Chapter 13 Stone by Stone #2
Everything else was lost in jaw-popping yawns that increased by the minute. I tracked the flutter of her lashes, a half-second longer each blink, and she always checked on Brumous when she jerked awake.
I didn’t understand why. The last thing a dire wolf pup needed was protection.
Besides, the animal hadn’t moved from his spot on the floor and the blanket he’d claimed, his curious eyes tracking the cards like they were prey.
His ears perked up every time one of us made a move, his tail thumping against the floor in excitement.
Every now and then, he’d let out a little huff or whine, like he was trying to join in on the fun.
It was surprising to see a dire so calm, especially at his age. He should have been in full zoomie mode six or seven times a day.
Then again, he should have ripped Zane’s hand off earlier, too, I reminded myself. Dires aren’t known for their table manners. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“Three jacks,” I announced, spreading my cards just as her temple grazed my bicep.
“Bullshit.” Zane groaned, hurling his hand at Koa’s chest. “Your shuffling sucks.”
“Stop whining. Drink your juice box, baby.”
The insult sparked their usual squabble, but my world narrowed to the featherlight pressure against my arm. Seri’s cheek against my sleeve.
How absurd.
A few hours ago she’d flinched when Koa reached for her arm. Now she leaned into me like I was part of the furniture.
This shouldn’t be happening. Not so soon. Not after everything she’d been through. Trust like this, unspoken and unearned, should’ve been impossible for her. But here she was, letting herself drift against me, her warmth seeping into my skin like a secret I wasn’t deserving to know.
She probably didn’t even realize what it meant, what it cost her to let her guard down like this.
But I did.
Koa froze mid-retort, nostrils flaring. His eyes locked onto the crown of her head now resting against my shoulder.
“Aw, look at Cas playing teddy bear.” Zane followed his stare and smirked.
“Shut your mouth unless you want it stapled closed.” My growl lacked conviction. Speaking too forcefully might jostle her.
“Not teddy bear.” The slurred words brushed my elbow as her fingers curled into the blanket at her waist.
All three of us stilled.
“All right, this I gotta hear.” Zane recovered first. “What is he, then, chickadee? Ogre? Troll? Foul-mouth dictator—”
“Simmy.” Her voice was soft and drowsy as her head tilted closer. “He’s Simmy.”
I stiffened, my entire body going rigid. My brain short-circuited, the word ricocheting in my head like a bullet.
The room temperature dropped twenty degrees.
What. The hell. Did she call me?
“Bat’s bones!” Zane’s cackle shattered the silence. “She just called—”
Koa moved faster than I’d ever seen. His palm smacked over Zane’s mouth with a crack that echoed off the ceiling. Momentum carried them backward, Zane’s heel catching the edge of an abandoned breakfast tray, and they hit the floor in a tangle of limbs and flying crockery.
The pup leapt up and mingled with the rain of playing cards, barking like he’d just discovered the meaning of life, mistaking violence for play. Although, for a dire wolf, I supposed it was one in the same.
“Are they okay?” Seri lifted her head, voice thick with sleep and confusion.
I didn’t bother glancing at the wreckage.
They’d disturbed her.
How dare they.
My hands found her waist, lifting her across my lap before common sense could protest. She came willingly, pliant as sun-warmed clay.
“What did you call me?”
“Simmy.” Her nose scrunched adorably as her eyelashes fanned down. “Mmm. You smell so nice.”
“I do? Like what?” I didn’t wear any scents other than the shampoo Koa kept stocked.
“Moonflowers.” Her cheek settled against my sternum.
Accessing memory bank. Search results negative.
“I don’t know how that smells,” I admitted with a scowl. Why did I not know how that smelled?
“Clean and alluring. Strong and beautiful. Like you, Simmy.”
On the floor, Zane’s amused wheezes filtered through Koa’s chokehold. The pup circled their wrestling match, his tail whacking a lamp so that it swung around in precarious arcs.
Chaos. Utter, undignified chaos.
And her, warm in my arms, melting closer, her breath gusting against my clavicle. Dangerous, how natural this felt. The weight of her, the rhythm of shared breath, as if we’d fit together this way a thousand times before.
“Your heartbeat’s so fast.” Her fingers crept up to fiddle with the third button on my shirt.
“Cardio’s important,” I mumbled without thinking as the tops of my ears burned.
Zane’s head popped up over the edge of the bed like some kind of wild animal emerging from a burrow, crimson hair sticking out in twelve directions and a smear of raspberry jam decorating his left earlobe.
“Okay, hold up.” He stared at how I cradled our half-asleep girl. “What do I smell like?”
Her sleepy hum vibrated against me, and Z’s gaze dipped to where my thumb stroked absent circles above her hip bone.
Ko’s hand grabbed the back of his shirt, but he kicked free and hauled himself onto the bed, crawling toward Seri with all the grace of a drunk raccoon.
A stray playing card fluttered to the floor, the pup bounding after it with a quiet woof.
“C’mon, precious,” whined Zane, attention whore that he was. “Wake up and hit me with a floral roast, too.”
Seri’s lashes lifted halfway. Leaving my button, her fingers brushed the hollow of my throat. The motion tugged my shirt collar crooked.
I didn’t straighten it.
“Night phlox,” she mumbled.
“The hell’s that?” Zane froze mid-crawl, knees denting the duvet. “Some kind of STD?”
“Shut up, firecrotch!” I hissed. “She probably doesn’t even know what that is!”
“Almonds and vanilla,” she ignored us both to murmur. “But big. Heavy.” She paused to yawn. “Almost too much.”
“That part sounds right,” I muttered.
Koa rose from the floor, but only to kneel like some storybook knight, torn t-shirt and all, watching Seri with that terrifying focus he usually reserved for beheading things.
“And me, beloved?” he whispered as if asking for a blessing.
She turned her face into my neck, and I felt the shape of her answer before she spoke, her lips moving against my pulse point.
“Evening primrose. Like honey. Sweet and gentle.”
Koa’s inhale shuddered, and I knew why. Mom had kept pots of the flowers on her windowsill, cheerful yellow blooms she’d tend as if they were her infants.
Like holding sunshine in your hand, she’d told us once, pressing the petals to our noses.
“Mahalo.” Ko’s hand moved slowly as he brushed a curl away from her face, his eyes full of reverence. “Thank you, sweet girl.”
Zane collapsed next to her legs, arms splayed. He watched her with a kind of quiet satisfaction that was rare for him. Normally, he couldn’t stay still or quiet for more than two seconds, but here he was, perfectly content, like he’d found exactly where he was meant to be.
And I supposed he had.
We all had.
“Cute, Seri. Real cute. Cas gets midnight beauty, Mount Koa gets grandma’s sachet drawer—”
“Zane.” Koa’s warning held no heat.
“—and I’m out here smelling like a candle clearance rack. Typical.”
A giggle. Tiny. Almost inaudible.
And something shifted in the air, sharper than the tang of salmon drying on scattered plates, heavier than the weight of our beloved trusting us enough to relax amid us, three strangers and apex predators who could have shredded her between one heartbeat and the next.
Zane stilled, his cheek smushed against her thigh, and Ko’s gaze locked with mine over her head.
No words needed.
The same realization punched through all three of us at once: This fragile creature in my arms wasn’t just a wounded bird we’d patched up. She was the missing gear in our machinery that we hadn’t realized was grinding itself to scrap.
And we’d raze cities before letting anything chip at her teeth ever again.
Brumous broke the moment as he padded over, his paws thumping softly against the floor. He pressed his chin on the bed, his blue eyes darting between us like he was trying to figure out if he was allowed to join.
“Shoo,” I murmured. “Don’t come up here.”
He came up here.
As he gently licked the jam from Zane’s ear, both Ko and Z automatically reached to pet him, and I scowled at all three of them.
“You are jealous of him.” Ko’s grin stretched wide.
“Immensely.” I fixed Seri’s slipping blanket. “I’m so threatened by a fluff ball.”
“Called it, didn’t I, Ko? ” Zane pulled Brumous down to lay on his chest, covering today’s atrocity of a shirt: I’m here. You’re welcome. “Delicate cycle, extra fabric softener. That’s our Simmy.”
“That name’s hers!” I snarled. “Only ever hers!”
Seri shifted in my arms at my volume, her inhale sharp when the movement tugged at her injured arm. I adjusted my grip, carefully avoiding the bandage peeking beneath her sleeve.
“Easy,” I murmured, more command than comfort.
“Stay with me.” Her nose found my earlobe and hid behind it. “Please don’t leave me.”
My lungs forgot their function. Koa made a sound like a piano wire snapping. Zane’s throat worked around unspoken words.
Brumous solved the tension by vomiting half a salmon canapé onto Ko’s thigh.
With a muttered curse, he headed for the bathroom, the pup jumping down to trot after him, tail wagging with obvious pride in himself.
“To be fair, he’s probably never had such rich food,” Zane justified as he scooped up the soggy mess in a tissue and tossed it into the trash can.
Seri’s fingers curled into the fabric of my shirt. Her eyelids fluttered once, twice, before closing, and I stilled as her breathing deepened.
Koa emerged from the bathroom, took one look at her, and let out a contented sigh. Brumous copied him, then went over to curl up on the blanket he’d claimed as his own. As Ko resumed his place at the foot of the bed, Zane’s fingers brushed Seri’s ankle. The swollen one.
I’d need to take a look at that after she woke up. Could be sprained. Dislocated. Broken. Achilles tendon ruptured—
She murmured in her sleep, burrowing closer.
My arms locked around her of their own accord, one hand tight on her thigh, the other palm flattening against the knobs of her spine. I memorized the weight of her against my chest. Lighter than a kevlar vest, heavier than every kill I’d ever logged.
The sun crept past the windows, but I didn’t move. Wouldn’t move. Didn’t dare to move.
Let the world send its monsters. Its traitors. Its poison-hearted Dark witches.
We’d build a fortress stone by stone to keep her safe.
And we’d bury anyone who dared to breach it.