Working as a team, we got the beds back to the house and then set up in their room.
“I think I’d like to share with them a little longer. Can we focus on the dining room or living room instead?”
“Rowan, you’re still sleeping on the floor!” I said, aghast. “I think I’d rather get you your own space set up before we do anything else. Please, you need your own space. A bed at the very least!”
“But—“
“Why don’t we try and see if we can fit another bed in here? Or hell, I’ll stay out in the camper and you can have my room. You need a proper bed, Rowan.”
“No!” he was quite insistent. “You can’t! I’ll help you get my room ready,” he relented. “I won’t sleep on the floor. Sandy will share with Berry and I will sleep in his bed.”
“Okay. Our next job is your room because your bed is due in a few days.” I grinned, happy I’d gotten my own way and I’d been able to reveal my surprise.
“What?”
“I saw the one you liked and bought it.”
Rowan never asked for anything for himself, so when his eyes kept straying to a queen sleigh bed when we were out shopping, I’d made sure to order it for him.
“Thank you,” he said quietly and full of feeling. His hug was brief, but tight. Rowan wasn’t the most physically demonstrative with me, which was fine, I got it. He’d been an adult for a long time.
Later that night, I tucked the twins into the same bed while Rowan read in the bed next to the window, a lamp on the table next to him for when it got dark. He held a power crystal in his hand, siphoning some of his magic into it. Rowan found charging stones helped him spark less.
Once down, I said goodnight, then went to the peaceful bedroom we’d worked on for me. All the work getting our rooms ready had exhausted me. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow after my brief shower.
What felt like only an hour later, but was actually closer to dawn, Rowan woke me by nudging my shoulder.
“Imri? Imri, wake up!”
“What is it?” I asked around a yawn.
“Something tripped my alarms.”
I was alert instantly. “Okay, where?”
He explained they were just outside the boundary of the property, close enough to need our attention if someone was coming to harm us.
“Stay here with the others. Don’t wake them, they’ll only worry. I’ll go shifted.”
Rowan followed me down the creaky stairs and through the kitchen to the back door. There, I stripped off my clothes, laughing at Rowan’s blush.
“If you’re gonna be my kid, you have to get used to me shifting. We’re all born naked.”
My dingo form fell over me quickly. On four legs, I trotted out into the yard and to the boundary of the property. I hopped over the drooping fence, something we really needed to fix soon, and then caught a scent.
The pull towards it was overpowering! The smell of almonds and sugar. It took me a little while to locate the source of thescent.
A little rodent-like creature was sleeping under a bush! Nothing terrifying, not the townspeople coming to get us for having unregulated witches, just a lost little beast. There was this urge to play with it, not hunt, which struck me as odd.
Damn, it was cute. Its little nose twitched and it looked like it was smiling while it slept. I nosed at it gently, trying to rouse it from its sleep. It wasn’t safe for such a little thing to be sleeping alone in the open like it was.
Suddenly, its eyes flew open. It made a startled sound. A sort of high-pitched squeal of panic and fear at my scent. Then it flipped around, scrambling out from under the bush it had slept under.
Hopping away from me a little, it paused, looking hesitantly at me for the briefest of moments.
In a second, it was gone. I felt a need to chase and hunt, my instincts rising before I pushed them down. Still, I needed to make sure it left the woods and stayed away from the house.
I followed the little beast until I realized my pursuit of it was making it terrified. I could smell its terror and pain.
