slept in months. Given our situation before, he probably hasn’t.
I’m about to suggest that we all go get some much needed rest when a knock suddenly sounds on the door. Ire opens his mouth, either to tell someone to come in or to go away, but before he can say a single thing, the door is thrown open, making me jump.
We all whirl around at the intrusion, a mix of reactions going through us as we see who comes stalking inside with self-assured presumption.
Great. My Pride-full father is here.
42
“Oh look, our Sire-in-law has come to drop in for an unannounced visit. Lucky us,” Ire mutters dryly.
“Taz? What are you doing here?” I say, getting to my feet alongside Toreon and Vudu as he comes right in and walks around the table to face us. I notice a few nervous looking guards in the hallway, but Ire waves them off, and they scatter, shutting the door behind them.
“I came to let you know that the party will be in one week,” Taz answers.
Frowning, I look at my mates and then back to Taz, confused since it’s only been a few hours. “Umm...yeah, we talked about that earlier.”
He pulls out something from a pocket in his shirt and hands it over. I look down at the embossed paper and see it’s a formal invitation to the party at his house, one week from today. “Oh, umm, thanks,” I say.
“You’re welcome,” he replies with a brusque nod.
He’s cleaned up since the battle, his clothes fresh and his blond hair hanging freely around his head. Despite the fact that he just stopped by without warning and didn’t even wait for us to answer his knock before coming inside, he looks oddly...nervous. It’s so out of place from his usual cocksure look that it’s making me increasingly curious.
I immediately notice a paper bag in his hand. “What’s in the bag?”
“Oh, this is for you,” he says before holding it out to me.
I tentatively take it, unrolling the top before I set it on the table and pull out the contents. I blink down at it. “Umm...it’s an electric can opener,” I say with bewilderment.
“Yes. I sent some imps to the Mortal Realm to get it for you as a home warm-up offering.”
Dazed, I flick my gaze up to him. “Do you mean a housewarming gift?”
“That’s what I said.”
I look back down at the can opener still in the box, and wonder idly if Hell even has electrical outlets.
“It’s a...very nice brand,” I tell him.
Taz nods, though I can tell he has no clue what I’m talking about. “I had it on good authority that all humans have one of these in their homes.”
“I’m sure they do,” I say placatingly, but I have to bite my lips to keep them from spreading into a smile. My mates just look on, confused.
My eyes flick down to the second thing that was stuffed into the bag. “And thank you for the…” I pick it up to make sure I’m seeing this correctly, but I immediately notice that the package is opened, and I nearly drop some of the contents. “The opened bag of tater tots,” I finish.
A frown line appears between Taz’s brows. “The imps insisted those were popular as well. Although, I tried some, and they were not to my liking.”
A grin spreads over my face as I look at him. “They’re still frozen,” I tell him, but he just stares at me. “You have to cook them first.”
“Ah. That makes sense,” he says, and I’m so glad my guys don’t seem to know why this is all so funny either, because if a single one of them snickered right now, I would completely lose it in a fit of giggles.
But I can’t make fun of him. I just can’t. He clearly is out of his element here, and as hilarious and random as this is, I think he was just using the excuse of bringing the invitation and the home warm-up offering as a reason to see me, and that means a lot. It gives me hope for the future.
“Well, thank you for bringing them,” I say as I set the opened package of half-frozen tater tots back down on the table. “That was nice of you.”
Relief flashes across Taz’s gray-gold eyes before his confidence returns full force. “You’re welcome. I will be bringing Medley and Delta gifts as well.”
My eyes alight with ecstatic amusement. “You should definitely do that,” I encourage, hoping like hell that