Ciaran chuckled as he peeled off his shirt and toed out of his boots. Pulling off socks wasn’t exactly a sexy thing to do, but neither was the twenty loads of washing cephamorphs had to do with all the diving into water fully dressed they did. Don’t even get Sawyer started on the ruined shoes....
It really was no wonder they went around wearing nothing but board shorts most of the time.
So Sawyer found himself alone on the pier, folding Ciaran’s clothes, feeling a bit sorry for himself. Sorry that he wasn’t a cephamorph, sorry he couldn’t do more to help Aurin and Salem. And he was kinda still pissed at Cern.
Treaty or not, he could have said something.
He could have said something like “Oh, so I hear the weather is gonna be nice in four weeks” so they’d know the incubation or gestation period. He could have said the straight-up truth, like, “So there’s never been an instance in the history of ever where a cephamorph and a half god have babies after copulating at a fertility soiree for the supernatural forest folk, so your guess is as good as mine.”
He could have said that.
That wouldn’t have broken any treaty rules, surely.
Sawyer sat his arse down on the pier, dangling his feet while looking out into the misty cove, feeling all kinds of frustrated. The water was dark again, perhaps even darker than before, now that Salem was back. Now that Salem was in protective-partner-soon-to-be-dad mode.
Sawyer tried to imagine Tenebrae with kids running around.
He had no clue how many to expect. One? A dozen? Or one hundred?
Octopuses had a hundred or so eggs and hatchlings, so it might be possible? Even if cephamorphs weren't technically octopuses. Sawyer had to wonder... could they honestly have one hundred babies? One hundred freaking toddlers who become teens, and dear god?—
His phone buzzed in his pocket, startling him out of his wayward thoughts. Probably just as well, he thought. Until he saw the name on screen.
Fuck.
For a split second, he considered not answering. But he knew he had to....
“Inspector Hadeom,” Sawyer said.
“Ah, nice of you to answer this time.”
“I answered last time too,” Sawyer replied, then immediately wished he hadn’t.
By the time the phone call was done, by the time he finally hit the End Call button, he wished he hadn’t answered at all.
He considered lobbing his phone into the cove.
He considered lobbing himself into the cove.
“Motherfucker,” he mumbled just as a splash sounded beneath him, and a human Ciaran hauled himself out of the water.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I felt you going through it right now. What happened?”
Ah, yes. The no-hiding-any-emotions part of the bond.
Sawyer sighed, long and loud. “How’s the cave coming along?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” Ciaran replied. “It’s great, actually. Aurin and Salem are much happier in there. Well-hidden, tiny opening so no predators can...” He narrowed his eyes. “Sawyer, what is it?”
He held up his phone as if it was answer enough. “Just spoke to Hadeom.”
“And?”
“And he’ll be here tomorrow.”
Chapter
Ten
