Page 64 of House of Kallan
Spending time at the Malaks’house really emphasized how my place was just somewhere I slept. There was nothing there that screamed ‘This is home.’ It was somewhere I went when I admitted defeat and needed to recharge.
Maybe that was why I’d always dove into work headfirst and never looked up. There was nothing to come home to. No one.
While I still put in super long days at Haven, there was definitely more balance now. I looked forward to going home before the sun went down and spending time with my men. I was even taking days off. Before the Malaks, I wasn’t sure when was the last time I’d actually taken a day off.
There was simply nothing to interest me in being away from Haven, before. It had been my home. My reason for existing was to help the abused and misused.
If I were being honest, I wouldn’t have thought that anything could come anywhere near close to being as important as that to me. What a difference a chance meeting could make in your life.
At this rate, I had an entire section of their closet filled with my clothes. It hadn’t been intentional. I’d stop home long enough to grab a change of clothes before heading to their house after work. Having done that so many timesthat I took up a substantial portion of their wardrobe made me wonder what I had left at home. Hell, I hadn’t stopped by to grab more clothes in weeks now. I’d probably only find my least favorite underwear and socks with holes in them stuffed in the back of my drawers.
Toby walked into the room, giving me his usual beaming smile. He gripped my hip and pulled me with him until he could drop into a chair, then maneuvered me onto his lap so I was straddling him, my chest to his. His mouth covered mine, and he kissed me as if I were his last breath. This man was enthusiastic in everything he did. And I did mean everything.
I wrapped my hands around his shoulders, digging my fingers into his hair. His hands wove around my lower back, pulling me close and keeping me there.
We made out like teenagers for long minutes until hands rested on my shoulders. Then they pulled my mouth from his and tipped my head up. Hadrian pressed his front to my back and smiled down at me. There was always something about his smile that I could feel in my body. It made me heat up as if I were suddenly plunged into the depths of hell.
“I’ve tried not to interrupt for a while now, but we should get going,” Hadrian said, kissing the top of my head.
I nodded and gave Toby another brief kiss. “See you later?”
Toby smiled. “Couldn’t keep me away, Tatum.”
Shaking my head, I extracted myself from his lap and hold. “Sweet talker,” I said as I let Hadrian take my hand and lead me from the room.
Hadrian kissed the back of my hand, his dark eyes meeting mine. A current ran between us, and it felt extra charged right now. Or maybe that was just me. After years of solo care, I was having all my needs met, so I was in this constant state ofon.
He opened the passenger side door for me, and I climbed in beside Cobalt behind the wheel. When I determined his look wasn’t any less sensual, I decided it was just me. Yep, my teenage hormones had been reactivated.
As soon as Hadrian was settled in the back, Cobalt pulledout of the driveway. I glanced in the mirror to find Hadrian somehow managed to squeeze himself in with all the boxes and bags that were crammed into this massive vehicle.
I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d been talked into this. We were headed to the Darkyn’s to set up for a baby shower/welcome home party for Bael. The three of us had been tasked with setting up their backyard.
I’d been present for the discussion on where to hold the party. There’d been a lot of debate just based on the size of the guest list alone. Ultimately, they chose the Darkyn’s yard because then they wouldn’t have to try to haul everything back home. Sensible really.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be here to support Tyrus and Bael. I definitely did. Bael was the first and only permanent placement to date. They were adopting him. Keeping him forever. This wasn’t ever part of the initial idea behind our mentoring/foster program. When we began talking about it, it was with the idea that our misfit kids needed to have someone that could teach them what it meant to be supernatural. They needed somewhere safe where they could explore themselves and learn whatever powers they had with similar species who could direct and guide them.
I supposed we didn’t want to put so much pressure on anyone involved to create a family. Yes, that was important, and we took that into account when creating this program. We needed the juvenile to grow up in a place where they could see what it meant to be a stable family. Likewise, we needed the women to see that there was a difference between monster andmonster.
Tyrus’s insistence that Bael washis,had kind of opened our eyes and made us consider that maybe we needed to rethink our program a little.
But none of that mattered today. This wasn’t about work. This was about supporting the Darkyns and Bael—the newest Darkyn. I’d met most of the eight Darkyn men a few timesthroughout the interviewing process, so I was familiar with their family to some extent. There were still two that hadn’t been in when I was involved. Taylour assured me she met and cleared them all. That, and my family’s support of them, had been more than enough for me.
None of that was the part I was nervous about. The Malaks’ friendship circle consisted of twelve additional families, including the Darkyns. That meant there’d be somewhere in the vicinity of eighty people in this backyard, the vast majority of which I wouldn’t know. It was a little intimidating.
When we arrived, the house was empty. Hadrian hopped out to head into the house while Cobalt carefully drove the vehicle over their front yard to get around the house to the back so we could unload in a more convenient spot.
The backyard was enormous. The sides were built up with trees tall enough to create a canopy around the perimeter. They weren’t so dense that you couldn’t see the tall picket fence behind them to assure privacy.
At the back of the yard, the trees got thicker and darker. I could barely make out a break in their dense growth where a path might disappear inside.
There were flower beds, a pond, and a few manicured walkways, but for the most part, aside from the meticulously constructed privacy growth, the yard was mostly a blank canvas.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
Cobalt nodded as he joined me at the back of the vehicle. “They spend no time out here, otherwise I think they’d do a little more with it.”
“You’re telling me they don’t have a househusband to spend hours in the backyard?” I teased.
