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“Restless,” Arthur grunted.
Well, that wasn’t surprising. Annie noticed that Arthur wasalwaysrestless.
She wondered if the mighty warrior king missed charging into battles. Perhaps he needed to chop off a few heads and skewer a few enemies with his sword in order to shed some of that crackling energy. Annie could feel it coming off him in waves.
Wolfe and Rui noted that they were tired and went off to their own quarters to take a nap.
Right.
Annie smirked at their retreating backs.
“Nap.”
She’d like to take a few “naps” herself with her own hunky Beast.
Lancelot, as usual, didn’t say anything. He simply leaned back against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed, observing everyone else.
Observing Arthur most of all.
To Arthur, Annie said, “I packed you joggers, sneakers and all kinds of T-shirts and hoodies.”
She’d enjoyed shopping for all of them in preparation for the trip. Apparently, they’d been content with what few items of clothing they possessed since being liberated from the Celestial Realm. Altogether, the belongings of all five of them wouldn’t fill even the tiny bureau in Annie’s bedroom back in NYC.
She would at least have expected that Rui, being the treasure dragon that she was, would possess more luxuries. But, no, Rui didn’t collect clothes or accessories (though she did like dainty, rare jewelry). Her definition of what constituted “treasure” wasn’t what one would usually expect.
Besides, she left most of it in the Celestial Realm, in her home in the “Four Seas.” When Annie asked about it, she simply said:
“I have all the treasure I shall ever need in my Wolfe.”
To which declaration, Annie squealed with a joyful sense of romance, tackled Rui and hugged her within an inch of her life. Which Rui allowed for five whole seconds before shoving Annie off of her and resuming her usual cool aplomb.
So, with the unlimited credit card Gabriel gave her, Annie bought everything they would need on this extended trip, including layered clothing and a variety of footwear, beanies and gloves for the fickle British weather.
She stopped at buying underwear for everyone, however. Either they had it or they didn’t.
“Why don’t you go out for a run,” she suggested now to Arthur. “Check out the area. St. James Park is just a short walk away. It’s almost 60 acres. You should have plenty of space to stretch your legs.”
The running thing was new for the men.
Back at the Yukon, they trained daily with Goya’s pride of Beasts and Ben’s collection of dragons. When they traveled to larger cities for more than a few hours, they reluctantly adopted the habit of running, or in Wolfe and Red’s case—flying under the cloak of night, to release pent-up energy.
Annie also showed the group where the gym and gigantic pool were located within the hotel, but only Rui expressed any interest in the pool. The men eschewed the gym because they didn’t see the point of it, and none of them enjoyed enclosed spaces that stank of other people’s sweat.
Running, it was. At least for Lancelot and Arthur.
As to Wolfe and Red, other physical exertions were in order.
“Don’t forget to take the key card when you leave,” she reminded them. “Press your wrist-com if you need anything. And meet back here after dark so we can go out to supper together. There’s this famous bar close by I’ve been dying to check out.”
What she didn’t say, but heavily implied in her no-nonsense tone, was that all “family activities” must be done together, meals especially. They were wide-eyed tourists in a new city (well, at least Annie was), but they were also estranged family members on a bonding trip. She was determined to have the Pendragon menbond. Attendance was mandatory.
Wordlessly, she handed Lancelot a small paper map of the surrounding area, becauseof coursehe would go wherever Arthur went, and left them to their own devices.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Though these lands were all but unrecognizable to Arthur now, the chill in the evening air and the scent of it beneath the complicated layers of city life were still familiar.
He donned a “T-shirt” and loose trousers (or sweats, as Annie called them), socks and “sneakers” and headed swiftly out of the abode he and Lancelot shared. The faithful knight followed closely, though unobtrusively, behind him in a similar outfit.
