Page 97

For now.

26

Arlene’s POV

Two and a half months pass faster than I expect.

My belly is five months pregnant, a firm curve that catches the edge of my desk when I lean forward to file another of Luna Selena’s reports. A blueberry pastry appears beside my keyboard. I look at it, then at Luna Selena. She keeps walking toward her desk with her own breakfast in hand. “You said you were craving them yesterday.”

“I was.”

“And?” I smile as I reach for it. “I still am.”

“I know.”

A small foot presses beneath my ribs before I can take my first bite, and my hand settles over the movement. One more month. After everything we lost, after everything we came back to change, I’m one month away from holding our son.

Aren’t you glad you have me? Without me, you’d have to wait nine months like the humans to see our pup.

Yes, I like six months way better.

Luna Selena glances over. “What did she say?”

“She’s taking credit for the shorter pregnancy.”

“As she should.”

I smile into my pastry. “You two are going to be impossible when he gets here.”

“Probably.” She opens her calendar. “Speaking of impossible, why did you move my meeting with Elder Brennan?”

“Because you scheduled it over lunch.”

“I can eat afterward.”

“You said that yesterday.” Luna Selena looks at me. I look back. She sighs and reaches for her breakfast. “Fine.”

“Thank you.”

Somewhere between managing her calendar, keeping track of Council correspondence, sitting through meetings, and learning which reports make her rub her temples, working for my Luna stopped feeling like work. I know when she needs quiet, when she needs another cup of tea, and when she’s about to agree to something she doesn’t actually have time for. She knows I keep ginger in my desk, that I’m more comfortable standing after a long meeting, and that I’ll forget my own lunch while reminding her to eat hers.

We work well together. More than that, I like her. Not just as my Luna. As my friend. It starts with a company name. Luna Selena is reviewing a property listing when I glance at the screen and recognize it. For a moment, I’m back beside a rogue campfire, listening to two men argue over money one of them could have made if he’d bought stock before the company took off.

“Buy it,” I say.

Luna Selena looks up. “The property?”

“The stock.”

“Why?”

I point at the name. “I remember hearing about them.”

“Good things?”

“Very good things.” She studies me for a moment, then turns back to her screen. “I’ll look into it.” She does. By the end of the week, she has enough information to make her own decision, and she buys a small position with money from the inheritance her parents left her. A few weeks later, she calls me over.

“Look.” I lean beside her chair. The number on the screen has climbed. “Oh.”