For the Love of Cupidity

by Raven Kennedy

  Amorette nods excitedly. “I will. She’s gonna let me plant new seeds on her head.”

  “Oh. That’s nice.”

  “See you later,” Mossie says, giving me an air kiss. “Don’t eat too much and then pass out snoring on the restaurant’s floor.”

  “That was one time,” I frown.

  She shrugs. “People still talk about it.”

  No regrets.

  Chapter 10

  Mossie disappears out the door with Amorette in tow, and I face my mates, absentmindedly wringing my hands. I look at each of them, and they’re all staying stubbornly silent.

  After a few more seconds, I can’t stand it anymore. “Well? Do I look okay?” I ask anxiously.

  When I see Evert shake his head, my nerves spike. “No. You don’t look okay. You look fucking gorgeous.”

  I swallow thickly at the heated look in his eye.

  “He speaks the truth,” Okot agrees in his magnanimous way of speaking. “You are a vision, my beloved.”

  Sylred steps forward and gently cups my cheek, pressing his lips to the corner of my mouth. “You’re perfect. As always.”

  When he steps back, I notice that my guys are all dressed to impress as well, wearing very debonair clothing. They’re all in black or white, impeccably fitted tunics and pants, held up by fancy belts. Ronak has shaved his brown head of hair short and trimmed his beard, while Sylred has his pink hair combed, the longer ends curling at the base of his skull and behind his ears. Evert’s black hair is tousled but neat, and even though he shaved, his pale skin always shows the sexy shadow across his jaw that I love. Okot’s bright-red mohawk is slicked back, and they all look so freaking handsome I’m tempted to push the nearest one down and ride him right here on the floor.

  “She’s giving us sex eyes again,” Evert muses, his lips curling up mischievously.

  “Can you blame me? You guys look hot. If we’re quick, can we just…”

  They chuckle, and Sylred shakes his head. “Not if we want to be on time.”

  I try to hide the disappointment in my face, but I don’t think it works, because Evert laughs again. “I’m with Scratch. Let’s blow off the fuckers and stay here. I’d much rather peel off that dress she’s wearing and have our wicked way with her than go to dinner, anyway.”

  “Don’t encourage her,” Sylred laughs. “We’ll peel off her dress later,” he adds, shooting me a wink.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” I warn him.

  “Oh, we’ll give you something to hold,” Evert adds, wagging his eyebrows.

  Ronak comes forward, and holds his elbow out to me. “May I escort you?” he asks, surprising me with the gentleness to his voice.

  “You may,” I say, shyly taking his arm.

  He leads me up the stairs and outside. The soft, lavender light of dusk shrouds the landscape, and I can hear birds singing the last of their songs as we make our way to the end of the path.

  Waiting on the road is an extra-large wooden carriage that is roomy enough to comfortably fit all five of us. Ronak helps me inside, and I settle between him and Sylred while Okot and Evert sit across from us.

  The carriage driver urges the horses forward, and I start mentally going over all seven of their parents’ names. I know that they’ve all lost at least one father, but Sylred lost his mother, too. Sylred has two fathers still alive: Yored and Perel. Evert has his mother, Evia, and his father, Welk. Ronak has his two fathers, Hesh and Gullen. And then of course, Ronak’s mother, Resha.

  I say the names over and over again in my head, but I’m probably making a weird face, because Evert cocks a brow. “Thinking too hard again?”

  I nod. “Yeah,” I say honestly. “Your family has a lot of names, and since we don’t see them much, I’m doing flash cards.”

  Evert’s eyes flick down to my empty hands and then back to meet my gaze. “Mental flashcards. Like, in my head,” I explain.

  A grin spreads across his face. “Of course.”

  “I have a plan,” I say, after a few more minutes of name-flashing.

  “Oh, yeah? And what’s the plan?” Sylred asks.

  “I decided I’m just gonna make Ronak’s mother like me.”

  The guys blink at me.

  “I have it all planned out. She’s probably still a bit mad that I’m not a nice, high-society genfin female like Delsheen, and she’s also probably upset about the fact that we haven’t let her come see us or be around Amorette. So, to deflect away from all of that negativity, I’m just going to be so lovable that it’ll be impossible not to like me, and then all of that disapproval will be water under the bridge. See? Easy,” I tell them, looking around expectantly. They’re bound to realize my geniusness and comment on it.

  Silence follows.

  Yep, they’ll probably commend me any second now…

  Still nothing.

  I frown. “It’s a good idea,” I tell them, because clearly, they haven’t deduced this on their own. I guess we can’t all be geniuses in this covey. Good thing they’re so hot.

  “Just so that I’m understanding this right, your plan is to force Resha to like you?” Evert asks.

  “Exactly,” I smile.

  Ronak clears his throat. “My mother is very alpha. She has always run the household and my fathers since I was a child. She has very strong opinions, and she doesn’t hold back, even when she should. Honestly, I’m not expecting much from her tonight.”

  “What he means is, his mom is a bitch, and everyone knows it,” Evert says dryly.

  Ronak doesn’t even get mad at that. He just shrugs.

  “Yeah, well, I’m totally gonna cure her bitchiness. After tonight, I’m going to be her new favorite person. Just watch.”

  Evert chuckles. “This oughta be good.”

  The carriage lurches to a stop, and I peek out the window, seeing that we’ve arrived at the fancy restaurant in town. The street is busy with some kind of fair, so vendors and entertainers are out in droves, and the entire road is lit up by lanterns and magical twinkle lights hanging from every building.

  “Ready?” Sylred asks, offering his hand.

  “Yep, totally ready.”

  Chapter 11

  The restaurant is a super fancy genfin establishment, and the place is packed. The building, like all the others, is dome-shaped and made out of polished wood. When we walk in, the lighting is low, and I can see into an exclusive bar area in the back, while there’s a set of spiral stairs that go underground to the restaurant below. Like the outside, everything is made of smooth, polished wood.

  As we approach, a genfin host comes forward. “Covey Fircrown,” he greets us. “Right this way. The rest of your party is already waiting.”

  The host leads us to the spiral stairs, and like everything else, they’re wooden, polished, and while very nice craftsmanship, they’re narrow and steep. I take a deep, fortifying breath to prepare myself for this formidable journey.

  “Okay, Emelle. You can do this,” I say, cricking my neck side to side to really amp myself up.

  The host and my other mates turn around and look at me expectantly.

  “Are you giving yourself a pep talk?” Evert chuckles beside me.

  “Do you see those stairs? It’s like a deathtrap.”

  “We would never let you fall, my beloved,” Okot reassures me.

  I walk forward, and the host begins his descent down the death stairs. Ronak keeps his steady gaze on me. “I’ll go in front, and you can hold on to me,” he says. Then he turns his head to Okot. “You walk behind her,” the alpha orders.

  Okot nods, and then Ronak turns and heads for the stairs. He doesn’t start descending until my hand grabs his forearm that he’s holding against his back just for me. You wouldn’t think walking down stairs would be such a big thing, but since I’m a big thing, it is.

  With one hand on his arm and one hand on the railing, I carefully start to make my way down, but it’s dark and daunting as hell, since I can’t see my fe
et or even the steps. I feel pretty badass, to be honest. Every stair that I manage to make it down is like winning a championship.

  I’m nearly at the last step when my foot misses the stair completely, and I start to freefall. I barely get a little shriek out before I feel Okot pluck me up effortlessly, his hands under my arms.

  I look over my shoulder. “Oh my gods. My life just flashed before my eyes.”

  Okot smiles and sets me down at the bottom of the steps.

  “I totally rocked those stairs,” I say.

  “You tripped,” Evert deadpans.

  “Yeah, but not until the end,” I argue.

  He just chuckles.

  I step up beside Ronak, whose arm is crooked and waiting for me.

  “You okay?” Ronak checks.

  “Yeah, it was just a little fall. Like, a tenth of a fall. I knew it was gonna happen, so I was already mentally prepared. Just like I knew I was gonna fall off that obstacle course you made me train on after Amorette was born. Remember? I nearly died.”

  Ronak rolls his eyes. “You were three feet in the air, and there was a safety net under you.”

  “Yeah, but those three feet were terrifying.”

  “I caught you,” he reminds me.

  “Specifics aren’t necessary for this story,” I wave my hand dismissively.

  I grab his arm and look around at all the dark, round wooden tables and plush sofa-like chairs. The space is lit up by candles and twinkling fairy lights, and nearly every table is full with genfins dressed in fancy clothes.

  When the dessert tray rolls by, I start salivating so much that I kind of choke on my spit. Evert pats me on the back unhelpfully.

  “Right this way, Covey Fircrown,” the host says, leading us through the room.

  Everyone we pass looks up from their meal to stare at us. My covey and I are kind of famous since we took down the prince. Since Ronak and I have matching cupid wings, Sylred and I have matching pink hair, and I have a huge lamassu mate, we kind of stick out. Evert is the only one who can somewhat fade into the background, but he doesn’t anyway, because he’s Evert. Which means he’s usually cursing louder than what’s appropriate for polite society.

  Ronak strides forward effortlessly, his chin up, looking fine as hell. I try to do my best to glide next to him, but there’s just no gliding in my current form. When we near a large table near the back, my eyes fall on a group of seven older genfins.

  They all stand as we approach the table, except for one. Ronak’s mother, Resha, stays sitting down at one end of the long table. This doesn’t bode well for a fresh start.

  She has dark gray hair swept up on her head, familiar black eyes that match Ronak’s, and a formidable expression. Stopping before them, our eyes lock, and I watch as she takes me in from my toes to the top of my head. Her eyes linger on my cupid wings, shifting from mine to the pair on Ronak’s back. She sniffs and raises her nose in the air. I plaster a smile on my face.

  “Hello, Resha. How are you?” I step forward and go in for a hug. Except I have a hard time bending down right now on account of being middle-heavy. So I kind of fall on top of her where she sits in her chair. My smiling face smooshes against her cheek, and I get a little spit on her. “Whoopsies!” I laugh nervously, trying to pick myself back up. I can’t. I’ve totally lost my balance. Ronak comes to my rescue and pulls me back so that I can stand again.

  “Whew! Sorry,” I smile down at her. She just glares at me and swipes a hand across her cheek were my slobber and some of my makeup rubbed onto her.

  “Mother,” Ronak nods at her.

  “Son.”

  They do some intense eye lock, where neither of them back down. It gets tense, so I quickly intervene. “So, Resha. I love what you’ve done with your hair.”

  Resha sniffs and lifts her glass of water. “I haven’t done anything to my hair.”

  My smile starts to waver, but I keep that sucker locked in place, because I’m on a mission, dammit. “Well, it still looks super awesome.”

  She gives my pink hair a long look, letting me know that she doesn’t trust my judgment.

  Ronak’s fathers, Hesh and Gullen, come forward and shake my hand. They look similar with gray hair and brown eyes. All three of Ronak’s parents have brown tails and wings that have gone slightly silver with age. I haven’t seen them since the last mishap with Resha, because Ronak banned them too.

  Evia, is already hugging Evert and trying to straighten his clothes. She always dotes on him. She’s a short little thing, only coming up to his sternum, and while her face is lined with wrinkles, she has a pair of dimples that she obviously passed down to her son. “Look at you! Not eating enough. You’re practically skin and bones,” she says, pinching him on the stomach.

  He flinches slightly and rolls his eyes. “It’s called training. I’m not a flabby son of a bitch like father,” Evert jokes, laughing at the male who comes up to clap him on the back.

  The male, Welk, pats his sizable stomach. “What, this? This is pure muscle.”

  Evert laughs and shakes his head. “Sure it is.”

  Behind me, Sylred is greeting his fathers as well, Yored and Perel, and I can tell by their shy and quiet demeanors that that’s where Sylred got his level-headed peacekeeping ways from. The parents have all been travelling together, so we haven’t seen them in months.

  Evert’s mother comes up to me next. I start to hold out my hand in greeting, but she just throws herself forward and wraps me in a hug.

  “Fucking hell, Ma. Go easy on my mate,” Evert chastises.

  Evia is a good head shorter than me, and her arms can’t reach all the way around my middle, but she doesn’t seem to mind because she just starts to rub my belly like it’s a genie’s lamp.

  “Look at the home you’ve grown for my grandbaby!” Evia says excitedly to my belly. “I haven’t seen you in ages!” She looks me up and down and nods approvingly. “I’ve told you before, you’ve got good hips, Emelle. That’s important, you know. Good hips can make all the difference in labor. How are you feeling? Any lightning crotch?”

  I blink at her. “Ummm…”

  “Ma, don’t get fucking weird and talk about my mate’s crotch,” Evert cuts in.

  Evia rounds on him, putting her hands on her hips in a very motherly fashion. “Evert, I really wish you wouldn’t swear.”

  He just leans in and pecks her on the cheek. She melts instantly, and her scowl turns to a beaming smile. She smacks him on the arm. “Oh, I just can’t stay mad at you!”

  “Let’s sit,” Ronak says, leading me to the table.

  I move to the left, so that Ronak can sit at the other head, directly across from his mother, but he stops me. In a deliberate move, he sits me down at the head of the table, so now it’s me and Resha facing-off.

  When Resha narrows her eyes at me, I make a face at Ronak, but he just sits down on the chair to my right and places a hand on my thigh. I don’t know if it’s to offer comfort, or to make sure I don’t bolt.

  He’s really messing up my Operation: Make Resha Love Me mission.

  Chapter 12

  When we’re all sitting, the table soon picks up with several conversations at once, and I watch as my genfins reconnect with their parents. Okot sits on my left, and joins in the talks. It admittedly took a bit for them to get used to having another non-genfin in our covey, but the males saw him turn into his lamassu bull form once, and they’ve respected him ever since.

  By the time the food arrives, the guys and their parents have shed the stuffiness of their first meeting, and now they’re all swapping stories about their time apart. The guys and I catch them up on all things Amorette, which is always a sure way to get everyone one the same page. Except Ronak’s parents, of course, since Ronak banned them, they haven’t actually met Amorette yet. I’m hoping to fix that.

  Huge platters of tender meat, grilled vegetables, and spiced rice gets brought out, and all of the alphas from each covey serves his mate first, before serv
ing the rest of his covey. It’s such a sweet gesture to see Ronak serving me, Okot, Evert, and Sylred, and I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.

  “How was your vacation?” I ask Resha. I have to kind of yell, since we’re sitting at opposite ends of the table, so everyone else’s conversations cut off, as they wait to see what she’ll say.

  Resha takes a bite of her food and chews extra slowly, making me wait. I just keep smiling patiently. Finally, she says, “It was fine.”

  My eye twitches a bit. She sure isn’t making this easy on me. “The guys tell me that you all went to visit one of the tropical islands south of here. That must have been lovely.”

  “There were too many insects.”

  I start scratching my arm. “Oh, that’s too bad. You guys do have crazy looking bugs. There were some gross ones on the earth realm, but those are nothing compared to the bugs here. I found a bug in my closet a few weeks ago that looked like a giant grasshopper except with people-lips.” I pucker up my lips and tap them to demonstrate. “They were seriously luscious. I was tempted to grab some lipstick and put it on the thing. But I’m pretty sure it catcalled to me when I walked by, so I threw a bowl over it and waited for Ronak to come home so he could take it outside.”

  Resha looks like I’m going to make her ears bleed if I don’t stop talking. “If you were a proper genfin mate, you would not cower in your own home because of a little bug,” she says.

  “This sucker wasn’t small.”

  She just stares at me, unimpressed.

  I look over at Ronak a bit desperately. “It was as big as Ronak’s—”

  He clamps a hand over my mouth before I can finish. The parents shift uncomfortably in their chairs. Evert snickers.

  “Mother,” Ronak says, addressing her. “Stop being so difficult to Emelle.”

  She just sniffs and raises her chin haughtily.

  I try to push Ronak’s hand off my mouth, but he doesn’t let go. I stick my tongue out and slather it all over his palm, but that doesn’t work either, so I change tactics and push his fingers even further in, and then I bite him. Hard.