"I've met her."
"And?"
"And she's a Dragon."
"Pretty?" I inquired casually as my pea green jealous side roared to the surface.
"Aren't they all?" he said.
"You could say she was fugly and smelled bad," I said as my eyes narrowed.
"If I lie and she shows up looking like she does, you'll want to castrate me and wonder what else I'm being untruthful about. Correct?"
"Um… maybe," I mumbled. God, sometimes it annoyed me that he knew me so well.
"She's gorgeous and she leaves me cold. There is no one in this world for me except you. We clear on that?" he asked with a raised brow and a hint of a smile on his lips.
"Yes," I said sheepishly. I had a possessive streak a mile long, but Hank's was worse.
"Six more minutes till the second call," he said with a feral grin.
"Are you enjoying this?" I asked as I punched his arm.
"Aren't you?" he countered.
I paused and considered my answer. I didn't want to enjoy it, but if I were being truthful… I was. The adrenaline pumping through my blood made me feel alive. The threat of danger appealed to my inner wolf and the desire to win consumed me. It alarmed me how I felt most alive in a battle or in Hank's arms. However, denying what I was could be deadly. I was a predator and I had enemies. It would be helpful to know a concrete list of who my enemies actually were, but living on the edge was invigorating… and possibly stupid in a deadly way.
"I do enjoy it," I admitted. "Will we ever be able to live a normal life?"
"Normal is a relative word," Hank said. "One person's normal is another person's hell."
"That didn't actually answer my question."
"Point," he conceded with a slight shrug. "But our normal or abnormal will always be fine as long as we're together."
"Okay, so I'm guessing no white picket fence with two point five children and a minivan," I said sadly.
"I was thinking more like six children," he replied with a sexy smirk.
"Clearly you've been smoking crack," I shot back with a laugh and an eye roll. There was no way I planned to blow out six pups.
"Nope—just wishful thinking. I want little girls who look just like you."
My heart melted and I wanted to get started on baby making immediately. However, the public zoo was not the most romantic or legal place to start a family. We weren't even married yet.
"Enough of the family planning," I admonished him sternly with a barely concealed smile. "I can't be thinking about you naked while I'm at work. Is Junior on his way up?"
"I really don't like Junior and naked being used in the same sentence by you," Hank snapped.
"Oh. My. God. First of all, they were two separate sentences and the thought of Junior naked is so wrong it's laughable."
His jealous streak was so hot…
"Oh. Well, alright then. He's going to the house to wait for us. I left him a note about what was going down today."
"You wrote out our plans out and left them lying on a table?" I was shocked.
"It's all in code. No one can read it except Junior and myself," he said, calming me. "If I don't contact him in a half hour he'll come after us."
Hank's brilliance constantly amazed me. "Can I learn the code?" I asked.
"It'll cost you," he said with a suggestive grin.
"Will I enjoy the terms?"
"I believe you'll find the conditions to your liking."
"Deal," I said as I checked my watch. "Three minutes."
"You want the second phone call?" he asked.
"Yes. Yes, I do."
We stared at the phone and waited.
"Do you think you can raise the bar on half-bald Wolf ass?"
I paused for a brief moment and decided to take the dare. "Yes. Yes, I believe I can."
"Go for it," Hank said with a grin that made me laugh. "Thirty seconds."
I dialed and bit back my grin. My sexy man could even make impending bloodshed and possible death fun. He was a total keeper.
"Asscrackada, did you make it?" I bellowed into the phone.
"Yes," she huffed like she was about to drop. "Where the hell are you and what the hell did you just call me?"
"I called you Angela."
"No, you didn't," she wheezed. "It sounded like asscaca."
"Sweet fecal hell," I laughed. "You need your ears checked, Anaconda."
"Whatever. Where are you?" she demanded.
"We're not there, Angina," I told her evenly. "There's been a slight change in venue. You have exactly seven minutes to get to the Lincoln Park Zoo and go to the Red Wolf cages."
"You've got to be shitting me," she coughed out.
"Um, nope. Not shitting you at all, Ammonia."
"What in god's name did you just call me?" she shouted as I tried not to laugh.
I did feel a little bad about making her run. She was wildly out of shape for a Werewolf. Most of me liked her the way one likes a cranky teacher who has to put up with you because she has no choice.
"I called you by your name… Alfalfa."
"That is not my… "
"You have seven minutes." I cut her tirade off. "Starting now."