[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter Eighty

Three weeks later

"Menza, we talked about this." I kept my voice soft as I looked at her and I knew she was frustrated with me but she needed to listen.

She looked away from me, her lips pinching together slightly. "I just wanted to-"

"I know you wanted to but we've discussed this." We had, many times. Doctor Amber had discussed it with her many times as well. "A lot." At the slight chastisement her expression grew a bit more stubborn. It was in the set of her chin, in the pinch of her mouth, and the slight crease between her eyebrows. I never thought I would have said it but I liked that look on her, a lot. That looked told me she disagreed with me, that she wanted to argue, that she was frustrated with me and in the past three weeks, it had only grown more frequent. I liked it because it meant she was getting more comfortable with me around. I liked it because she was being more open with me, more willing to show the negative sides of her emotions.

It took a lot to get her there though.

She gave the tiniest of huffs, her eyes narrowing in on the bucket of soapy water I was holding and I fought hard not to smile at it. "I just want to-"

"Do something you know you aren't allowed to do." I said the words carefully and evenly and her nostrils flared slightly, her mouth pinching into an even tighter line.

"The bathroom floor is dirty." Each word was slightly clipped, still soft but the fact it had the tiniest bit of an edge pleased me and my wolf. She was growing teeth. They were blunted quite a bit and she didn't snap as hard as some, but they were there.

Fierce little thing.

I moved the bucket away as I watched her fingers twitch like she wanted to snag it from me. "You're not allowed to be on your hands and knees scrubbing the floors." The doctor had been very clear about that. She was getting too far along in her pregnancy and getting too big to be doing it. I had been very intent on making sure she followed those rules, even the spirit of them because I had learned that Menza was very good at subverting rules and breaking the spirit of them while not breaking the rules themselves. There was a reason the scheduled checks were for every half an hour or every fifteen minutes switched at random. It was to prevent her from using that time to do something she knew was against the rules before we found out.

"It's dirty." Her voice became a bit more firm and I shifted the bucket.

"Then I'll do it." I would. I would get on my hands and knees and scrub every inch of the floors in her house if it kept her from straining her back or over exerting herself.

There was a bit of a flash of anger to her gaze as she glanced up at me and it took all I had not to laugh. She was so frustrated with me. I understood it. I did. She was being slowly confined, not allowed to do a vast majority of the things she had previous. She might not have had a wolf but she had been pulled just far enough to the shifter side that I knew it grated on her. Even my wolf was amused with it.

"Do you want to read?" I would prefer her to be sitting down, even though I knew it frustrated her.

"I want to clean." There was a firm snap to her voice as she crossed her arms over her chest, her chin jutting out a bit more, and her entire energy closing off.

I fought back a smile at it. "I can mindlink someone to bring the laundry over so you can fold it, if you want." I watched as that stubborn lift of her chin softened and that crease between her eyebrows nearly disappeared. I lifted a finger. "But you have to be sitting down while doing it." I gave her a look, the same look I had seen the doctor use on her time and time again. I could see her almost waffling on it, as if seriously contemplating it.