Page 114 of Unbound

“He’s a wild animal, Snoopy.” I rest both hands on her shoulders, leaning down until she has no choice but to look at me. “And while you know I don’t mind if you feed every damn thing living in the mountains, you cannot do it with your bare hands.”

She looks crestfallen. “Not even the crows?”

I don’t know how I ended up here. It was a slippery slope that started with a bird feeder and eased into leaving peanuts out for the squirrels, then took a hard right turn somewhere between building a trinket table so she can amass her own murder of crows and following an opossum across the yard barefoot making pssp-pssp-pssp noises.

I decide to take a different approach. “What if we go to the petting zoo? You can cuddle with the capybara and splash around with the otters.”

Sybil huffs out a loud sigh. “I guess that’s fine.”

I understand she needs a little downtime. Sybil has been working really fucking hard, splitting her time between helping Alaskan Security and assisting Titus’s team. She and Heidi are on the cusp of taking down what remains of the human trafficking ring started by her father’s best friend. They’re zeroing in on the final remaining players, and once they’re identified it will be over.

Sybil will have finished what her dad and my mom started twenty-seven years ago.

As long as I can keep her from getting rabies.

I take the handful of treats she’s still holding and toss them to Fluffernutter. “There you go, buddy.”

He scrambles to grab every bit of it, shoving a few in his mouth before clutching the rest to his chest with one paw as he hustles for the treeline.

Sybil watches him go, turning to me when he’s out of sight. “You know, possums don’t usually get rabies. Their low body temperature makes it hard for the virus to multiply in their system.”

“I know. You told me that after I caught you trying to pick one up.” I hook an arm around her shoulders, angling her toward the door leading inside. “You still can’t hand-feed one.”

Sybil groans as she walks through the house. “Fine.”

For nearly two years, Sybil’s whole life revolved around finding out what happened to her father. I wasn’t sure what would happen once she no longer had that to focus on. I hoped maybe she would take a little time to just live. Possibly give her brain a break after such a taxing experience.

Instead she’s jumped headfirst into working as a hacker for not just one company, but two, and becoming friends with every animal in a mile radius.

“Do you think anyone else would want to go to the petting zoo with us?” Sybil’s voice is hopeful.

It was initially hard for my family to navigate the way Sybil came into our lives. Even after she figured out who was behind what happened at McKinley, many of them were still wary of her. But in the past year, that’s faded. They’ve come to know the sweet, hilarious, determined woman I love. And they’ve ended up loving her too.

Especially the kids.

I press a kiss to her forehead. “Let me make a few phone calls.”

An hour later, my entire family is crowding into the capybara enclosure at the petting zoo Trevor bought for Zara. Sybil is splashing in the water with the overgrown rodents and my cousins’ wives and kids, all of them laughing like maniacs.

“When Zara first told me she wanted a capybara, I was a little judgy about it. I didn’t get the appeal.” Trevor smiles—something he does more often since Maren and Zara came into his life—as he watches the group enjoying themselves. “But I get it now. They have pretty great personalities.”

“Have I mentioned fuck you for buying this place?” Toby crosses his arms, pouting a little. “Nobody wants to come play in my pool anymore because it doesn’t have otters or capybaras in it.”

“Brooke plays in your pool, and that’s all you really care about.” Titus shrugs. “But if you’re really that upset about it, I can make sure the next five girls’ nights are at your house.”

“You know damn well they don’t like to have it at my house anymore because they know we’re going to show up.” Toby seems genuinely upset about it.

“We show up because we get to see them in bikinis.” Tucker grins. “Even if I was dead and buried in the ground, if I heard my wife was in a bikini, I’d drag my crusty ass out of the grave so I could get a peek.”

My cousins and I all nod our heads in agreement.

But I’d take it a step farther. I would drag my crusty ass out of the grave to get a peek at Sybil in any condition. Leggings and a hoodie. Sweatpants and a T-shirt with a chocolate milk stain. The weird wearable blanket thing she bought with a hood that looks like a monster head. Doesn’t matter. I would always try to get to her.

Especially now.

I watch as she moves through the water, helping Zara shift from one underwater seat to the next. Her belly is the tiniest bit more curved than normal. Not enough anyone else would notice, but what’s beneath that small swell is almost all I think about now.

“Sybil’s pregnant.” She passed into her second trimester two weeks ago, and we told her mom and my aunt, but she left it up to me when everyone else found out.