Colonel Seeders' Mail Order Bride, Hank

24 Michelle

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By the time the sun came up, Michelle looked and felt like herself again. Someone had taken the initiative to close her up with a blanket so that she did not expose herself to Hawk.

She blinked her eyes open, looking straight into Hawk's smiling face.

"Morning Mom. Did you sleep well?"

She leaned closer and pressed her lips against his forehead. "Yes. Thank you for all the help last night. Did you sleep okay?"

His head bobbed up and down. "Best sleep I've had since I used to fall asleep on Dad's chest. I slept under your wing until you changed back and then I quickly closed you with a blanket so that you wouldn't get a cold. Dad fell asleep in front of us. He's gone to call Uncle Sebastian. He said something about Paul Simmons and Robert Frebasch. I, uh. I wasn't paying attention."

"I've heard of that name before. I just can't place where." She shrugged her shoulder and smiled at Hawk. "So, what are our plans for today?"

"I have to go check my traps later this afternoon. Until then, I want to make a feast for Thanksgiving. I did some research on it, but I don't like the things they suggested. Giblet sauce sounds like it's made from some internal organ of an animal and I'm not too fond of toughing that stuff. Dad usually cleans whatever we catch."

Michelle gathered the blanket around her and sat up to think better. Her mother always said 'you think better on your feet', but she could not strut around in her birthday suit with Hawk sitting watching her.

"We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving where I came from, so I'm not really sure what they eat. I don't think it really matters. Apart from the turkey that they carved, everything else changed over the years. What did you have in mind?"

They discussed his ideas and she added a few of her own. When Hank joined them almost an hour later, he offered to call Matteo and Xander to come join them.

Plans made, Michelle went up to have a shower and brush the metallic taste of the raw meat out of her mouth. Because he preferred her hair loose, she wrapped it around the sponges again and used the helmet to dry her hair into soft curls. She selected a lightbrown, fur top and pants to wear over her new Xander underwear, which kind of freaked her out since the man would be in the house with them. Not that he would know she had them on.

Two hours later, she had the bird stuffed and in the oven, vegetables cleaned and ready to be roasted so that Hawk could make the vegetable bake he wanted to try, dough kneed and raising under a thick blanket, and fruit juice freshly squeezed, chilling in the fridge.

Twenty minutes later, Xander and Matteo arrived. Xander wore furs in the same dark brown as Hank, but a smaller size. The man stood at least a head higher than Xander and his chest much broader. She definitely got the better looking, more muscular brother. Xander walked around with the same scowl that Hank had when she first arrived, where the youngest brother, Matteo, could not stop showing off his perfect white teeth. Out of the three, Matteo pulled the short straw where body build was concerned, but he made up for it with his cheerful nature.

"I still can't believe Hank took a mate after all these years. Even as I see you in front of me, it still sounds too good to be true," Matteo said as she handed him a glass of berry juice.

"Well, believe it or not. I am here to stay. I already told him, the only way to get rid of me is if he sends me away. Now, you guys can chat, since I know Xander wants to know about the reason I came here. I'm taking Hawk to the traps he set. Hopefully I get to kill... Nope, I probably won't be able to, but if there is any large animals in those traps, you three men can come out and help us. I'll just help bring them home."