Magical Midlife Battle （Leveling Up, #8）(42)

“Oh Austin, no, that can’t be.” I put my hand on his thigh. “She clearly loves being in your company. I could tell.”

“She loves me, yes, but I’m also a haunting reminder of my father. I was like him in my youth.

She’s blinded by trauma, I think. But you’ve shown her that you don’t need help. You’re happy to sit

on my lap and trick me into eating terrible vegetables.”

“They’re a fruit, actually. The fruit of an olive tree.” I gently squeezed his leg, trying to lighten the mood.

“Fine, whatever. The point is, I think she was looking for those little signs of wariness a victim often shows when they’re worried they’ve stepped over the line with their abuser. There weren’t any, though, and now she’s not sure what to make of us.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “Got it. Well, in time she’ll realize that you’ve changed your trajectory in life. I truly believe that, Austin. In the meantime, since she’s not the alpha anymore, maybe this is a good time for her to finally get some help? Maybe you or Mimi can give her a nudge. It’s sad and unfair that she’s had to carry that burden for so long.”

“I’ll talk to Mimi about it. Or maybe Kingsley, find a way to broach the subject.”

He parked in the garage and left the keys in the car, probably hoping someone would take it.

“You still need to patch things up with Aurora, huh?” I asked as he opened the front door.

“Yeah. I’m not sure what’ll make that better. I really screwed up.”

He ducked around the corner of the kitchen, finding the space clean and shiny. On the counter waited a plate covered in plastic wrap with a handwritten note on top of it: Tell me this isn’t better than your wildest dreams!

He snickered softly, putting the plate in the fridge. “She’s going to get a page of fixes for that dish, no matter how good it is.”

“You should do that pizza trick with her. I bet she’d be so pissed you guessed her favorites.”

“I’ll have Tristan do it.” We headed down the hall, and he turned off the lights as we went. The others were clearly tucked away in their beds or out wandering around town. Either way they’d be fine, since I doubted Sebastian would let Nessa out of his sight. “He drives her nuts for some reason.”

“Probably because he is so confident he’s going to claim her, and she wants Broken Sue.”

“What a tangled web.” He opened the bedroom door for me before hesitating at the hall light. “I don’t have a nightlight, and the mages can’t see in the dark if something happens.”

“They have hands, though. They can turn on the light if they need to…”

A grin worked at his lips. “Valid point. C’mere.”

He entered the room after me, whisking me up and closing the door, and I squealed in surprise. He flicked off the light to our room and carried me to bed, holding me tightly.

“I had a really good night, all things considered,” he murmured against my lips. “I don’t want to lose my family again.”

“You won’t.”

I fell into his kiss and we slowly shed our clothes, savoring the glow of a night deepening our bond and extending our family. I had a feeling Jimmy would really like Mac despite the difference in magic, and I already had a fondness for Mimi. Earnessa would hopefully grow on me, and even if she didn’t, I felt like with time we could become friends. And as far as mothers-in-law went, I’d had a lot worse.

We crawled between the sheets, and I cuddled up against Austin’s heated skin. My body fit against his sensuously, and my heart beat slow and sure.

“I think Kingsley really likes you,” he told me. We still lay on our sides, our hands roaming.

“I think Kingsley really likes you,” I replied, feeling up his broad back, tracing the muscles there.

“My relationship with him is probably going to get complicated before long.”

He kissed down my neck. “It got complicated earlier today, and you two still had easy camaraderie.”

“I barely pushed back earlier today. We didn’t do much more than almost challenge each other.”

He sucked in the peak of my breast, and I let my eyes flutter shut.

“I think it’s good that family time and work time is separated.” I moaned softly as he moved to the other before wrapping my legs around his middle as he worked back up to my lips. “If you two fight about work, at least you can spend quality time together and remember you’re brothers.”

“Eventually, fighting about work is going to be fighting about his choices as alpha, which is as good as insulting his entire way of being. It’ll bleed into family time.”

I captured his lips, opening them with my own and swiping my tongue through. “Not if we figure out a way to keep it from devolving.”

I angled my hips up to his hard length as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

He groaned softly. “Always the problem solver, hmm?”

I smiled through his kiss. “Not totally. I had to tell my parents that I was in a cult to explain my current situation. We can make this work. Even if things get rocky, you’ll have time to mend them. If we pull through with Momar.”

“When we pull through,” he growled, and a shiver arrested me.