Chapter 5
“Wow.” Lily looked around the clearing with wide eyes. When she’d worked for the Council, she’d seen pictures of the Institute, but there had been quite a bit of construction since those early pictures had been taken.
To their left, next to a big metal building, was a playground with a group of young women playing some kind of chase game. As they walked by, one woman broke away from the group and ran toward them.
“Sailor! Where have you been hiding? I haven’t seen you in forever!” The young woman was obviously in a Little headspace as she threw herself into Sailor’s arms.
Lily ground her teeth together as she fought down a jealousy she shouldn’t have been feeling. After all, Sailor was not her Daddy, yet. If what he claimed was true, they would be together for the rest of their lives, which meant he should not be hugging another woman.
“It’s been five days since you saw me last. Why are you lying? Your Daddy must not be spanking you enough.” With that, Sailor smacked the woman’s ass several times before releasing her and stepping back.
The woman pouted at him as she rubbed her abused ass. “He spanks me more than enough, thank you very much.” The woman then looked at Lily and jumped as if she hadn’t seen her before. “Hello. Who are you?”
“Manners, little one,” Sailor said as he wrapped one arm around Lily to keep her by his side.
How did he know she wanted to run back to the cabin in the woods before she’d even met any of the other residents of Bratburg Institute?
“Irish, this is Lily Knight, my mate. Lily, this is Irish McCullough-Jones, a friend of mine and Harrigan’s mate. He’s the Institute’s helicopter pilot.”
“Don’t forget, I’m also the reason you came to Bratburg Institute in the first place,” the woman said, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Do you need to potty, little girl?” Sailor asked with a slight frown.
“Sailor! No, I don’t have to pee. I’m just excited to meet your Little girl. What brings you to Bratburg? How did you meet Sailor? Are you two moving out of the woods and into one of the new houses?”
Irish threw so many questions at Lily that she wasn’t sure which one to answer first. Instead of answering any of them, she looked at Sailor, hoping he would take over.
He winked at her before turning to the other woman. “We’re moving into the dormitory for now. The rest of your questions can wait until she’s more settled into life here. Now go back to playing.”
“Thank you,” Lily whispered as Irish skipped back to the playground.
“I’ve got you, little flower. I’ll always take care of you. Now let’s go see where we’ll be staying.”
Holding out one hand, Sailor waited patiently until she laid hers on top of it. Then he laced their fingers together and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She smiled up at him.
“We should have enough time to settle in before dinner. Hopefully the rest of the resident Littles will wait until then to meet you. Or maybe we should stay away from everyone until we figure out what’s going on with your ex-boss.
I’m feeling less social than normal and don’t want to hurt someone if they get too close to you. ”
Lily stared at the man, amazed he’d said so much at one time. She’d assumed he was always as quiet and noncommunicative as he’d been at the cabin. Maybe being closer to Bratburg helped him open up.
She just wished she knew if that was a good thing or not.
After a moment, they started walking again, heading to the center of the large clearing where she could see the three-story administration building, two-story dormitory, and dining hall, matching the pictures she’d seen while working for The Council.
She watched as Lonergan and Kodiak carried the boxes of food into the dining hall.
She wasn’t sure why they didn’t take the boxes to the dormitory, but it didn’t seem too important.
She would just have to sneak some snack-type food out of the dining hall in case she would need to head back to the capital in the middle of the night.
By the time they reached the patio laid out between the three main buildings, a small brown-haired man was standing at the top of the steps in front of the administration building.
“Sailor, I’m supposed to trade keys with you,” he said as he trotted down the stairs and toward them.
Sailor dropped her hand and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into her side as if to protect her from this man who stopped several feet away before holding out a keyring.
“You’ll be in apartment two-oh-one,” he said.
“Thanks,” Sailor said, as he pulled out a keyring and traded it for the one the other man held.
The smaller man then took a step so Lily could see him and waved. “Hi, I’m Jaxon, the administrative assistant. If you need something and can’t find it, I’m the one you ask to order it. Will you be starting classes with the next cycle?”
Lily blinked at Jaxon’s friendliness despite his slowly stepping back from Sailor. “I’m not sure. I think we’re still figuring that out,” she said before Sailor turned them toward the dormitory building with a grunt.
“Okay. Let me know when you get it figured out, and I’ll get your paperwork and books together.” With that, the man turned and raced back up the steps to the administration building.
Lily shrugged and turned to see where they were headed next. The dormitory building loomed ahead of them. Sailor kept his arm around her shoulder and held her tight to his side.
She had to skip in order to keep up with his longer strides, but he didn’t seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn’t care. He didn’t stop walking until they reached the door with 201 painted on it. By then, Lily was out of breath and in need of something to drink.
Once Sailor unlocked and opened the door before guiding her ahead of him inside, she looked at the key ring in his hand. “Do I get a key?”
“Why would you need a key?” Sailor asked as he closed and twisted the lock in the knob before snapping the deadbolt into place.
“So I can unlock the door.”
“Little girls don’t need keys. They just lose them when they’re playing and getting into mischief. Besides we’ll always be together whenever we leave the apartment, so we don’t both need keys.”
Sailor watched his mate digest his words. She wrinkled her nose and frowned and then opened her mouth to argue. Taking a breath, she closed it again before she said anything.
“But what about when you’re working? Won’t I need a key then?”
“We’ll discuss it once I go back to work. For now, I’m taking some time off to spend with my mate. Lonergan and Kodiak know how dangerous a shifter can be during the time between meeting their mate and fully claiming her. Now let’s check out our apartment and settle in before dinner.”
When he’d first arrived at Bratburg, Jaxon assured him that the apartments were all soundproofed, but with a shifter’s superior senses, he’d still been able to hear the other residents. Which was another reason he’d gladly moved to the cabin.
For Lily’s safety, he would have to learn to block the sounds the other dormitory residents made. He just hoped they would have the same courtesy when it came to him claiming his little flower as his mate. The last thing he wanted was for someone to comment on their noise and embarrass her.
Sailor forced himself to release Lily’s hand as he walked around the apartment, refamiliarizing himself with the layout.
This was the same apartment he’d used before moving into the woods, though someone had painted so the rooms were a barely there peachy-gold color instead of an institutional green.
The color seemed to soothe his beast, so he didn’t feel quite as edgy about having his mate within reach and not being able to lay her down and claim her.
There were miniblinds on the windows, which he immediately raised to do away with the trapped feeling they always gave him.
With the sun shining in, he smiled as he took a deep breath.
The leather couch, club chair, and coffee table were the same, as was the small table and two chairs near the kitchen.
Walking into the bedroom, he was not surprised to see the king-size bed was stripped, with pillows against the headboard and a pile of clean blankets and linens waiting at the foot. Setting his backpack in the closet, he moved the linens to the dresser and picked up the fitted sheet.
“Can I help?” Lily asked from the doorway as he began to make the bed.
“You don’t have to. It’s a Papa’s job to take care of his little girl,” he said, moving from the first corner to the next around the mattress, wrangling the sheet around the corners.
Lilly stepped into the room and around to the other side of the bed. “But with two of us it will only take a few minutes,” she said as she began working on the other side.
Together they had the bed fully made with sheets and blankets in much less time than it would have taken him.
Once they put the cases on the pillows and tossed them into place, he moved to check the bathroom.
The room held the most basic of toiletries and he made a mental note to run by the supply closet for bubble bath, bath toys, and other goodies his mate would need during their stay.
“Go ahead and unpack your things into the dresser. Then we’ll head over for an early dinner,” he said as he left the bedroom and moved as far from the woman as he could get while still staying in the apartment.
It took everything in him to not tackle her onto the bed and claim her as his own.
But he held himself back as she still watched him with a fear in her eyes he could not understand.
Was it because he was big and burly and uncouth?
Was it that she didn’t feel the pull that was growing between them with each moment they spent together? Or was it something else?
Though she had answered Lonergan’s questions truthfully, he had a feeling there was still something she wasn’t saying.
He just had to figure out what that something was before it destroyed what they could have together.