Page 85 of Destined Paranormals: Volume One

“How about you do what you would normally do for breakfast? I usually grab a bowl of cereal and call it good. Oh, and maybe coffee if I have time. I usually try to have time, but I don’t always wake up when I should, and most mornings, I’m running late.” I cringed a bit about that. I was most likely going to lose both of my jobs. It wasn’t that I was going to really be upset. I wasn’t, and they wouldn’t really miss me. Not really.

“Eggs. Fruit, and you said the yogurt is good with it. Toast.” Monroe held up a package of sausage. “How is this cooked, and why do I feel it’s for breakfast?”

“You didn’t have pigs?”

“We had cows, goats, chickens, and there were wild boars. Which are pigs, no?”

I nodded as I moved over to Monroe. “You slice it into patties, and it’s usually fried in a pan. It’s pork sausage with spices. Sage especially, and it’s absolutely delicious.”

Monroe nodded, tossed the sausage over my head, and then closed the refrigerator. “Did you want tea?”

I nodded. “I drink tea. There’s a coffeepot here though. Did you want coffee, or are you a tea drinker?”

“I drink tea. I can do coffee for you if that’s what you prefer.”

I shook my head and reopened the door to the fridge and pulled out the carton of orange juice I’d seen in there. “This will do. You tossed the sausage. Where did it go?” I asked as I pulled down a cup. “Did you want orange juice?”

Monroe nodded. “Yes, please. And the sausage is with everything else on the table.”

I nodded absently as I grabbed another glass. When I turned toward the table, I froze. I was really expecting the ingredients to be there, but they weren’t. No, on the table were full plates of food. How had I not scented them?

“You…wow, okay. So you just toss things, and they magically make breakfast? Or whatever?”

“They can. I can actually cook, and I’m pretty good at it. We don’t have magical powers until puberty, much like you start shifting then. We all learn to cook and clean just like everyone else. I still do things the non-magical way most of the time. Sometimes, though, some mornings just call for a quick magical breakfast.”

I moaned when I moved closer and could actually scent the food. “In my experience, most mornings end up being magical breakfast mornings. Sadly, I don’t have magic like that. Which is why I grab a bowl of cereal. Or if I’m really behind, I’ll take a bagel and a cup of coffee on my way out the door.”

I could feel Monroe’s irritation through our bond and tried to give him a look that said I was sorry.

“We’ll have to work on things. Especially that.” Monroe pulled out my chair and gave me an expectant look.

I sighed and sat down. “Working two jobs, one that I don’t get home from until three or so in the morning and then having to wake up at six to get to my other job, doesn’t leave much time for sleep.” I poured two glasses of juice and placed one over near Monroe’s steaming mug of tea. It smelled nice, and I peeked at it, wondering what was so different about it.

“Would you like a tea as well?”

“Do you mind?”

Monroe shook his head. “I will never mind. And we will need to discuss your jobs sometime very soon. You know I’ve already said you can work or not. But being gone for so long during the day, and now I realize evening and into the night, I feel that I can be fair when I say one has to go, preferably the one that keeps you out half of the night.”

A mug of tea had appeared in front of my plate, and I picked it up, taking a deep breath of it and smiling. It really did smell wonderful. “I am not upset about that at all, and I am in agreement with you. I’ll also go so far as to say you don’t really have to worry about it at all because most likely I’m going to lose both of my positions because I’m not going to be there for a week or more, and they’ll just replace me. I’m not really a key person in either place.”

Monroe stared at me for a moment before he gave me a somewhat sad smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for our mating to cause you to lose your source of income. I know how much you’ve stressed about that. I’ve not only seen it in certain memories that you’ve shared with me, but you’ve also mentioned it when discussing your siblings.”

“You and our mating haven’t caused me to lose my jobs.” I shrugged. “They weren’t exactly great ones to begin with, and the turnover is pretty high in both places.” I could find another job. I’d ask around up here on the mountain. I knew that the council was hiring, and it had been mentioned to me more than once. I just hadn’t wanted to work here. Circumstances had changed though. “What would you like to do today?” I asked, hoping to change the subject. We’d just claimed one another. The last thing I wanted was for Monroe to feel responsible for me losing my jobs. It was going to have to happen anyway. I was bound to end up pregnant, and, well, when you worked with humans, you didn’t get to work with them when you ended up pregnant and couldn’t hide that fact.

“I have nothing to do,” Monroe told me. “Would you like to go for a walk? We could look around the mountain again. Maybe you could shift, and I’ll follow you around? I’d love to meet your wolf.”

I grinned. I would like that too. But he needed to understand that if we did that, I would be going into heat really soon. It had happened to almost everyone I knew.

“I would like for you to meet my wolf. He likes that idea as well. But you should realize that if we do that today, most likely, I’ll go into heat within the next day.”

Monroe nodded slowly. “I’m prepared to take care of you during that. Fae have heats as well, remember? We talked about that.”

I sighed and glanced out the window that was beside the table. It looked like there was a bit more snow today than yesterday. “If I go into heat and we…you know. I’ll likely get pregnant.”

“I understand. I can use protection. I’m sure there’s someone here we can discuss that with?” I could tell that Monroe didn’t understand what I was saying, and he was upset about what he thought I was implying. I shook my head at my mate.

“Not what I was saying. I don’t mind having a child with you right away. It’s how things happen to work for paranormals. Wolves have shorter gestations—only four months.”