“Right. Looks like we better head back and make a call. We’ve got plans to make and goblins to befriend.”
We hiked almost back to the trailhead in contemplative silence, me leading the way to make it a little easier for my smaller mate coming behind me through the brush.
Her hand on my arm stopped me in my tracks.
“We didn’t get to finish our conversation earlier, and I’ve been thinking this entire walk about what to say, because I don’t want to belittle your feelings or any of the trauma you’ve been through. But…”
Tension I’d never experienced before radiated through my limbs as I waited for her to finish that one thought. “But?”
“I’m not scared of you. I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. I can handle your darkness if you’ll give me a chance. But it’s up to you. You’ve asked me if I trusted you, but now it’s your turn to decide. Do you trust me?”
Her eyes shone in the soft afternoon light as she stared up at me. It felt like she could see into my soul without even trying. I ran a hand over her hair-she’d styled it in a thick, loose braid today, which was draped over one shoulder-tracing it down to the ends, which I twirled between my fingers as I thought.
She was right. I had asked her to trust me, over and over again. But was I returning that trust?
All I knew was that in the time I’d known her, she’d never once judged me or given me any reason to doubt her. But as a child of abuse, I didn’t trust easily. I rarely trusted anyone besides my Alpha or maybe one or two pack mates.
But my little hellcat…
“Yes, I do.”
She chuckled, swaying toward me and placing her small hand on my chest, which I felt like a brand through my shirt. “Why do you sound so surprised by that, you goose?”
“Because I am.”
Olivia
The excitement was palpable in the safe house when we returned, the rest of the pack having heard the good news by phone that we’d found the goblins, finally.
“Man, if I’d known that taking a day off would get the job done so quickly, I’d have done it last week.” Elodie stepped up, hugging me around the waist and spinning me around like a top until I begged for mercy.
“Fine, fine. Did you four have fun out there?” The question was innocent enough, but her primly arched eyebrow told me she wanted to know if their meddling between me and Lucien had been successful.
“We had some good conversations.”
It was true. I wouldn’t say that I was certain we were solid, but we were inching closer, hurdle by hurdle.
After what Lucien had shared with me, I suddenly no longer minded the slower pace. It was a miracle that he was even willing to try after what he’d been through.
My life growing up was no ice cream sundae, but at least I knew my father loved me unconditionally. My mother? Not so much. But there was no point thinking about her now; she’d abandoned me as an infant and never looked back.
“Excellent.” The grin she shot me was wicked. “Well, I’m going to go finish my trashy TV until it’s time to get going. I found a show where a whole bunch of different guys all vie for the one girl’s attention. We’ve made it to the top four, and personally, I’m team why choose. It’s just now starting to heat up, and who knows when we’ll have a free afternoon again. Feel free to join us.” One last wink, and she disappeared up the stairs.
“A shower and a little veg time sounds pretty damn good right now,” Fiona said with a tired groan, kicking off her hiking boots and making her own way to the stairs. “You coming?” she asked.
I turned to face Lucien. “We’ll talk again soon?”
The tender kiss he pressed to my lips was a promise, and I carried it upstairs with me like the treasure it was.
After no small amount of disagreement-mostly between Bri and Kane-it was decided that the entire pack would go to meet the goblins and, hopefully, their leader.
True to their word, Tork and Wheelie were waiting exactly where they said they’d be when we arrived five minutes early to meet them. There was an older, sterner-looking female goblin with them who seemed significantly less excited to see us walk up the small path.
Lucien and I led the way, since we were somewhat familiar faces. We shook all three of their hands and quickly introduced them to the pack.
“And that’s Galyna, Gael’s sister.”
“I am Batten. You have brought two warriors with you, and many alpha males, for a social expedition? Seems suss.”
I blinked at the modern slang, surprised to hear it from an obviously mature goblin. “We were all traveling together, and it seemed rude to exclude anyone in our party.”
“I see.” She looked down her nose at us, an impressive feat given the difference in our relative heights. “Well, come along. The feast has been prepared, and our clan is waiting to greet you.”
She strode off into the woods with impressive speed, but Tork and Wheelie dropped back to our sides. “We are very sorry about Batten. She is our lead scavenger, and she did not believe that we saved the clan from you two trying to populate our forest with small wolves. She is, as the humans say, suss-being,” Wheelie whispered by way of explanation.
After that, we walked and chatted, but unease grew in my stomach with every step. Had I made a mistake by coming up with a nonthreatening cover story? They were such small beings, and I knew they were often treated poorly by other supernatural species. I just wanted to put them at ease, not make them suspicious.
My healer instincts rarely failed me, but this felt like a pretty large screwup based on the frequency with which Batten kept turning to glare at us. Suss-being, indeed.
The goblin city-Wrenchet, Tork told me it was called as we reached the perimeter-was far less grand than Nis? M?thou, but it had the quaint sort of charm you might find in a small Midwestern town, only shorter. Goblins of many hair colors bustled about, all yelling and cartwheeling and carrying in things willy-nilly, or at least it seemed so to me.
But there was a general funneling happening toward the far end of the pint-sized city, and that was where Batten led us. Our pack spread out, each of us talking to any goblin brave enough to strike up a conversation.
We were midway through Wrenchet when a tiny goblin no higher than my knee in a fluffy purple dress darted into the stream of goblins, chasing a runaway ball. A larger goblin carrying a heavy tray of some round, baked sweets saw her coming, but couldn’t stop his momentum in time to keep from bowling her over. He tried to dodge, but still she went flying, half his tray of pastries toppling heavily to the ground as well.
It didn’t bode well for their taste that they sounded like rubber bullets as they landed.
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