Chapter Forty-Three
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“FINALLY,” GRACE SAID with an eyeroll two hours later when she sensed the newbies leaving their love nest. “I’m starving,” she complained. They’d decided to wait for the newly bonded couple to join them before eating dinner.
Oaklie and Arkas sensed the others were all in the kitchen. They both looked a bit worried as they entered the room.
“Now!” Grace said with a grin.
“Happy bonding day!” everyone shouted, then clapped and cheered.
Startled, Oak dredged up a brief smile and accepted the gift the teen handed her. “That’s so thoughtful,” she said, glancing in the bag to see pricy, sheer lingerie.
“Thanks, brother,” Ark said, taking the bag Cam handed him. It contained a far better wood carving kit than the one he’d pilfered from the blue house.
“Is something wrong?” Vic asked in an innocent tone. “You both look a bit spooked.”
“I don’t feel right,” Arkas said, hunching when a strange noise came from his stomach.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was hungry,” Oaklie said.
“Surprise!” Jac exclaimed with a smirk. “We forgot to mention we become partially human once we’ve bonded with our females.”
“You’ll need to eat, drink, shiz and pizz now,” Vic said, then cackled at the dismay on Ark’s face.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, brother,” Semiaza said in sympathy, clapping Arkas on the shoulder.
“I still haven’t,” Tolas muttered.
Relieved that her new mate wasn’t sick, Oaklie took the mug of tea Zoe handed her. She’d scanned in her mind that she preferred tea over coffee. “Is there a ban on swearing here?” Oak asked.
“Vic used to have a really foul mouth, but changed to almost swearwords when she started working with kids,” Zo explained. “She’s trying to stop cursing completely because of the babies.”
“What babies?” the artist asked in confusion.
Zoe and Wynter both put their hands on their stomachs. “We’re pregnant,” Wyn said proudly.
Oaklie had noticed Zoe’s slight bump. “I thought you were just getting a bit...” she trailed off, deciding against finishing the statement.
“Don’t say fat,” Amaros warned her with a shudder. Zo narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll find a way to make it up to you, love,” he vowed. He hadn’t even called her fat, but he was somehow still in trouble for it.
“I’m going to be the kids’ schoolteacher,” Victoria said with a huge grin, changing the topic before an argument could break out.
“When will you let me knock you up, female?” Ark asked with a smirk.
“I’m only twenty!” Oaklie replied. “I’m going to need a few years before I’ll start popping out kids.”
“Let’s eat!” Tori said, checking on the final venison and pork chops cooking on the grill.
Ark’s stomach growled again and the cambions snickered. “Go and sit down in the dining room,” Zoe ordered. “We’ll start dishing out our meals.”
The males headed to the room next door and took their usual seats. Arkas left a seat for his female and sank down onto the plush blue chair. “Why didn’t you tell me about the side effect of bonding with Oaklie?” he asked Amaros.
“Call it payback for that prank you pulled on me a few wars ago,” his commander said wryly.
“Ooh, I want to hear this!” Grace exclaimed as the females carried their food into the dining room.
The knights told a tale of Arkas tricking his leader into leaping from a tall cliff. He’d been pretending to be drowning in a shallow pool of water.
“I broke both of my legs when I landed,” Amaros recalled with a scowl as everyone cracked up. “Now we’re even,” he said in satisfaction.
“Ark told me about your mammoth riding competition,” Oak said with a grin. Arkas had wolfed down his meal and was eyeing hers longingly. She’d eaten enough and pushed her plate over to him. He gave her a look of sheer gratitude, then started devouring her leftovers.
“That was so cool, right up until a soldier chopped my head off,” Jacquin said wistfully.
“I remember that war,” Tol said. “Didn’t Ziegel die during a mammoth stampede just before Jac lost his head?”
“That he did,” Amaros confirmed as his brothers struggled to recall the details.
“What happened?” Grace asked. She’d finished her meal and was holding her coffee mug with both tiny hands.
“It was my fault,” Jac admitted. “I started the stampede when I climbed onto the mammoth to see how far I could ride it.”
“Rahab and his men had been watching us,” Amaros said.
“They attacked while we were cheering Jac on. Ziegel saw a soldier racing out from cover to attack me. He ran in front of the stampeding mammoths and threw a rock at the soldier. It knocked our foe out, but Ziegel was gored by a tusk before he could leap to safety.”
“Our brother dangled from the tusk like a ragdoll as the mammoths fled,” Tolas said gravely. “It wasn’t exactly a dignified end.”
The males snickered and Grace scowled at them. “Poor Ziegel,” she murmured, feeling bad for the unfortunate knight. “How can one warrior be so unlucky?”
“It’s a mystery, little sister,” Cam said, still chuckling at the memory.
“We left some supplies in our truck,” Oaklie said. “We should retrieve them before someone comes across it.”
“Arkas can teleport us to the vehicle,” Amaros said. “You still haven’t been given a proper tour of our base yet,” he said to Oak.
“We’ll take care of that while you guys grab the food,” Grace said. Everyone had finished eating by now. The females needed to boil water to wash the dishes. It was a laborious task without constant power or a water heater.
Oaklie pitched in, feeling as if she already belonged. They cleared the table, then the kid gave her a tour while the water was being heated in the huge fireplace in the kitchen.
“This is my room,” Grace said at last, finishing the tour in the south wing. “You picked the room right next to mine.”
“Be comforted in the knowledge that Arkas will be watching over you even when he’s asleep,” Oaklie joked. “I put his statue in that corner,” she said, gesturing to the right side of the doorway.
“Ew,” Grace complained. “His junk is pointing right at me!”
“I’ll move it to the corner between the windows,” Oaklie offered. “It’ll be watching the door instead of your room.”
“I know it’s stupid,” the teen said sheepishly. “But I’ll feel better if you do.”
Oaklie hugged the shorter female, amazed that she already felt like family to her.
“Anything to keep my little sister happy,” the wood wielder said.
She entered her bedroom and moved the statue, then paused in the doorway.
“It isn’t much to work with, but let’s see what I can do with this,” she murmured.
Grace watched as the artist put her hand on the sheet of plywood. Growing in size until it filled the doorway, it somehow became lodged against the stone walls. “Now you can’t get in,” she pointed out.
“Can’t I?” Oak asked slyly. With a tiny surge of magic, the left side became detached. She pulled the door open, since it was attached to the outside of the doorway instead of the inside.
“That’s so cool,” Grace said enviously. “I can’t wait until we have real doors and windows.”
“I’m going to need a curtain for the window that faces the front of the base,” Oaklie said as they headed back to the kitchen. “That ice palace Wynter made is stunning,” she added. Her tiny new friend had shown her the sculpture.
“Your woodwork is just as amazing,” Wyn said when they entered the kitchen. The men had teleported into the pantry after retrieving the supplies. They were now in the great room.
Finishing washing and drying the dishes, the cambions made more tea and coffee, then joined the males.