Page 3 of Knot Your Pawn

Not on my watch!

The kitchen is quiet, as expected. It’s too late for any of the kitchen staff to be here and Eli is upstairs with the kids we rescued from the Hearts.

I sit Mathew down at the small table on the far end of the kitchen as I put four pieces of bread into the toaster and go through the fridge for some peanut butter. We both need to eat something that’s not going to upset our stomachs but will still give us energy.

The others should eat too, but I can only do one thing at a time and making sure Mathew and I have food in us is the priority. Especially since he’ll get really busy as soon as he steps out of here.

I’m pretty comfortable in the kitchen. I tend to go here for midnight snacks and sometimes help Eli with baking. Eli doesn’t just let anyone in here, not even his own pack is allowed to do more than sit at the table in the corner, they’re not allowed to touch anything.

But I’ve apparently ‘proved’ myself enough that I can be trusted in here on my own.

To be fair, the commercial kitchen is very impressive and with all the different tools, many of them really expensive, I probably wouldn’t let anyone in here either.

With the toast and the peanut butter ready, I go back over to the table and put everything between us.

“Your stomach still doing okay?” I eye Mathew.

His morning sickness has been getting better lately, but that doesn’t mean that it’s really gone, as what happened just now made clear. It’s simply better than it was a few weeks ago.

He nods, picking up a piece of toast and starting to nibble on it. He seems to finally relax, his shoulders no longer pulled up so tight, his eyes slowly starting to unfocus, the line between his eyebrows disappearing.

If I —or anyone else from the pack— doesn’t step in from time to time, Mathew would work himself to exhaustion. And while he might have gotten away with that in the past, it’s not good to keep going like that now, especially not since he’s pregnant.

We’ve got a lot of things to do tonight, way too much, really, but it’s better to do that on at least some energy from food.

Running on adrenaline alone isn’t going to make us last for very long and while that could be doable for a single day, I feel like dealing with everything that happened tonight is going to be a multi-day thing.

“We’re on our way back.” Jorge’s voice comes over the earpiece. “We’ll be home in about an hour.”

My heart jumps and I can’t help my smile. Next to me, Mathew is smiling too, his eyes bright.

At least something went right tonight. It might not have been something we’d planned on doing, but at least something went right.

Mathew pulls me into his lap, his arm around my waist as he leans his chin on my shoulder. “We’re going to have a full house.”

“Yep.” I hold a piece of toast in front of him. “So we’re going to need all the energy we can get.”

He chuckles, taking a bite. “With you around, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

I kiss his cheek. “With our whole pack together, it’s not going to be a problem.”

Because being part of a pack means helping each other out, and that’s so much easier than trying everything on your own, even if it means dealing with so many different personalities.

But I guess that’s all part of it.

I wouldn’t have it any other way anymore.

2

Mathew

I’m glad I’m running on more than adrenaline right now, because I won’t have time for sleep —or really time to eat— for the rest of the night and probably all of tomorrow.

The hours after we return from a mission are already busy enough normally, but with the night we just had, it’s even worse.

I’m sitting behind my desk in the renovated office, the monitors in front of me filled with all sorts of programs as I keep an eye on everything from here. Security footage of the house, notes from people about the mission, data from the mission, all sorts of things.

Vera is sitting in my lap, laptop in front of her, as she’s chatting with Erika.