“You’re safe here, you know? I know we aren’t pack yet, but we can be. You don’t ever have to go back,” I tell him, and I mean every word of it. “Can I tell Connor what you told me?” I ask. Cee needs to know what the deal is if we take Archie into our pack. Thankfully, Archie agrees, and I squeeze him even tighter.
“Fee? Phoenix?” Cee shouts when he walks through the front door.
“I’m upstairs!” I yell down to him.
“What are you doin'?”
“Wanking.” I shout back.
The next thing I know, he’s stampeding up the stairs and bursting through the bedroom door. Thank god Archie went out to the supermarket because Cee sounds like a herd of rhinos.
“Well, this is disappointin',” he says when he spots me fully clothed, standing in the corner of our bedroom.
“Why are you standin' there?”
“There was a humongous spider, and I managed to trap it under a glass, but now I don’t know what to do with—Hey, what the hell is that?” I ask as soon as I spot the mini bundle of fur in his arms, distracting me from the eight-legged beast before me.
“Excuse me, he can hear you,” he whisper shouts and pretends to cover its ears.
Cee plops the cat on our bed for a moment before retrieving the spider from under the glass and chucking it out the window. I make a 'bleurgh' noise at him having it in his bare hands. Gross.
Now the bedroom is safe once more, we join the cat on the bed, and Cee scoops him back up.
“This is Magnus.” The look of adoration in his eyes tells me everything I need to know.
It appears we now have a kitten.
“And where did Magnus come from?” I ask as I reach out to scritch under his tiny chin. I’ve never really been a cat person, but he does look pretty cute.
“When I was out workin' today, I could hear this little mewl, so obviously, I went to investigate.”
“Obviously.”
“The poor little guy was trapped under some wooden decking, and so I had to rescue him. Please say we can keep him?” He’s giving me the puppy dog eyes. If I had any ability to ever say no to him, I’d probably point out we already have quite a lot on our plate before adding a kitten into the mix. However, I think I would have to prise Magnus out of Cee's cold, dead fingers to separate them. I may as well admit defeat.
Taking the kitten out of Cee's hands, I peer into his disproportionately big green eyes. I stifle a snort because it’s not lost on me Cee has managed to find the kitten version of his wolf form with his almost black fur.
“Welcome to the family, Magnus,” I say to him, and he lets out a tiny squeakymeow.
“Really? We can keep him?” Cee says as if he gave me any other option. I plop Magnus onto the bed so he can explore a little. His dark colouring is a stark contrast to the white bedsheets.
“What’s another stray? We seem to be collecting them.”
Cee launches himself at me and presses his lips to mine in a sloppy kiss.
“You are the best husband I’ve ever had.” I burst out laughing.
“I’m the only husband you’ve ever had.”
“And I think I’ll keep you.” He has a big, goofy grin on his face, and a kitten seems a small price to pay if it makes himthis happy. “I love you, you know?” His voice is softer and more serious all of a sudden. I swallow down a small lump in my throat because we haven’t properly said that to each other since we broke up over a year and a half ago.
“I know,” I tell him, because I do. We still have a long way to go, but I see all the effort he’s been putting in these last few months.
“I love you too. Always have. Always will,” I say and kiss him gently. Our kiss gets more heated as our tongues meet, and Cee is straddling my legs in a way that is giving my dick all kinds of ideas. “We should probably calm down before we scar poor Magnus for life,” I say with amusement. Cee's head rests against my shoulder, and he’s panting a little. He looks over at Magnus, who’s currently wrestling a cushion twice his size.
“I can’t believe I brought a little cockblock into the house. What was I thinkin’?” Magnus accidentally topples himself over the edge of the bed. “Oh fuck. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it!” Cee scrambles over to where Magnus fell and scoops him back up.
Half an hour later, and Magnus seems to have tired himself out. Cee is sitting next to me with the sleeping kitten on his lap; I’m not sure which of them is purring louder.
