How to Rattle an Undead Couple - Hailey Edwards Page 0,20
when no one was home to receive packages. This one must have piqued her curiosity in some way if it overrode her caution.
“I’ll take care of it.” Lethe prowled over to it. “I wanted to beat Grier to the leftover cake anyway.”
“Lethe.”
“Oops.” She placed a hand over her mouth. “Did I say that out loud?”
Forgetting to annoy me for a second, she hesitated near the box and inhaled slowly, brow crinkling.
“What?” I took a step closer. “Lethe?”
“You are not going to believe this.” She bent down and wrinkled her nose. “I’m going to open it.”
“Actually, I can believe you would open it, if it contained food.”
“No,” she muttered, distracted, and ripped into the tape. “I don’t want you to…”
The wad of foam, swaddled in tape, held no particular shape as she lifted out the parcel. I couldn’t guess at its contents, so I waited while she unwrapped its layers, almost dropping it in the process.
“Linus,” she called, cradling the gift in her hands. “Get an evidence baggie. A big one.”
“That’s my job,” I growled. “I’ll get it.” I started for the stairs. “Sheesh, you people.”
“I’ll get it,” Linus countered. “You can handle the rest.”
The steps were a bear to climb. All four of them.
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Why does no one remember I’m still potentate around here?”
“We remember.” Linus handed me off to Hood. “You forget you’re pregnant.”
“Really?” I massaged my belly. “You think I could forget this?”
“You’re making history.” Hood dug his thumbs into the small of my back, giving a massage guaranteed to make me shut up and hold still. “There are no female potentates on record who were pregnant during their tenure. You’re still active, and you’re two weeks away from maternity leave.”
Since I had a former potentate in residence, I would get eight weeks off work to bond with LJ while Linus took over my duties. Not gonna lie. I hated the idea of handing over the reins, even for two months. I had grown possessive of my city in the way of all those who bonded to their lands, and it was hard for me to trust someone else to care for her in my absence. Petty as it made me, I couldn’t have done it for anyone other than Linus.
The city, sensing my agitation, thrust a single dandelion stem through the grass and made it bloom.
Words didn’t mean much to her, not yet, but I pushed gratitude toward her through our bond.
“That probably means they were smarter than I am.” I leaned into the pressure of his hands, sending up a silent prayer of thanks that Lethe had trained him so well. “Balancing family and duty is tough, and it’s only going to get harder with another person to consider.”
Sometimes, during the early-morning hours, I tormented myself with the inevitabilities that my enemies would target our child. Linus hadn’t escaped his position unscathed either. Both of us had powerful people who wished nothing good for us. And we were about to present them with a pink-cheeked vulnerability.
“You’re not wrong,” Lethe sympathized. “Motherhood doesn’t play nice with others. Your focus will be, in the back of your mind, on your child and your family. You have to push through the fear, or else the paranoia takes tiny bites out of you until there’s nothing left.”
“You’re so comforting.” Massage ruined, I shot Hood a grateful smile then stepped away from him. “You know just how to reassure me everything will be okay.”
“Nothing is always okay,” she countered. “It sucks to hear, but it’s the truth, and you already know it.”
“Can’t we pretend?” I glowered at his mate. “I would like to pretend.”
About to burst my bubble yet again, I got a reprieve when Linus exited the house with a clear plastic bag in his fist. He took the steps with enviable ease then handed it to me.
“We will keep our child safe.” He kissed my temple. “Believe that.”
“What if we can’t?” A tremor wobbled through my voice. “What if we fail?”
“We won’t.” He nudged me toward Lethe. “Remember your breathing exercises.”
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhallle.
Exhallle.
Mild panic attacks had been sneaking up on me and pouncing when I least expected since the six-month mark. I was familiar with the full-blown ones brought on by nightmares or memories of my past. I had dealt with those, more or less successfully, for years. This looming fear of the future, and how to keep our child safe in it, was uncharted territory. Needless to say, our babyproofing game was on point.
The breathing trick eased my