Page 52 of Damien’s Mate

Lila looked at Damien, then back at Brock. “That is weird.”

“You have no idea,” Brock said. “She’s doing pretty well re-creating animals she’s already turned into, even when they’re not nearby, but sometimes under stress, the whole thing goes wonky.”

“And she turns into a jelly bear?” Damien asked.

“Jelly bear!” Titan snorted with laughter, spraying crumbs in the back seat. Damien winced.

Brock said, “Yeah, sometimes. We’re trying to avoid that. I’m—good at sensing people’s animals, and communicating with them, so I agreed to stay around until she has everything under control.”

Damien nodded. “But Brandon’s not a fan of you?”

“More like, Brandon’s panther and my wolf aren’t exactly fans of each other. He puts up with me because of Jaeda. So does Remy, but not very gracefully. Jaeda and I grew up together, and his leopard is a jealous little fucker.”

Lila sniffed the air, and then said, “What the hell are you eating back there, Titan? It smells like Styrofoam with butter icing.”

Damien stared at her. “You’ve never had a Twinkie? Or a Funny Bone?”

“My father didn’t approve of junk food. Or whatever that is.”

Titan rumbled, “I know it doesn’t smell like food, but it’s food.” He held up an unopened pack of Funny Bones and looked at it dubiously. “Sort of.”

He lobbed the Funny Bones past Brock, and Lila caught the package between the seats.

Damien said, “They come in two-packs. For sharing.”

Lila side-eyed him. “I don’t share well, hooman.”

He grinned at her. “Give it a shot. It’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside.”

She opened the package and took out a Funny Bone, then handed the second one over to him. She cocked her head to one side. “Nope. Not feelin’ the fuzzy.” She tried to grab the package back, but Damien held it out of her reach.

“Mine now,” he said. “You lose.”

She gave a snort, but as she turned away he saw her smile. So he was the one who ended up with the fuzzy feelings.

Lila munched on snack cakes all the way to Penile. She knew they probably weren’t the best for rebuilding bone and muscle mass, but they were kind of addictive.

At first, Penile was a letdown, especially after the buildup the twins had given it. It was a nowhere little place, without even a real town center.

Their first stop was an old-fashioned general store that clearly catered to tourists, with a large souvenir section. Kitty picked out a Penile snow globe, while Colt, Remy, Callie and Jaeda spent a ridiculous amount of time reading all the t-shirts and holding them up to see how they looked.

Damien came up behind Lila, sliding an arm around her waist as she perused the clothing display. It felt good, and she let herself lean into him. It wasn’t just the snack cakes that were addictive. Her hooman was a little addictive too.

“Want a shirt?” he asked now. “I’m buying.”

She almost said she wouldn’t need any t-shirts where she was going, but the warmth in Damien’s eyes changed her mind. Suddenly she wanted to be like the other women, whose mates were happily buying them silly things. She’d never had anyone spoil her, and it felt… nice.

“Which ones should we get?” she asked him.

After an involved debate about colors and relative dirtiness of the slogans, they finally settled on a red one for Damien that said, Penile, Kentucky: Where it’s Great Getting Up in the Morning.

Lila chose a green one with a map of Penile on it and the slogan, Penile Road: Where the Best Fork Leads to Beaver Run.

She was persuaded to crowd into the restroom with the rest of the girls to change their shirts, while the guys changed theirs outside in the parking lot.

When they were ready, Colt and Remy’s truck took the lead, rumbling down Penile Road until they got to the intersection with Cummings Road, where they pulled out on the grassy verge. The others parked wherever they could find. By the time they walked back to the twins’ truck, they had a portable compressor plugged into the power point in the truck cab, hissing air into—

An inflatable penis.