away?” Alex asks. “You’re already showing quite some talents, pumpkin.”
She blinks. “Pumpkin?”
“Because of your orange onesie,” Alex grins.
Maddie frowns. “Okay, Broccoli.”
Alex looks stunned. “Wait, I am broccoli?”
“You have a green shirt,” she says confidently.
“Now that’s settled, say goodbye to Broccoli,” Silas says before Alex can intervene. “I have notified Lucian. He will take you home to your mom. We don’t want to worry her, do we?”
“No,” Maddie says. “When mommy is sad, she doesn’t make cookies.”
“You have your priorities right,” Julianus says with a smile.
“Yes, Mister,” she says.
“Why is he Mister, and I am Broccoli?” Alex asks.
“He doesn’t have a green shirt.”
That logic successfully shuts Alex up, until Lucian appears and picks up Maddie to take her back to Sheila.
“What a cutie,” Julianus chuckles.
“We don’t have many children here yet,” I say. “It’s lovely to have her around. One of our pack members is pregnant, though, so soon we’ll have another pup running around.”
“She has really good hearing, doesn’t she?” Durant asks.
“Yeah, it’s incredible that she could hear us,” Alex admits, his eyes following Lucian’s frame and how he disappears between some houses. “She was pretty far away, yet she heard us.”