Page 40 of Little Fangs

Thank you dearly for housing me when I needed it the most.

I’ve been called upon to assist the Council in their investigation and to testify against Mistress Ludmila’s fledglings. I hope you won’t miss me too much. I’ve made sure that the dealings the manor had with the blood bank is now in your names.

You can call me anytime, or the Council, I’m sure.

I’ll miss you both, and Misty.

Yours, Muriel Grace Van Dijk.

I stared at the note for a moment, slowly shaking my head.

I hadn’t wanted her to leave like that, in the middle of the night.

I’d wanted to give her something for being here and helping Micah, especially for bringing back his things. His teddies now ran rampant across the entire bedroom, covered in Misty’s fur from the small dens she’d made with them.

Micah was right behind me, startling me when I turned. He was wearing one of his feetie onesies, looking like a red panda with the hood and ears.

“I saw her leave,” he said.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked, moving for him to see the note.

He shrugged. “I didn’t say anything to her,” he said. “I thought it was best to let her do what she needed to do. And I thought it might’ve been because the cabin is small, and we’d kinda asked her about her plans. But—” He smiled at me. “Looks like she didn’t need any more encouragement from us.”

“I guess—” I paused, chewing on the inside of my lip. The fear was real, and it flared in a trigger about my ex who’d upped and left me in the middle of the night. It was the same thing Muriel had done on a much lesser scale. “I wish she’d told us; I could’ve made us something nice last night.”

Misty barged in, trying her best to weave her big body between our legs. She let out a loud meow.

“You’re hungry,” Micah said, squatting to her and stroking her head. “Well, you tell Daddy that, because I wanna get back into bed while it’s still warm.”

“Oh, you’re just gonna leave like that?” I asked him.

“Well, it’s the weekend,” he said, looking up at me and pouting. “I thought—”

“I just meant you were gonna leave without first giving me a kiss,” I said. “Of course you can go back to bed, but only for a little bit. We’re going hunting later.”

“But I—but I—” He did that adorable thing where his bottom lip trembled. “We haven’t been to the dentist yet.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t get some practice in,” I said, winking at him.

Micah stood and swung his arms around me, pressing kisses all up my neck and chin before I looked down and made sure our lips touched.

“Not getting out of it that easy,” I said, picking him up. He swung his legs around my waist, and I carried him back to the bedroom. “And we’ve got the appointment for Monday at the dentist. Then those little fangs will be big boy fangs.”

“Good boy fangs,” he said, smiling with his teeth on show for me.

“Now, you’ve got two choices. Time in bed, or—”

“Bed,” he said, snickering.

“You didn’t let me give you the second choice.”

He tried playfully pulling away from my arms toward the bed. “I like bed, let me in it while your smell is still there.”

“Or you can come sit on the sofa and cuddle me while I have breakfast, and you can watch those Saturday morning cartoons.”

He threw himself back around me. “I’ll take the or,” he giggled. “Do I get breakfast?”

“I thought I was your breakfast?” I winked at him.