“Are you limping?”
“No.” He shuffled over while trying to hide his uneven stride. As he sat down at their two-top table, he tacked on, “Thanks for cooking.”
“I heard a thump.” There was the scrape of the pan moving off the flame, and then the sizzle decreased. “Just making sure you’re all right.”
“I’m good.” Then he added, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Wow. Talk about intimacy. Add a couple of gin and tonics and a Triscuit tray, and you had a cocktail party going on here.
Over in the corner, the golden let out a sigh as he settled on his bed. George knew the drill. Soon enough, he’d be getting his first meal as they had their First Meal. It was what the three of them had been doing every nightfall, and up until a week ago, it had been Wrath’s favorite time of the evening…the calm before he went to the Audience House, the last moment to be in hisshellan’spresence until he had to spend nine hours away from her.
Annnnnd then he’d gone and fucked everything all up.
“Here you go.”
A plate was put in front of him, but he didn’t pay attention to what was on it. All he clocked was how fast hisleelanmoved away from him. With a quick shift, she was back to the counter, a flare of vanilla scent rising up along with a tap on a hard rim…and another tap. A third.
He sniffed the air. “Your Greek yogurt.”
“Smoothie time, you know me.” Then her voice warmed. “Yes, George. Yours is coming, too.”
Actually, he didn’t know this part of her. Back when they’d been at the BDB mansion, she’d always eaten a full First Meal in the grand dining room with him and all the other brothers, as well as the rest of their family of fighters and mates and young. And there was a common area here at the Wheel, too, one where that kind of communal dining still happened. She never went, though.
Now, she was a smoothie drinker—
The whirring of the blender took up all the bandwidth in the whole world, and he had to focus through the high-pitched sound to hear Beth murmuring to the dog as she got his scrambled eggs, ground beef, and vegetables into a bowl.
“What’s that you add to his meal?” Wrath asked over the din as he heard a lid getting twisted off.
“His supplements,” she said loudly. “For immune support.” Then, “This is a probiotic. And he gets a little CBD. He’s an anxious boy, and I really think it helps him. Isn’t that right? Yes, sir, that’s my boy.”
Thump, thump, thumpwent the bushy tail on something.
“My good boy.” There was a solid sound as she put the dog bowl down. “Yes, he is…”
A soft flupping threaded through the whirring of the fucking blender, which meant she had her hands under the golden’s ears and was doing that thing she did, flapping them up and down while she kissed the slope between his eyes.
“Rahvyn saved him,” Wrath remarked. “That’s why he’s still here. Thirty years later.”
The flupping stopped, and he heard her go back to the counter. “So that means I shouldn’t care about his health? Let’s just feed him Alpo and forget the way his stomach hurts if he eats too much processed stuff? Hey, while we’re at it, maybe we shouldn’t bother to keep his nails clipped, or make sure he doesn’t get swamp ear. Magic keeps him alive, so let’s just not worry about—”
“That’s not what I said.” He closed his useless eyes behind his wraparounds and let his head fall back. “I’m glad he’s still here after all this time—”
“—him. He’s fine because magic takes care ofeverything.”
Wrath took off his sunglasses and rubbed his face. “How long’s this going to go on.”
“That’s up to Rahvyn. Ask her.”
“I’m not talking about the dog.” He pushed his plate away. “How long until you forgive me.”
And could we maybe turn off the damn blender?His nerves were fucking shot.
As he kept that last one to himself, there was a sudden flush of blueberry scent, the whirring of the machine dropping an octave as she added the frozen fruit. It was a while before she finally killed those spinning blades, and then there was the scraping of a metal spoon on glass and the plop, plop, plop as she filled her traveler.
There were easier ways to do the blending, he thought, starting with letting Fritz make the thing. But Beth liked to do it herself.
