I stretch languidly, feeling that bone-deep satisfaction that only comes after being thoroughly fucked through the tail end of heat. My body aches in all the best ways, and the honeysuckle scent that's been driving everyone crazy for days has finally mellowed to something manageable.
"Stop looking so smug," Plague mutters from where he's attempting to put his turtleneck back on without actually removing the blanket covering his lower half. Like I haven't already seen everything. Multiple times.
"I'm not smug. I'm satisfied." I burrow deeper into what remains of my nest, watching him struggle with the fabric. "There's a difference."
Whiskey snorts from the loveseat where he's sprawled naked as the day he was born, not giving a single fuck about modesty. "She should be smug. She got two alphas to blow?—"
"We agreed never to speak of it," Plague cuts him off, finally managing to yank his turtleneck down. His normally perfect hair is a disaster.
"That was before round three," Whiskey points out, grinning. "Or was it four? I lost count after you started begging."
"I did notbeg."
"'Please, Whiskey, just like that, don't stop'—"
Plague fires a pillow at his head with deadly accuracy. Whiskey catches it, laughing. Somehow, between all the heat-fueled fucking, something shifted. They're still bickering, but there's less venom in it. More like foreplay they haven't admitted to yet.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand, interrupting what was about to become another round of their weird mating dance.
THANE
Hey. Change of plans, if you're okay with moving again, Ivy.
The warmth in my chest immediately cools. Of course. Just when I was starting to feel settled, even in this shitty hotel room.
IVY
Valek?
THANE
Yeah. I'm thinking you, Wraith, and me should go away for a couple of days. Wraith has errands up in Cedarbrook. Normal trip for him, won't raise suspicions, and it's five hours away from Valek.
Cedarbrook? The name means nothing to me, but the way Whiskey's face scrunches up when he reads the message over my shoulder says plenty.
"What's Cedarbrook?" I ask.
"A weird fucking town full of crazy people. Wraith just disappears up there sometimes and nobody knows why," Whiskey says, flopping backward onto the bed beside me. The mattress springs back, nearly sending me flying off the bed. I grab what's left of my nest for purchase, scrambling before he catches me by the back of my shirt like I'm a feral kitten and he’s a gorilla. He hauls me into his arms with a grin. "Gotcha."
"Yeah, thanks," I mutter.
"Wraith certainly has his secrets," Plague says, watching us in the nest like he wants to join but doesn't want to get yoinked by Whiskey like I just did.
I shrug, pulling one of the salvageable blankets around my shoulders. "I've got secrets too. We all do."
"True," Whiskey says. "Plague's got more than the CIA."
Plague rolls his eyes. "Very creative."
I leave them to their bickering while I text the group chat back.
IVY
When?
THANE
Whenever you come back, I guess. It's going to storm tonight, so maybe by noon?
