Chapter 389


    Chapter 389: Good morning, Cora!


    E


    “Really, Cora?” I say, nudging my sister with my toe. I shake my head at my


    sister’s naked sleeping form, pressed against her mate under the single little


    throw nket that’s tossed over both of them. Seriously, how are they not


    freezing?


    “Auntie Cora is going to be so embarrassed,” I whisper to Rafe in my arms, who


    smiles at me and makes meugh. “We are never going to let her live this down,


    are we, little baby!?”


    Cora blinks awake then, looking blearily around her as she lifts her head. Roger


    is still senseless to the world, fully asleep beside her.


    “What?” Cora murmurs, still looking around for a moment before ncing up at


    me and the baby. Then, as reality snaps back to her, she gasps and clutches the


    nket tight to her chest.


    “Morning, sister,” I say, smiling wickedly down at her. “Missing something?” And


    then I pull her bra out from behind my back.


    “E!” she gasps, reaching for it, though I pull it away from her.


    “What!” Iugh, enjoying every second of this. “It’s not like you were keeping it


    safe – I found this ten feet away, tossed at the foot of the RV! It’s the first thing I


    saw at the bottom of the steps!”


    “No, you didn’t!” she growls in response, reaching for it again.


    “Did too!” Iugh, tossing it to her now and shaking my head with glee. ” Soooo,”


    I tease, “did you guys have a good nighttttt?”


    Cora just res up at me as she struggles to get her bra back on without


    dropping the nket. After she closes the sp behind her back she smacks


    Roger on the ribs; he wakes with a gasp as she nces anxiously towards the


    RV.


    “Wake up,” Cora hisses. “Put your damn pants on before everyone sees -”


    “Oh,” I say, still grinning gleefully at him. “Everyone’s already seen, sis. No


    reason to be ashamed now.”


    Cora res up at me, blushing hard. “Hey, E,” Roger says, sitting up and


    giving me a wide grin,pletely unabashed to have been found naked and in


    apromised position with my sister. “Is there any coffee?”


    “There is!” I say, giving him a wide false grin. But then I let it fall instantly from


    my face, shifting into a re.”


    But none for you.”


    “What!?” he asks, frowning. “Why?” Cora ignores the conversation, reaching for


    the scattered pieces of her clothing and pulling them on as discreetly as she


    can.


    “Because!” I exim. “If you two were going to go all Survivor on us and sleep


    out here, you could have at least told us so that we could have taken the big


    bed!”


    “No way,” Cora says, standing now in her bra and underwear and tossing the


    nket over Roger to cover him up. She points a finger at me before walking a


    few feet away to grab her jeans. “I told you I don’t want you and Sinir doing


    weird things in my bed.”


    “You abandoned the bed!” I exim. ” The bed is up for grabs! I now im the


    bed!”


    “Nope!” she shouts over her shoulder, stumbling a little as she steps into her


    pants and starts to pull them up. “We have dibs forever dibs on the bed, whether


    we want to use it or not.”


    I gasp at her, appalled at her selfishness, as Roger gets to his feet and wraps


    the nket around his hips, tucking it in like a towel. “I’m getting coffee,” he


    murmurs, shing Cora a grin before striding for the RV’s door, ignoring the


    pieces of his own clothing scattered around the fire. “It’s way too early for sister


    wars.”


    Iugh at him and walk to Cora’s side, bending on my way to grab her tshirt and


    hand it to her. “So,” I say, smiling widely at her as she scowls at me and pulls


    her shirt over her head. “You never answered my question. Did you have funnnn


    “Let’s just go,” she says, turning


    towards the RV and ignoring me even though she can’t hide the happy smile I


    see on her face. “The sooner we get to the temple, the sooner we get you off


    this line of questioning.”


    “You did!” Iugh, gleeful, chasing my sister to the RV’s door. “You totally did!


    Come on, Cora! Tell me everything!”


    We have a very cheerful morning after that, with everyone teasing Roger and


    Cora, and Cora blushing and covering her face with her hands a lot, and Roger


    refusing to be ashamed and happily drinking his coffee while still dressed in


    nothing but the nket wrapped around his hips.


    Even Henry gets in on it, making Cora’s blush deepen by patting her on the


    shoulder and telling her that it’s okay that no woman can resist the sight of a


    Sinir man in the moonlight –


    Cora just groans deeply at that and stands up, stalking away to the bathroom


    and mming the door shut behind her as we allugh, perhaps a little too hard.


    “All right, Roger,” I say, stillughing and moving to take Rafe to the bedroom to


    change his diaper. “Joke’s over – put on some damn clothes.”


    “No way,” he says, lounging back against the white booth of the kitchte and


    grinning at me, his coffee still in his hand. “Have you felt this leather against


    your skin? It’s amazing-”


    I just groan and roll my eyes, taking my baby away as Sinir and Henryugh,


    heading for the front of the RV so that we can get started.


    As we drive, though, the mood in the RV gets noticeably darker. We all know, ofProperty of N?)(velDr(a)ma.Org.


    course, that as the minute pass we’re getting close and closer to the temple.


    And even though we’re here for a good reason to visit our mother, to get some


    very necessary information – well? It’s…tense. Because we don’t know what


    that information is.


    Cora grows the quietest, not even wanting to y any board games or cards as


    noon slips by. So I just take her hand, the baby curled in my other arm, and sit


    quietly with her. Waiting.


    Sinir starts to slow the RV at around two o’clock, ncing back over his


    shoulder. “We’re close now,” he informs us, his face impassive. I know that he’s


    aware of the tension, but he lets Cora have her space to process her emotions.


    Cora simply nods and we all sit quietly as Sinir gets the RV as close as he


    can. But, unfortunately, the temple was designed to only be approached on foot


    something about a sacrifice to the Goddess? I don’t know.


    But either way, as we all step out of the RV at the base of a series of stone


    steps that winds slowly upwards and out of our sight through the forest. I know


    that each of us feels the tension.


    “Will you be all right here, dad?” Sinir asks quietly, putting a hand on his


    father’s shoulder once Henry uses the lift to lower himself to the ground so that


    he can see us off.


    “I’ll be fine,” he says with a small smile. Then he reaches out to touch Rafe’s


    little foot, hanging free from the baby carrier that’s strapped to my chest. “Are you sure you don’t want


    to leave the little one?”


    “I don’t think I’m ever letting him out. of my sight again, Henry,” I say quietly, dipping my head to nt a


    little kiss on Rafe’s head. Rafe gurgles pleasantly, blowing bubbles between his tiny pink lips. I can’t


    help but smile when I look at him.


    “Well,” Henry says, folding his hands in hisp. “That, I understand. Good luck. I’ll see you in a few


    hours.”


    We each bend to give Henry a kiss before we all turn towards the steps. I take Cora’s hand as Roger


    starts to climb, taking the lead. Sinir, on some Alpha instinct to protect the most vulnerable members


    of his pack, falls behind.


    “You ready for this?” I ask.


    “As much as I’m gonna be,” Cora sighs, ncing at me with a little smile. And then, after she takes a


    deep breath, we start to climb the stairs on what promises to be a long, long hike.