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It was hard to get comfortable, but I kept any whining to myself. The moment we reached my home, I felt sixty percent more okay with the world. I blew a kiss to my mailbox and went inside, knowing that as great as the mansion was, my quaint abode on Lenoy Avenue was my home.
“Bedrest for you, November,” Von ordered. “Boston, will you take a shift for me? I need to do a patrol of the grounds with Danny. Get some more blood in me. Get thoughts about murdering Finn out of my brain. You know, things of that sort.”
Boston went with me into the bedroom, his hand in mine after rolling his eyes and consenting to take his shoes off before entering my own personal hallowed ground. We got into the bed and assumed our usual cuddle we fell into when it was just the two of us – my head resting on his outstretched arm, our knees touching, and our hands clasped between us in solidarity, my belly bumping against his. It was slightly more intimate than I ever wanted to get with my soon to be brother-in-law, but it was the job. One thing was for sure – when September finally came to meet us, she’d be the most relaxed baby ever, because her Duwende uncles would never put her down.
“Is this how you imagined spending your Friday nights?” I teased. “Cuddled up to a pregnant woman?”
“I could do worse. I’d never seen a woman in labor before. Remind me to send my mum some flowers when I get a moment where no one’s attacking us.”
I gingerly slid his phone out of his pocket. “I’d wager you have a good ten minutes of not being attacked now. No promises on the hour after that.”
He took his phone from my hand and held onto my fingers for a beat, examining my ring like it was an alligator sitting on my finger. “That ring is mental. Totally and completely mad. But I guess that’s just like Von. When he does something, he does it with gusto.” The fog of reminiscence clouded his vision, and he blinked as if he was seeing something very far away. “This one time, Mum was on our case about cleaning our room – Bishop and me. Von was sick of hearing the fight, so he gathered up all our things and shoved them into garbage bags. I still don’t know where he hid them. Cleanest our room ever was. Then for Christmas, he wrapped each item and put it under the tree. It was the biggest spread ever. I still remember coming down Christmas morning and seeing mountains of presents under the tree.” Boston chuckled. “After unwrapping the third pair of dirty socks, Von was in hysterics.”
“That’s awesome. I hope he’s that creative with parenting for September. I’m a little worried about getting that part wrong and messing up a good thing.”
Boston’s hand lifted to brush a few squirrely strands of hair away from my forehead. “It goes the other way too, you know. He loves big, which is why he doesn’t do it often. Did Danny ever tell you about the bully in grade five?”
“No. Who was Danny bulling?”
“Danny was getting bullied, if you can believe it. This grade six chap named... Oh what was his name? David or something. So Von spends the whole evening teaching Danny how to deliver a solid punch if David messes him up again. The next day, David’s up to his old tricks, so Danny pops him one, only it barely leaves a dent. Von showed up to stop the fight, and sent Danny home. The next day, David’s not in school. Nor the day after that. Three days later, he shows up with a black eye, a split lip, stitches across his cheekbone and a limp. Never messed with Danny again. You know what’s brilliant about it?”
“That hopefully the school sent out better supervision on the playground after that?”
“Nah. It was that Danny got the credit for beating up David. Von spread the rumor that Danny was vicious when crossed, and then used David as the billboard so everyone could see that Danny wasn’t to be messed with. David never said a word, but I knew. I saw Von come home that night with bloody knuckles.”
“Von loves Danny.”
“Von loves you,” Boston informed me. “It’s a sizeable responsibility to be loved by someone like Von. He loves hard, so if you care about Captain Finn, it was good of you to send him away. When someone Von loves is trifled with, big brother pounces, and they usually don’t get back up.”
I shrank in Boston’s arms, embarrassed that my personal life was headline news for everyone in my world. “Thanks for the heads up. And for the record, I started getting close to Finn after your brother turned a relationship with me down.”
“I know. But now that you’ve got his ring on your finger? Be prepared, is all.”
Von strolled into the room, a relaxed smile on his face and color in his cheeks. “I found a few squirrels who met their maker sooner than they’d planned. Blood shipments will come here now instead of the mansion. I talked to Ezra, who’s very much a person again. He’s too ashamed to speak to you, Peach, but he sends his sincerest apologies. I believe the words ‘Don’t deserve to look on your face’ were used in conjunction with a good hearty smattering of a general ‘curse my genetics’ kind of thing.” When I only looked up at my fiancé with wonder as I studied all the things that were Von, he quirked his eyebrow at me. “What? Did I get some squirrel blood on my shirt?” He pulled a cinnamon stick from his pocket and started chewing on the end of it.
I slowly turned my chin from side to side. “You’re amazing. You fought a lion the size of a small elephant to keep us safe. You fought a lion, Von.”
Boston scooted out from our cuddle and left the spot vacant for Von, making his way out to the living room. “Yeah, yeah. Have your mating ritual without me. Not the kind of threesome I’ve always dreamed about.”
My look of rapture when I drew the glowing “S” on Von’s chest to label him the superhero he was to me could not be tempered. “You fought a lion for September and me.”
“If anyone’s going to take a bite out of my fiancée, it’ll be me.” He tried to make a joke, but I didn’t care. I was too grateful.
I waved him toward me, sitting up to peel off his shirt. Von had the right kind of hunger in his eyes as he knelt on the bed at my side. “I love you,” I admitted, though we both already knew the truth of that statement.
“Prove it,” he challenged, squinting one eye at me. “Marry me. Be my wife and have my baby. Kiss me until I don’t remember my own name.” Instead of letting me do just that, Von buried his face in my neck, kissing and tugging at the tender skin until my toes curled and my fingers bunched in the sheet. I couldn’t think through all the things I wanted to say to him to thank him for saving us. I wanted, and that was the only thing that stayed steady inside of me as Von’s seduction turned everything on its head.