I groaned. Werewolves were not known to give up on something once they had the scent. “Mate with you all. Mate with none of you. If I mate with none of you, then I have to decide if I’m going to stay. If I mate with all of you, then I’m taking away your chance at finding a mate of equal standing. A mate worthy of you.” Before any of them could say it, I said, “Yes, I’m worthy. Blah. Blah. Blah.”
“If you don’t mate with us, you might leave?” Fox asked, his brows furrowed and a perfectly executed pout on his face.
“Yes,” I replied, not wanting to hide anything.
“You love us. Why leave if you don’t mate with us?” Rhys asked.
He was getting mad again, I could see it in his tense shoulders and the way his eyes were glowing.
“Because I can’t see you with other mates,” I whispered without looking at him. It was incredibly selfish of me.
“Do you just want to be miserable?” Fox asked. Normally that question would be said with sarcasm or anger, but he was genuinely curious.
“No,” I grumbled.
“You want to mate with us, but you are considering leaving? Why?” he asked.
“If I don’t want children, are you four going to be fine with that?” I asked instead of answering his question.
That got them all to shut up and think a moment.
“I’ve always wanted children,” Deryn said softly. “You really don’t want kids?”
“Not any time soon,” I explained. “The Elders said that once you mated, pregnancy was almost a guarantee.”
“There are preventative measures we can take,” Nico said. “There are spells and herbs on top of human contraceptives that we can use to ensure the increased virality is combated. Not every new mated pair gets pregnant. It just increases the chances.”
“How am I supposed to have children with all four of you? How will we even know whose it is?” I sat up and let the blanket fall to my lap. “That’s so much drama.”
“It doesn’t matter whose kid it is, we will all care for it and love it because it is your child,” Fox replied instantly.
“And we would know whose it is because of the powers it possessed,” Nico said.
“I never wanted more than two kids,” I said, leaning my head back against the back of the couch. “I’d have to have at least four for you all.”
“No one said you had to have their child,” Rhys pointed out.
“Why were you so sad earlier?” Fox asked, probing for more information.
“I was thinking about what my life would be like without you four in it.”
They didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. We sat in silence for at least three minutes before Rhys got up, grabbed four beers and one cider, and brought them back for all of us to share.
“We aren’t going to force you to do anything or decide on anything,” Rhys told me, his hand resting on mine on top of the couch. “We just want you to know that we love you. We love you more than anything. We would be devastated to lose the bond we share with you, to lose you.”
“Can I put off deciding?” I asked quietly. Maybe if I pushed it off a bit, I would have a revelation and know what decision was the right one for me.
“Yes,” Fox answered for the four of them. He turned on a movie, one I told him a few days ago that I wanted to watch because it was supposed to be one of the best comedies of the year.
I sat up, put my legs on either side of Rhys, and ran my fingers through his hair. It was thick, but soft and silky.
“Me next!” Fox said and tried to push Rhys away.
Rhys growled at him and held his spot between my legs.
Deryn lay his head on my left leg. I knew exactly what he was doing, but I still obliged. With my left hand, I ran my fingers through his hair, while still running the fingers of my right hand through Rhys’s.
Fox grumbled and leaned his head against my knee.
Suddenly, my stomach became queasy. I leapt up and ran to the bathroom, covering my mouth with both hands. For once, I was glad that the toilet seat was up, or I would have thrown up all over the floor.
Someone pulled my hair back, away from my face, and held it while I continued to empty my stomach. When I was finally done, I stood up on shaky legs, stumbled to the sink, and thoroughly brushed my teeth and tongue.
Nico set his hand on my forehead and immediately frowned. “You’re burning up.”
“Fever,” I agreed and wrapped my arms around myself as the chills set in. My body must have known that I was sick and made me wrap up in the blanket ahead of time.
“Let me heal her,” Fox said.
“No,” I ordered him. “This isn’t a wound. It’s an illness. I don’t want you weakening yourself just because I have a stomach bug.”
“There’s a bug in your stomach?” Deryn asked with wide eyes.
Four sets of eyes glued themselves to my stomach.
I chuckled and shook my head. “Have you never been around a sick human before?” I asked them.
All four shook their heads.
“I just need a fever reducer, soup, water, and rest,” I explained. “It will go away on its own.”
“Do you have those things?” Rhys asked.
“No,” I realized sadly. What a terrible adult I was. Normally, everyone kept most of those things on hand. I didn’t. “I need to go to the store.”
I tried to walk out of the bathroom, but a wave of dizziness hit me and I stumbled and fell into Nico who caught me.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Nico ordered me. He carried me to the couch, wrapped my blanket back around me, and set me in the corner of the couch.
“I need a big bowl or bucket,” I ordered him.
He ran to my kitchen and after several moments of banging cupboards and other items, he returned with a big, red, plastic bowl that I usually used for popcorn.
I took it from him and threw up into it.
Fox French braided my hair from my temples to the back of my head, so my hair wouldn’t be in my way when I threw up again.
“Nico, you stay with her. We’ll go get her what she needs from the store,” Rhys said.
Nico nodded in agreement. He took the bowl to the kitchen, cleaned it, and brought it back.
“Do you need a list?” I asked through chattering teeth.
Nico lit a fire in my fireplace with his magic, and held a flame in his hand near me, helping me stop shaking.
“We’ll call you when we get there,” Rhys said.
Deryn, Rhys, and Fox left, while Nico sat beside me. He held the bowl in his lap, in case I had another bout of nausea.
“Is this something that could be fatal?” he asked with tense shoulders.
“I’m not going to die. It’s just the flu,” I answered. “Humans get it all the time.”
He exhaled and leaned back on the couch. “That’s good to know.”
“How did Rhys become the leader of your group?” I asked, since I hadn’t thought to ask about it before.
“He was always the take charge one of the group. At first, Deryn and he argued about who was the leader in our games and hunts. They butted heads a lot, but Fox was able to act as mediator and calm them down. He has a real gift for calming tense situations and people’s emotions. I don’t think it was until we were about twelve years old when Deryn finally gave in and acknowledged Rhys as the leader, deferring to him in situations. We still have our say, he isn’t the king of our group or anything. He asks for our advice and doesn’t order us around in a way that would be rude. He just tells us the plan, and normally it’s a really good plan, so we go along with it.”
My phone rang, and when I answered, Rhys’s face showed up. I had never done a video call with any of them before.
“How are you?” Rhys asked as they walked.
“I’ll live,” I said and fought back a chuckle at his relief. How had they never been around any sick humans before? I knew they didn’t get sick, but it baffled me that none of them had been around a
sick human when so many of us inhabited this city.
“We’re at the grocery store,” Rhys said and turned the phone around so I could see Deryn and Fox, heading into the entrance.
“What are those for?” Fox asked as he faced the shopping carts.
“You’ll need one of those,” I told them. “It is to put the items you’re buying in, so you don’t have carry them around in your arms.”
Deryn grabbed one and pushed it a bit before a huge smile split his face. “These would make fun sleds.”
Before I could stop him, he jumped into the basket of the cart and Fox pushed him quickly through the automatic doors, which thankfully opened in time.
“You’ve never been to a grocery store?” I asked.
“We’re princes, remember?” Rhys reminded me. “We had professional chefs living with us as kids. Now, we have our food delivered to us or we go out to eat at restaurants.”
Fox pushed Deryn so hard and fast, that he slammed into a bin of oranges, knocking four into the cart with Deryn. Deryn picked them up and began juggling them while Fox continued to push him fast down the produce aisle.
“Do you need anything from here?” Rhys asked.
“No, just-”
“Aren’t oranges high in Vitamin C?” Deryn asked, still juggling said oranges.
“Yes,” I answered him, knowing where this was going.
“Then we will take these,” he said.
Knew it.
Rhys walked to the aisle with medicine and I exhaled in relief. If I could get them in and out, we might survive.
“There’s a lot of different medicines and variations,” Rhys commented as he picked up a cold medicine and then one for indigestion. “Humans need a lot of medicines.”
“Yes, we do. You’ll want to get a fever reducer. If they have one for flu symptoms, that will work too,” I said.
“Do you have any of these others?” Rhys asked, pointing the phone at the long aisle of medicines.
“No, but-”
“Get out of the cart,” Rhys ordered Deryn.
“Why?” he pouted.
“I need to put the stuff we are buying in it.”
“Fine, I’ll go get my own,” Deryn said, taking the oranges with him.
Rhys looked at Fox. “Catch and put them in the basket. Oh, and hold Jolie.”
Fox took the phone and turned it so I could see him. “Hi, Jolie.”
“Hi, Fox.”
Fox started catching boxes of medicine as Rhys threw them, one after the other. “Hold on, Jolie.” He set the phone in the cart as Rhys increased his speed. Fox caught them, then dropped them into the cart. Soon, the phone was covered by medicine boxes.
“How much are you getting?” I asked. It looked like he was buying the entire aisle.
“What?” Fox’s voice called and the boxes covering the phone began to move. Soon, Fox’s face shown through. “There you are, Jolie. Hiding.”
“I’m not there. You know that, right?”
Fox rolled his eyes.
Sitting up was taking a lot of energy, so I lay on my side, my head on Nico’s thigh, and propped the phone up on the coffee table in front of me so they could still see my face.
“I got two of everything, just in case,” Rhys told me when he got back on the phone.
“I don’t need-”
Rhys had started tugging on one of the medicines that were locked up, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Sir, you’ll have to show me some ID before-” A woman with bright pink hair started trying to explain to him. He ignored her and snapped the lock off to grab the medicine out. She let out an exasperated sigh. “I need to see your identification, please.”
“ID?” he asked. “I don’t have any ID.”
“You don’t carry ID?” I asked him. Everyone I knew carried ID.
“No, everyone knows who I am,” he said softly.
Did he realize how egotistical that sounded?
“I have an ID,” Fox said. “Deryn! I need my ID.”
“Why does Deryn have your ID?” I asked. These guys made zero sense sometimes.
“He carries it for me,” he said like that should explain everything. He disappeared and then a few minutes later came back with an ID card from junior high.
“This is your junior high school ID,” the clerk said, exasperated.
“So?” Fox asked.
“Why do you have a junior high ID?” I asked him with a groan.
“Look at it,” he showed it to me. He looked really good. “It’s an amazing picture.”
The clerk groaned. “Fine, it’s got a year on it, so I know you’re over the age required. Just take the medicine and go.”
“What’s on the next aisle?” Fox asked and practically skipped around.
“This is going to take forever,” I muttered to Nico and turned my head to look up at him.
He was focused on the phone, watching the aisles and the merchandise. “What is all that stuff?”
“I think we need to take a field trip together to the grocery store, so I can show you guys how us plebeians live,” I said with a chuckle and shake of my head. They were basically, reverse sheltered. I was going to have to show them what it was like to be human.
“Okay, this aisle has baby stuff, so I don’t think we need—”
I interrupted Rhys and said, “Get the flavored water that has electrolytes in it. That stuff helps with dehydration and will help me feel a lot better, once I can keep things in my stomach. It’s also great for preventing and curing hangovers.” I had a lot of experience with the latter use of it.
“Why is your face sideways?” Rhys asked.
“She’s lying down,” Nico informed him. “Focus and get the stuff she needs. Her fever is pretty high.”
“Should we grab one of these thermometers?” Fox asked and held up a thermometer.
“Yes,” Nico answered before I could.
Shoppers kept stopping to stare and gossip in the background. I couldn’t blame them. This was definitely not your everyday occurrence at the grocery store.
“There’s a few different flavors of this water,” Rhys said.
“Just get two of each,” Fox said and started grabbing bottles. “Oh, there’s popsicle of this stuff too. I’ll grab some.”
“You guys are buying way too much stuff,” I told them.
“Next aisle!” Fox announced excitedly and rounded the corner to go to the next one.
“Where’s Deryn?” I asked, realizing that he hadn’t come back after Rhys kicked him out of the cart.
“Here!” he called as he flew by in the basket of a shopping cart, a roll of wrapping paper in his hand as an oar. Rhys turned the phone so I could watch as he slammed into a display of stacked soda cans, that toppled over. Some of the cans busted open and sprayed soda all over the aisle and Deryn.
“Oh my-”
“I’m alright!” Deryn called and leapt up out of the cart with a shit-eating-grin on his face. “That was awesome.”
“You’re going to have to pay for all of that,” Fox told him.
Deryn shrugged. “Okay.” He immediately started stacking the cans into the cart he had vacated.
“You guys are insane,” I chuckled.
“Okay, we still need soup, right?” Rhys asked.
“Yes, chicken noodle soup please,” I requested.
He looked up at the signs and found the soup aisle, which for some reason had a bunch of clothes on one side of the aisle.
“Why are there clothes in the soup aisle?” Rhys asked me.
“Why would you try to get clothes at the soup store?” Nico asked me.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Okay, chicken noodle. Chicken noodle. Chicken…ah! Here it is!” Rhys held up a can of soup to the phone so I could see it.
“Yes, that’s the right kind.”
“How many do you want?” Fox asked.
“Just a few, I-”
“Get ten,” Deryn said. “I
want to try some.”
“Be right back!” I yelled and ran/stumbled to the bathroom to throw up again.
“I need to learn some healing magic,” Nico grumbled behind me.
“You don’t need to stay with me,” I told him. “I really don’t want you guys to see me being so gross.”
He rubbed my back and kissed the top of my head. “Vomit doesn’t gross us out. We’ve been in quite a few battles and there’s a lot of disgusting things that going on then.”
“Okay, but I need you to get out of the bathroom,” I said urgently, feeling my guts bubbling.
“Okay, I’ll go check on the guys and see if there’s anything else we need to get,” he said and left.
I locked the door and was glad my bathroom was far enough away from the living room that he wouldn’t be able to hear the disgusting sounds my rear was making.
After spraying some air freshener and washing my hands, I stumbled weakly back to the living room. Nico wrapped me up in the blanket and helped me lay down on the couch, setting my head on his thigh so he could drag his fingertips along the side of my face. The movements were incredibly calming.
My phone was still showing the store, but it seemed they were finally at the checkout. Rhys set a carton on the belt and it fell over, liquid ice cream spilling out.
“Why is this melted?” Rhys asked angrily.
“Because a stupid dragon who has a high body temperature was holding it,” Deryn scoffed. “I’ll get a replacement.”
“Cleanup at register three!” the clerk called over the speaker. She was in her late fifties at least, and looked beyond bored and annoyed. The guys tried flirting with her, but she just stared at them with indifference as she scanned the items they were purchasing.
“We’ll be home soon, baby,” Rhys said and smiled at me. “I’m going to hang up now.”
“’kay,” I whispered my eyes growing heavy.
Nico turned off my phone and resumed stroking my face. “Is this okay?”
“Mmhm,” I mumbled.
“How long will you be sick?” Nico asked.
“One to three days.”
“Days!”
I nodded.
“We made it back,” Rhys said loudly.
“Shush,” Nico ordered him.
“I’m awake,” I grumbled.
Opening my eyes, I found piles of bags and soda stacked inside my living room. It had to have cost them hundreds of dollars. Maybe even a thousand.
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