Chapter 16
FAMILY REUNION
told you.
gus doesn’t like sneaky, sneaky raccoons.
— gus
It’s Monday. Most bakeries are closed on Mondays, right? That’s a thing. So what if I chose to open Dough You Believe in Magic last week? I’m taking today to celebrate last night’s claiming. After all, Ash wanted to have a moment where we slept in together. That might as well be today.
And I get to believe that until the sound of my phone buzzing against the nightstand drags me out of my blissed-out sleep.
I quirk open an eye. Sunlight streams in through the cracks between my curtains.
My curtains.
That’s right. We started the night in the spare room. But, after our initial mating frenzy, I grabbed Ash’s hand, dragged him into our bedroom, ordered Gus out, and proceeded to have my way with him until the sun was coming up.
It’s definitely late morning now, and when I grope for the phone, hoping to shut it off before it wakes up my mate—my solid, completely alive, totally bonded mate—I grab it in time to see that it’s after eleven in the morning, and that the picture on the screen is of Honey Lobo.
Crap.
I’ve been waiting for this. Thankfully, this is only the first call I’ve gotten from her since she left.
She texts daily to make sure that Gus is alive and I haven’t burned down the bakery, but since she never actually asked about Ash, I didn’t feel too bad keeping that from her.
I figured she was too busy with Max to call, but once the rumors of the mate brownies…
or the gunshots… or Roxy losing her mind, talking to thin air got back to Honey, she’d be on the line.
I could ignore her. Or I could indulge my raccoon’s innate curiosity and find out why she’s calling.
I swipe the screen and shove it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Roxy? Is that you?”
“You did call my phone, so… yeah. What’s up?”
“It’s Honey.” Obviously. “Can we come inside? Or are you out scavenging today?”
Suddenly, I’m wide awake. I jerk upright, squeezing the phone. “Inside? What do you mean, inside? Where are you?”
“We’re outside your door—”
We. She said we. “Who’s out there?”
“Max and me. We were at the bakery already, but you weren’t.
We came to the shop to see if you were here, but the lights are off and the door’s locked.
You’re clearly not open to customers today, and I hoped you were maybe out doing your dumpster-diving thing.
I figured I'd see if I could get you on the phone before I assumed the worst.”
“Worst?” I echo. “What does that mean?”
“Well, um, we have a raccoon with us that's currently scratching the crap out of Max,” Honey says.
Somewhere behind Honey, I hear Sheriff Max growl at what has to be the raccoon since he would never speak to his mate like that.
I don’t get it, though. There are no wild raccoons in Moonburrow. Not because of me— I'd welcome them on my territory—but the amount of predators looking like people make my kin nervous.
“Where did you find a wild raccoon? We don’t have any in town.”
“Right,” agrees Honey. “Which is why we thought it might be you... only it doesn't smell like you.”
“What does it smell like?”
“That's the weird part. It doesn’t smell like anything. And you know what that means.”
I do. Once Honey accepted that I was genuine in my attempts to build a friendship with her now that we were both mature shifters living in Moonburrow, she opened up to me about a lot of things.
One of them was how she knew Max Lobo was her mate from the first time she saw him and caught his scent.
Panicking because she didn’t think he would want a prey shifter for a mate, she dodged Max, bought a wearable charm from a local witch that hid her scent, and tried—like I did—to come up with a way to explain to the male that they were fated to be forever mates.
She never did. Nope. During the investigation into the first murder in Moonburrow, Honey and Max were covered in wolfsbane, a shifter poison. She hopped in the shower to wash it off, completely forgot about the charm, and once the water hit it, it was neutralized.
Max got a whiff of her true scent, instantly recognized that the sweet opossum shifter he’d become obsessed with was actually his mate, and the two of them were bonded that same night.
In Moonburrow, there’s only one reason if you don’t have a scent: you’re hiding it with a charm. And if we don’t have raccoons in town and I’m not the one attacking Max’s arm, then who is the raccoon shifter they brought to my shop?
Before I hang up, I asked a few more questions.
Where did they find the raccoon? Scratching at the back door of Dough You Believe in Magic.
That’s why they thought it was me, and Honey was worried when the raccoon tried to escape and there was no sign of Gus.
Just in case, Max scruffed the raccoon before it could get away, and now they’re here and Max isn’t letting go no matter how many times the raccoon bites him.
What were they doing at the bakery so early?
We weren’t expecting them until Friday afternoon.
That one’s pretty obvious. Honey was missing her sidekick, and Max was suspicious when none of the pack called in with any trouble.
He admitted—through Honey—that he liked being in charge of Moonburrow and making it work, but when he called Riordan to check in, his brother sounded odd.
That’s it. Riordan sounded odd and Honey wanted to see Gus, and that’s why they’re here. No reports about the brownies or the silver bullets or a not-so-dead opossum being tossed in a dumpster. Just plain ol’ homesickness.
“Okay,” I say. “Give me two minutes to get dressed. We’ll be right down.”
“Hurry,” Honey squeaks.
Will do.
I hang up the phone and drop it on my mattress, turning to Ash.
He’s sitting upright now, blanket pooled low around his waist, purple eyes sharp with concern despite the sleepy softness still lingering around them.
Gus is curled up at the bottom, having snuck back in when all of the ‘bouncing’ was done.
“Get dressed,” I tell him, sliding out of bed before that irresistible male has me saying ‘screw it’ and shoving him to his back so I can climb on top of him. “It’s time for a little family reunion.”
That wakes him up. “Excuse me?”
While I scamper around the room, pulling fresh clothes on, I quickly explain the phone call, from Honey and Max’s early arrival to the raccoon they caught scratching at the bakery’s door that they believed might be me.
I finish by saying, “And I told Honey we were heading down. I bet you anything she’s expecting that to mean Gus and me.
Won’t she be surprised when she sees you.
” Leaning over the bed so I can reach Ash, I rub my thumb over the silver mark on this throat. Our mating mark. “And this.”
Ash takes my hand, pressing his lips to the pad of my thumb. “My cousin will be happy for us.”
You know what? I… I kind of think he’s right. “I guess we’re going to see. Come on. You, too, Gus. Time to see Mother.”
Gus perks up his little black ears. That’s right, bud. Honey’s home.
Because we haven’t had the chance to retrieve Ash’s luggage from his car yet, he has to pull on the same sweater, shirt, and jeans he’s had on all week.
I promise we can have a bonfire when this is over with, though Ash just gives me a shy smile and says that he’d rather keep them.
Not wear them—he’d prefer never to wear them again—but hold onto them because they were the clothes I peeled off of him right before we bonded.
Yeah. I got the best male around, didn’t I?
I’m so proud to be able to call him mine that I take his hand. I’m still holding it as Ash and I walk downstairs, Gus flying toward the first floor as soon as I open the door on our level.
We find Gus hopping in front of the entrance, scratching at the glass, eager to get to Honey. She’s crouched down, tapping her hello to her sidekick. Standing just behind her is the built, russet-haired, scowling sheriff, holding a scrappy, hissing raccoon female in the air.
Oh, shit.
Looks like it’s a family reunion all around…
I let go of Ash’s hand so I can unlock the door and invite the mated couple inside the shop. Honey rushes in, swoops up Gus, and starts peppering kisses all over his furry face as the opossum squeaks in enjoyment to have her back with him.
Max, meanwhile, comes in with a stony face, still holding tightly onto the raccoon by the scruff, a few feet outstretched from his body. There’s blood spattering his arm, though the scratch marks and bites have already healed.
Once Honey finally takes her face out of Gus’s fur, she opens her mouth to say something to me—then completely short-circuits when she sees her cousin standing at my side.
Honey looks from Ash to me and back. Her eyes linger on the silver mark on his neck before she breathes in deep.
A slow grin spreads across her face.
“Oh,” she says.
Here it goes. “Yup.”
“When?”
“Last night.” I match her grin. “And it was good, too. Now you have to welcome me to the family.” And I blow her a kiss as I loop my fingers through Ash’s again, making my claim on this male loud and clear.
Next to me, Ash turns beet red, though there’s no denying how pleased he looks. Honey chokes at the innuendo (and it better be the innuendo and not the thought that we’re family now), before recovering nicely in time to say, “Max. They mated!”
“I can see that, Honey.”
Honey’s oblivious to her mate’s dry retort.
Visibly delighted, she stifles a giggle as she leans into Max, still cuddling Gus close.
“Well, there you go. I knew there would be an explanation when I saw Ash’s car parked outside of the bakery.
I mean, I didn’t expect this, but I like it.
Roxy and Ash. Can you believe it? Actually…
huh. I do.” She looks at me. “Remember that day with the dumpster—”