We’re married now; I have the framed certificate sitting on my nightstand to prove it. She knew I had to leave for work, and would be back as soon as I could… right? I made sure she was fedat least once a day and wouldn’t slip and break a leg on her way to work, even though I was swamped with staging the perfect murder-trap.
A waste of my godsdamned time, thanks to the stupid fucking wraith.
Shaking the wild trains of thought loose from their tracks before they can gain speed and drag me down with them, I focus on the matter at hand. “Of course not. I thought I made it abundantly clear where I stand; you’re mine. I was trying to tie up some loose ends at work so you could have my full, undivided attention.”
At least, as much as I’m capable of. I just need to switch gears into hyper fixation mode and I’m golden… for a week or two at least. Fuck. I might need to raid the pharmacy and actually give those meds I Googled a try…
Her eye twitches, and I make a note to add a banana in the bag with her dinner tonight. Muscle spasms are usually a sign of potassium deficiency, and if my mate is going to put everyone above her own needs, it’s my job to pick up the slack.
Note to self, snag some vitamins when robbing the pharmacy.
Gods, women are expensive to keep alive. Thank fuck I’m good at stealing shit.
Face scrunched, the love of my life looks at me like I have a few screws loose. “And you didn’t think you shouldtell me that?I had no idea what to think with all the mixed messages you were sending me.”
Mixed messages? What’s unclear about ‘you’re my mate?’ We went on a perfect date. We kissed. She agreed we should skip right to the happily ever after and get married.
I don’t know how to be married, though. The pieces of shit that brought me into this world were a terrible example, andthere weren’t exactly many couples in happy relationships to witness growing up on the streets.
Note to self: Google ‘Happy endings.’
Taking her hand in mind, I clutch it fiercely, ignoring the warning growl from the leech attached to her hip. “You couldneverdo anything wrong. And if you did, I probably deserved it, so they’d cancel each other out.” When she opens her mouth to respond, I kiss her quickly; definitely not for selfish reasons.
Once she’s thoroughly distracted, I hastily explain, “I bounce between tunnel vision, and the attention span of a coked up squirrel, so I rely on my phone’s calendar pretty hard. That’s why I set the alarms to salt your sidewalk at the end of our date so I wouldn’t forget. Once I’m distracted by something, I don’t do well remembering important things, and you’re something I never want to forget to take care of.”
I pass her my phone so she can see for herself. Recurring daily reminders to bring her dinner, making sure her walk to work is safe, and buying the things necessary to maintain those tasks. She stares at my phone for a long minute before handing it back silently, and I don’t hesitate. Taking her picture, my fingers fly over the keyboard.
“What the heck are you doing now?” she asks curiously.
The light of my life leans over to watch as I edit text over her beautiful picture that says DON’T FORGET TO TELL YOUR WIFE YOUR PLANS FOR THE DAY. And save it as the wallpaper on my phone before setting an alarm with the note attached for every morning at 9 a.m..
She cocks her head. ”Seriously?”
I pause, wondering if I fucked up somewhere again. “Until it becomes part of my daily routine, I don’t want to risk forgetting. I’ll get there, I promise! But it takes a little while to build habits that stick because I’m so scatterbrained some days. And when I end up down a new fixation rabbit hole, it all goes to hell anyway.Half the time I forget to eat, and my sleep schedule gets fucked up pretty bad. Which then makes forgetting things happen more often until I get back on my routine.”
She smiles at me softly, and my heart skips a beat. “I appreciate you letting me know. In the future, I won’t assume the worst and will reach out to touch base. Well, once I get a new phone, that is.”
I frown. “What happened to your phone?”
She waves it off like it’s no big deal. “Broke it at work, but it was a cheap thing anyway, and I’m still not used to using one. I’ll pick up a new one sooner or later.”
Before I can offer to steal her a new one, she blows out a heavy breath. “If you’re serious about this, Dev, then I need to be upfront about a couple of things. You already know about Z,” she hitches her thumb over her shoulder towards her feral mate that’s still glowering at me like I replaced his kibble with Warheads. “But there’s also someone else vying for a place in my bondgroup. Stryker.”
My brain scratches to a halt like a broken record.
Competition.
Someone trying to steal Kiara away from me.
But the more I think about it… the more thrilling the idea is. Stryker thinks he deserves to stand by my girl’s side? I lick the blood off my lip. Let’s see if he has what it takes.
Chapter 22
Kiara
Carefully, I extract myself from the bed. Well, nest, which makes it ten times harder with Devlin and Z sandwiching me between them. We shut off the shower hours ago, but between the residual heat in our makeshift steam room and being snuggled between two clingy furnaces? It’s the first night I’ve slept like a rock in days. The water bill is going to bankrupt me, but that sounds like tomorrow Kiara’s problem.
Sucks to be her.
