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“So was Phoenix,” Axel said and glanced over at me. “I don’t know if you saw him, but he was here with a verrid for a while. They’re mates now, and apparently have an egg?” He looked to Honor for clarification, but Honor just shrugged.
I remembered the bigger human and the verrid hiding in the woods. I thought about hunting them at first, but verrid weren’t very tasty, and the human didn’t interest me. All I wanted was to find water at the time and dive deep to quiet the angry voices in my head.
“It goes deeper than that though,” Honor added after a brief hesitation. “ESCU has basically split in two, according to Mozley. Jacobs was the boots on the ground part of the operation that was trying to continue Operation Overlord and Parker’s work, but there must be someone higher up calling the shots. A politician maybe.”
Axel shrugged. “Have you asked Hotdog? His dad is…wasa senator. He’s doing time in a federal prison for some shady shit now, though. But if anyone has connections to the political world, it’s him.”
“Whoever’s running it, we need to find out and shut them down,” Honor said. “But that’s secondary to making sure you’re safe, Axel.”
“And Ghost,” Axel insisted. “He stays safe, too. I’m not letting anyone touch him against his will ever again.”
I puffed out my chest, insides warming at my mate’s possessive display.
Honor pinched his face. “A year ago, I’d have told you to cut ties and go into hiding, but then Ziggy happened and now everything’s fucking complicated.”
“Sorry,” Ziggy muttered and lowered his head.
Honor sighed again. “C’mere, you,” he said and somehow managed to yank the large t’chl over to squeeze his arms around Ziggy’s neck. “You didn’t do anything wrong, kitten. It’s the world that’s wrong. We shouldn’t have to fix it, but here we are.”
Axel made a face as if he smelled something bad. I sniffed the air and didn’t smell anything. Maybe it was a gesture of discomfort.
“Okay, this is fucking weird,” he muttered and scooted away. He drank the rest of his beer and tossed the bottle into one of the bins. “All this talk and I still don’t know what the fuck to do. I’m supposed to go to work tomorrow, and I’m sure they know who I am. It’s only a matter of time before they track me here.”
Honor crossed his arms and tapped his fingers against the meat of his biceps. “Well, I think ultimately what we need to do is find out who’s in charge of what and have an order come down from on high to call off these dogs. Until then, things might get ugly. I really don’t think you should go to work, Axel, but I know you won’t listen to reason, so we’ll compromise. You agree not to go anywhere alone until this is all settled.”
“I don’t have a choice,” Axel said, mimicking Honor’s pose. “It’s not like I can take Ghost with me to work, and Ziggy sure can’t come.”
“I meant me, kid.” Honor grunted and finished his beer, passing it to Ziggy to throw away. “You’re also going to call the cavalry. Get your friends back here, the ones with military background and anyone you think can help.”
“Why?” Axel demanded. “They’re a bunch of agents. They’re just here to harass me or, worse, kidnap me. It’s not like they’re going to bring a tank out here and lay siege to our cabin in the woods.”
Honor leaned forward, his chair creaking. “Do not put it past them to do that shit, Axel. You don’t know them like I do.”
I grunted in agreement. The soldiers had hunted me relentlessly for many days after my escape, only moving on when I tricked them by making obvious tracks somewhere else.
“All right,” Axel relented, rolling his eyes. “I’ll get a message to everyone it’s all hands on deck. And you can come with me to work, but you have tostayin theparking lot. I don’t need you coming in there and fucking up the vibe. Ursula’s already dealt with enough fallout from this. Things have to appear as normal as possible.”
Things were not asnormal as possible.
In the space of a day, I’d gone from being alone in my quaint, cozy cabin in the woods to hosting two monsters and my estranged pop. There was barely room to breathe fresh air in the cabin, let alone any privacy. I liked company as much as the next guy, but I still needed my own space and I couldn’t walk from the bedroom to the bathroom without tripping on somebody.
It was getting on my damn nerves.
I went into my room, but I wasn’t tired enough to sleep. I wanted a shower anyway, but considering there was only the one bathroom and I had to share it now, I couldn’t even relax in there. Dammit, I really didn’t want to kick Honor and Ziggy back to the van when it was so cold out, but I couldn’t think when the house was this crowded.
With a sigh, I marched back out to the main room of the cabin, crossed my arms and announced, “I’m going to take a long ass shower, so if anyone needs the bathroom, now’s the time. Also, Iplan to walk out of there buck naked and probably do noisy sex stuff after, so—”
Honor made a face and held up his hands. “I get it, kid. We’ll go sleep in the van tonight.”
I uncrossed my arms, shoulders slumping. “You’re not going to freeze out there, are you?”
“Lucille has a very nice heater,” Ziggy said pleasantly.
“We’ll be fine,” Honor assured me. “One of us should be on watch, anyway. I’ll take the first shift.” He picked up his machete off the table and slid it into a holster at his side, standing.
I should say something, I thought.Try to repair whatever relationship is left between us to fix. But I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t ready to forgive him, not after he left me alone for so long to fend for myself.
Instead, I walked back into the bedroom and waited for the dull thud of the front door closing behind him before I let out a breath. Dammit, how had my life gone sideways so damn fast? All I wanted was a little company, and it’d turned into this huge mess where I was going up against secret government agents and somehow mated to a tentacle monster from another world. All because I was horny and bought pizza rolls.
