“More like my muscles are flagging,” I correct, stepping over the log.
Connall gives me an apologetic look and bends down to grab the rope and hand it to me. “I’m so sorry,” he says with a soft smile. “You’ve got this, and we’ll reward your hard work with a drink after. And maybe a massage,” he tacks on, reaching out to stroke my long bangs back behind my ear.
His offer sends a thrill zinging through me as I shoulder the rope. When I pull the log over the barrier, a cheer goes up from in front of me. Glancing up, I realize half the fucking Hollow has now gathered on the sidewalk, staring at me. There’s Malik with Alba standing shyly by his side.
As if it’s not weird enough to see Alba looking shy, my fucking nieces stand there with their mates, grinning at me. They’ve all got milkshakes in their hands. Bitches. Just teasing me with all that creamy goodness while I haul shit around like a draft mule.
“Get it, girl!” Thea shouts.
“Crush it, Lou!” Morgan shouts right after her.
Laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, I turn to Bellami with a smile. “Okay, friend, tell me exactly where you want this to go.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DIRK
Connall and I jog around the long line of shops to the corner and back around.
He laughs as we join up with the crowd, all focused on Louanna and her work in the gnome village. He stares around at the gathered wolves, centaurs; even most of the pegasi herd is here. Not to mention Louanna’s nieces and their mates. Thea and Shepherd cheer wildly, louder than the rest of the crowd combined. Ohken holds his mate, Wren, while she claps excitedly. And Abe rests his cheek on top of Morgan’s head as she shouts for Lou.
My family. These monsters are my family. They don’t really know it yet, haven’t comprehended it the way they will. But they’re Lou’s favorite people in the world, which means they’re mine too.
I glance up at Connall, who’s staring at Lou, green eyes hungrily eating her up. When I step closer, our thighs brushing against one another’s, his smile grows wicked, barely withheld behind a smirk to rival mine. We made progress tonight in our conversation.
Lou roars as she drags the log around under Bellami’s gruff directives. Connall rears back and howls for her, his wolf’sdeeper tone laced through the noise. Other wolves take up the call, their howls echoing off the glass fronts of the homes built above the shops in the Hollow.
The noise brings goosebumps to the surface of my skin, watching my mate yowl for our woman. When he drops his hands by his sides, his fingers brush mine. He said he wanted to instigate physical contact with me…is that what he’s doing?
Was it purposeful? I was careful tonight to be flirtatious but not romantically touchy in public. I’m not embarrassed, not by a long shot. I long for the day when I can hold both their hands and walk them around to show them off. But it surprised Connall when I initially shared my interest in him. I can’t rush too quickly with him.
I curl the tips of my fingers into his palm, still focused on Lou. He shifts to the foot closest to me, his hand curving around mine.
He’s holding my hand. He’s holding. My. Hand!
I resist the urge to crow in victory or slap my jewel, turn us to wind and snatch Louanna from the gnome village. I could. Despite Bellami’s earlier comment, my boss hasn’t rescinded my portal override access yet. She will; she’s jest waitin’ for the right moment to do it in an embarrassing way. I know Evenia well enough for that. But I don’t worry about it. No.
Instead, I shout for my hard-working mate as she, with a bevy of gnomes beneath the log, manages to drag it on top of the first story. She bends in half, looking exhausted as she flops over the log, only to be shrieked at by Bellami and the rest of the crew. He quickly shoos her away as the crowd shouts in triumph for her.
Connall pulls me up the sidewalk, but we drift apart as the crowd jostles around us.
I ache to touch his warmth again. But there’s time. Tonight, I’m moving us another step forward. And then another. Andanother. Until they’re both fully mine and one another’s. I won’t rest until it’s done. This is the most important hunt of my life, right here.
Lou drags one foot in front of the other until she reaches the edge of the new village. Stepping carefully out, she raises both fists high in victory, laughing as her nieces crowd around her and crush her in their embrace.
Amber eyes close as she hugs her girls, then open again and move around the crowd until they land on Connall and me. I shoot my woman a quick wink as Connall backs up a step until our thighs are touchin’ again. I can’t hold back a smirk as Lou’s pink-dusted cheeks grow a darker shade of rose.
Her boss, Malik, high-fives her when she parts from the Hector triplets. The crowd begins to slowly dissipate, the gnomes still hard at work behind Lou. Connall and I move with the crowd until we’re reunited with her.
Thea glances up at me from her mate’s embrace. “Dirk, what a surprise to see you here.” Her deadpan tone always makes me laugh. Ever the detective, this woman.
“Jest here for my woman, as yeh know, Althea.”
She rolls her eyes but laughs at me. The Hector triplets have been front and center to my pursuing antics for a bit now.
Morgan rubs Lou’s back, playing with the long end of her lovely braid. “Lou, honey, we’re headed to Bad Axe to get nachos. Abe challenged me to an axe-throwing competition, so I obviously have to win that. Come with us?”
Lou’s eyes flick to mine. Ah, my woman needs a rescue.
