The Afterword of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

The Velveteen Tortoise is now complete.

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Chapter Twenty-One of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

Luna the Baby Bunny

“Fire,” Pyx heaves.

“What! No!” I say frantically. “That’s not a safe wor—”

Wait a second.

I look over my shoulder and—dangit.

I can’t see my hands. They’re tied behind my back because Pyx really gets off when he has an unobstructed view of my baby bump.

I shuffle on my knees, turning myself around. “I can’t see. Am I on fire…?”

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Chapter Twenty of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

Luna the Baby Bunny

“Pyx,” I say. “I’m scared that I’ll mess everything up.”

Now he’s looking at me like what I’ve said is ludicrous—which is as sexy as it is flattering, however…

“Really, Pyx. I need to work on things. Lots of things.” I step closer to him and reach up to touch him.

I cup his cheek, and you know what?

The guy didn’t flinch at all.

Hell. I love the crap outta Pyx.

I brush my thumb over his cheek. “I need your help. When I forget to tell you what I want or need, could you remind me?” I shrug. “Problem solved.”

His brow wrinkles. “That’s feels…”

“Too easy?” I nod. “Kinda feels like we’re cheating, right? But we’re not.”

“Feels like things can still go wrong.” He’s looking at his hands. “What if I get it wrong.”
“Then we’ll try again.”

Pyx has got a wary look on his face.

“And again, and again,” I say encouragingly. “Until we get it right.”

But he still doesn’t look convinced.

Okay, Luna. Now or never.

I go with my signature move and pull my dress up and over my head.

Yay! I only got tangled up, like, three times.

But I flick my gaze to Pyx to gauge how much of an idiot I am.

The heat in his eyes and tension in his body is telling. I’m at a Zero Idiocy rating.

All right! This is gonna be great…

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Chapter Nineteen of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

Luna the Baby Bunny

Howie’s looking at me and his mouth twists, like he’s tasting something off-putting and can’t pinpoint the ickyness. “You listenin’ to other folks’ ideas?”

I nod. “Yeah. Didn’t I always…”

I’m look from Jo to Howie. They both are glaring at me.

“Fine.” I huff. “I’ve grown as a person and I’m listening now. Whaddya got for me, Howie?”

“That candy of yours’s too sweet.”

“Too sweet?” I echo back like an idiot.

Because I never, ever thought Howie could be a nice kid and—

“Kinda gross sweet,” he says as he makes a gagging noise. “You know, it tastes like that crap the communal mess cooks use to cover up whatever rank food we still gotta eat.”

“Ah. Noted. Less sweet. Thank you for telling me what you want.”

Howie shrugs and walks off. “Yah never bothered asking.”

“Got it.” Feeling like a fool, I turn back to Jo and point my thumb over my shoulder. “That’s Howie saying ‘you’re welcome.’”

Jo narrows her eyes at me. “Right. He’s just spewing gratitude.”

I nod. “He’s a good kid.”

But not a nice kid. Definitely not nice.

And I kinda adore him…

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Chapter Eighteen of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

Luna the Baby Bunny

A flash of yellow streaks overhead. I look up, whipping my head around so that I can track the yellow dart as it shoots out over the Chaparral.

Yellow?

I blink. Was that a War-nary?

The undergrowth around us explodes with charging War-wolves. Gary rushes forward, pushing Howie, Bianca, and I toward a tree. This close to the Chaparral, the trunk is not as massive as the ones deep in the forest. But as a makeshift shelter, it’ll do.

“Luna?” Howie cries.

All I can do is shake my head as I watch about two dozen War-wolves sprint past us, shaking the ground with their pounding strides. They streak out into the Chaparral, traveling the same direction as the War-nary.

I look at Gary. He looks at me. And we’re totally on the same page.

Something bigger and badder than a mega-sized pack of War-wolves is coming.

A low, deep growl—more menacing than the War-wolves’—rumbles all around us…

Read Chapter Eighteen…

Chapter Seventeen of The Velveteen Tortoise is now available.

Luna the Baby Bunny

Pyx looks over his shoulder. “Gary can’t go to the Bale.”

“Yeah.” I gaze in the same direction as Pyx—outta Two-Four-Kay. “There’re still our boltholes in the forest.”

Pyx looks down at me. “Luna.”

Yeah, yeah. Seems Pyx has newly mastered Jo and Rez’s ‘you know better’ tone when he says my name.

“Fine.” I huff, like it’s no big deal. “There’s your cabin—”

“Your cabin.”

“Yours. You built it.”

“For you to use.”

“Right.” But I still don’t believe that.

It’s too freaking perfect a place for a disaster like me.

“Take Gary there,” Pyx says.

“Yeah. Sure.” Really, it’s our only option. “Come on, Gary. You’re with us.”

The whole time Gary has been standing by, being as silent as the War-naries used to be when in the mine. “Okay.”

Gary said that way too easily.

“Like, permanently with us.” I say, gauging his reaction. “So—” Crap! “I mean, you don’t wanna stay in the settlement anymore, do you? I didn’t even ask—”

“Yeah. Yep.” Gary rushes to say, nodding adamantly. “Wanna go.”

“Oh. Good.” Because if he’d said no, I probably would’ve had Pyx haul him out anyway. “I really shoulda asked first.”

“But ya are askin’.”

“Eh,” I roll my eyes, “kinda after the fact, but sure. Do you need to get anything?”

Gary shrugs. “Got nothing to get.”

Aw, my heart. I swear, I’ve only met one other person in my life who needed a hug as badly as Poor Gary, here. Which is Pyx. Who’s also here.

But I don’t hug Gary, because then that means I gotta hug Pyx. And I can’t hug Pyx right now, because my head still hurts. I’m tried. And my stomach is doing funky stuff.

And even though I’m so dang mad at Pyx right now, if I hug him, I’ll squeeze him for hours. And we gotta go.

I clap my hands. “Awesome.” Crap. “I mean, ‘awesome’ that we’re good to go.”

I have no clue how to recover from that, so I turn and start walking.

And we’re off. Outta the hostile human settlement and through the predator-filled forest, to Pyx’s cabin we go…

Read Chapter Seventeen…