Conrad
TWENTY
I was warm when I opened my eyes.
I paid no attention to the light coming through the curtains or weekday sounds from the street below. Putting a hand on my shoulder, I rubbed Madd’s mark which had now healed. It was comforting in a world I hardly recognized.
But the warmth was coming from the body beside me. I didn’t move, worried I’d wake him, and I wanted to enjoy this because I'd never woken up next to someone and I wanted to remember it. I imprinted it on my memory so I could pull it up whenever I wanted.
Madd was on his stomach with one arm hanging off the bed, and his face was pressed into the pillow at an angle that couldn't have been comfortable, not that I dared move him. His breathing was slow and even and his muscles were slack. Whatever his wolf was doing, he wasn’t standing guard. He must have decided this bed was safe.
My dragon was snoozing and told me he wasn’t waking up unless it was an emergency, so I snuggled up to my mate and slung an arm over him.
It was mid-morning when I eventually slid out of bed and went to the kitchen.
The expired coffee was gone because we'd finished the last of it at four in the morning and the tea bags had withered. I opened the fridge that contained Arnie’s containers, half a carton of milk from the convenience store, along with butter and bread.
It wasn’t enough for today no matter what we decided to do, though that probably involved staying inside.
I closed the fridge and made a list because I liked organization.
We needed a bit of everything. Food, coffee that hadn’t expired, and cleaning products because this apartment had been empty for six years and there were dust bunnies everywhere.
I found a pen in a drawer and used the back of an old lease document to start writing.
“Are you making a list?”
I hesitated for a moment because I kinda expected him to say good morning.
Wasn’t that what people did? Madd was leaning in the doorway wearing sweatpants and no shirt.
How did he have time to work out because those biceps didn’t happen by accident.
His hair was in disarray and he was squinting at the bright morning light.
“We need provisions.”
I narrowed my eyes at him using that word. Had he been watching old westerns where people traveled by horse-drawn wagons?
“If you mean food and other essentials, I’ve got this.” I held up the lease agreement. “And don’t worry, coffee is on here.”
“Thank gods.” He rubbed the sleepiness from his face.
We were having a normal couple conversation, but this was the morning after. We’d had sex last night, and I would have expected some awkwardness from one or both of us.
Madd leaned against the kitchen counter, and I noted the soft flesh above his waistband. I had the urge to fondle it and drag him back to bed. But I strolled over to him and nestled my legs between his. He grabbed my shirt and smirked before pulling me to him and kissing me.
Having someone not just like me but love me was so new. Everyday activities like a good-morning kiss were so different and exciting, I wanted to begin every day like this.
“I like this start to the morning,” I mumbled into his mouth.
My mate laughed and tugged at my bottom lip with his teeth. “You’ll keep.” He pushed me away and opened the fridge as though I might have missed something.
He tilted his head, and I contemplated kissing him again. “Have you ever been to a supermarket?”
I made a face. “I went to a convenience store with you last night, and we were in a gas station before Flint arrived.”
Madd pulled me into his arms again. “They don’t count.”
The compound had staff who handled provisions, as Madd called them. I knew supply chains, distribution, and the cost per unit of bulk purchasing, but I had never stood in an aisle and chosen between brands of anything.
“How hard can it be?”
Madd peppered my mouth with kisses. “Ahhh, you’re a grocery-store virgin.”
A hot flush smothered my face, and I glanced down at our bare feet, but Madd put a finger under my chin and made me look at him.
“I’m guessing not looking someone in the eye is an ingrained habit from years of being ignored.”
I shrugged because I’d never given it any thought.
“Here with me, you’ll always have my attention.” He slapped my butt. “But we need to get going before the supermarket gets busy.”
We should have gone to one of those twenty-four-hour grocery stores in the middle of the night, but we showered and dressed in the limited clothes available.
Rudy had grabbed our clothes from the apartment and bundled them in with the sweats and a few other things.
But his fashion sense was different from mine, and we looked lopsided in bright bottoms and somber tops that didn’t quite fit.
Madd took one look at me and laughed. “I love our looks. I wish we could take a pic for Rudy.”
“We look like we're on the run.” I eyed us in the dusty mirror.
“We are.” He kissed my cheek.
“Right. But we could try not to advertise it.”
The large supermarket was four blocks away. As I stood outside, me and my dragon studied it, checking the exits, and where any threats would likely come from.
“Hey.” Madd grabbed my arm. “Let’s forget about Evander and the other dragons. Your beast and mine will scent any trouble.”
I raised a brow. “How’d that work out when Father’s men kidnapped you?”
He rolled his eyes and dragged me into the grocery store.
Inside, the only threats were a woman with a shopping cart she couldn't steer and a screaming child. But the sheer volume of choice was disorienting. An entire aisle of cereal, seventeen types of pasta, and a wall of cheese that stretched farther than the compound's armory.
“Why are there so many?” I was looking at the pasta.
“Because people like different shapes.”
“They taste the same.”
“They hold the sauce differently.” Madd pulled some boxes off the shelf and put them in the cart. “Grandpa would give you a forty-minute lecture on this. Consider yourself lucky.”
We bought enough food and supplies for a week. Madd added chocolate and a bag of something called cheese puffs that I looked at with suspicion.
“These are non-negotiable,” he said.
At the checkout, a woman scanned our items and asked if we had a loyalty card.
“No,” Madd replied. “We're new to the area.”
"Welcome." She smiled and continued scanning.
As we headed back to the apartment and with Madd beside me, I noted the weight of the bags and the sun on the back of my neck. Nobody was watching or expecting me to be anywhere or do anything.
“What do we do now?” Madd asked after we’d put everything away.
We’d picked up a few magazines at the supermarket and stopped at a secondhand bookstore downstairs. I grabbed one of the books, but my mate pushed it away.
“Not today, but you know, forever.” He grabbed me by the waist and tugged me closer.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead but kissing and cuddling I can do right now.” We smooched, and I contemplated doing nothing but that for the rest of my life.
“Do you want to go back to the dragons when this is over?”
He sounded as though I’d be making that decision on my own and that we’d be parting. But perhaps I was reading too much into it. And “over” had to include Evander not being there. There was no future I could envision where my twin and I would be together.
“There won't be anything to go back to. My father’s dead, and whatever Evander builds from what's left won't include me.”
But how would I fit into a wolf pack? I didn’t see a future in La Luna Noir either. Madd had an equal say in this, and I hated the impression I was getting that we weren’t a couple.
“But life at La Luna Noir wouldn’t be too bad, and with me there to ease you into wolf-pack life, we could make it work.” He took my hand.
Ahhh. I’d been mistaken regarding his intention. “Maybe we could do that.”
After we’d cooked and eaten one type of pasta—Madd had bought three different ones—and we washed up, Madd leaned against me. We didn’t talk or make any plans, just sat in comfortable silence.
Outside, the world carried on, but Madd and I had to deal with our reality and it scared me, worrying I might lose him. Not because he didn’t care, but to a dragon shifter who was out of control.