I hate it.
Shy as ever, Morana tucks deeper into Kaleb’s coat and flushes the second her pretty glass eyes find me. I march from her doorway, where I’ve just delivered another one of her boxes, reach her side, link my fingers in the neckline of the coat, and slip it right off.
“H-hey,” she protests, weakly.
I return the garment as I wrap my wife against my side and hold my brother’s humored gaze. “Thanks. No.”
“Protective, are we?” Kaleb asks as he pulls his coat, which likely smells like lavender now, back on.
“Yes, actually,” I mutter.
“Good. She needs that.”
I bristle as my brother passes, meeting up with the others bringing in Morana’s things.
Iknow Morana needs protection;heis not supposed to know that.
“What did you two talk about?” I ask.
Face fighting scrunch, Morana looks at me. Then her cheeks deepen in hue. Then she hides against my chest. “N…nothing.”
“Mistress,” I murmur, lowly. “I’m a jealous man.”
“Ew. Don’t be jealous of mybrother,” she hisses. “He was just giving me some helpful older brother pointers. And he’s not…” Her voice wobbles; she regains strength with it. “He’s notyou, so he is very sincerely my actual brother.”
Glad to know we’ve completely put the wholeI’m her brotherthing behind us, given how we’re husband and wife now and all. Something about the sheer, unhindered disgust in her reply has me settling some because it’s so starkly different than the “disgust” she fabricated for me. She saidewthis time with her whole chest, and I need that kind of reassurance in my life.
“K-kyran?” she whispers while I’m busy combing the cold from her hair because the chilled locks have me entranced.
“Yes, mistress?”
She dares to peek up at me. “Do you…think…after I’m moved in…that maybe…wecouldgoseemyparents?”
I replay what she’s just said, slow it down, and let it click. “Oh, yeah. I suppose we should go see your parents. I’ll check my collab schedule for when I’m free.” Snuggling her under my arm, I pull my phone out of my coat pocket and check what I have coming up this week. “Ah. A WonderCraft meeting.” Eh. I can skip that. “How long should we visit?”
When she doesn’t answer, I look down into her giant eyes.
Peculiar.
Adorable.
“Morana?”
She jolts back to awareness. “Oh…uh…my parents are only two hours away. It can just be a day trip.”
I stare at her. Then I look back at my phone. “It’s right outside Washington, DC isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“Where your parents live.”
Her lashes flutter. “I mean…yes. But…how do you know that?”
“Zakery and Maelin visited last year? They talk? They live here?”
“Oh.” Her gaze lowers. “Right.”
I look up the weather. “Ooh. It’s snowing there. Do you think we’ll get snowed in?”
