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She passed the box off to Robb and then held the whole cake like an enormous sandwich, taking a gargantuan bite.

“Mmph,” she said around the mouthful, icing sugar dusting her cheek where the cake had touched. “Try some, Robbo.”

He leaned down awkwardly, doing his best to take a bite without covering himself in icing sugar.

It was good, he had to admit – a little crumbly in the cake parts and moist in the fruit parts, sour-sweet and insanely moreish.

“Here.” She broke him off a chunk. “Eat this.”

“I was planning on saving some for later,” he murmured, but there wasn’t much effort in it. His secret sweet tooth was calling him, having apparently been liberated from its bonds in much the same way all of his other vices had been, and he wasn’t really in the mood to argue.

He felt his dingo perking up, ready to make its opinion known. But just now, he wanted all of his attention to be for Tahnee, and Tahnee only.

He held up a metaphorical hand.

You don’t need to say anything, he told his dingo before it could open its mouth. I know exactly how unprofessional I’m being.

The dingo huffed. Don’t be so presumptuous. I was only going to ask you why you didn’t make a move years ago.

Robb raised a mental eyebrow at it. So you’re okay with this? You actually won’t grumble about trying to drag her in for questioning? Because I’m planning on spending the rest of my life with her. I’ll be with her for as long as she’ll have me.

They’d already had this discussion last night – albeit in a more fleeting sense, distracted as he had been by the prospect of spending the night with Tahnee – but now, in the cold light of day, he wanted to make absolutely sure. Because if the dingo had a problem with their relationship, then he was going to have a problem with the dingo. Tahnee’s safety was an absolute non-negotiable.

The dingo glared at him sullenly. You act as if I’m some rigid, rules-obsessed killjoy with no ability to detect nuance.

That’s pretty much exactly it, yes. You haven’t given me reason to believe otherwise.

The dingo tilted its head. Are you sure that it is me you’re saying this to? That you’re not saying it to yourself?

Robb barely kept from voicing his frustration out loud into the real world. He really didn’t want to be dealing with this right now, when he could be enjoying a brief window of peace with Tahnee before the realities of their situation came crashing back in.

Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Remind me again of who it was that made me give my exact height when I joined the Agency, even though it meant I was two millimeters too short to get into Alpha Squad?

The rules exist for a reason, the dingo retorted. Would you have lied on your very first day? What a terrible impression you would have made.

The Agency doctor was the one who added the extra two millimeters! Robb snapped back, only just keeping his cool. You were the one who made me tell him to take them off!

I am sure you would be singing a different tune if you had slipped out of your parachute harness because you had given false measurements. I refuse to die because of your penchant for dishonesty.

Robb generally considered himself a pretty restrained kind of guy, but right now, it was all he could do to keep himself from slapping himself over the head.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he tried again.

Do you promise that you won’t do anything to jeopardize her happiness?

Seeing the dingo’s hesitation, he jumped in quickly. I mean, within reason. If she actually posed a serious threat, then of course we would restrain her or arrest her in some way.

Robb felt awful even thinking about it… but he also knew that it was a complete hypothetical. He was certain – in a way that he’d never been certain of anything before – that Tahnee didn’t have it in her to do the kinds of things he was thinking of. She wasn’t a murderer, or a terrorist. And she seemed to have put her days of pursuing her own unique brand of justice behind her, having turned her knowledge and abilities to a far better cause. That was why the Agency had shelved her file, after all – the good she was doing now clearly far outweighed the dubiousness of her previous actions.

Apparently it was enough for the dingo, because it nodded decisively.

I promise. My word is my bond.

Robb felt relief rushing through him… but then felt compelled to add, And you won’t do anything to try to punish her for any past crimes?

The dingo frowned, in so far as a dingo could do so. I… would leave her be. She does so much for shifter society, so… perhaps… it would be wrong to dig up a past she has left behind.

“I can almost see the cogs whirring away in there.”