I narrowed my eyes on him. “Do you evenknowhow to cook?”
Not judging… okay, maybe a little. I didn’t cook. Never needed to. I was a city girl, raised by chaos and convenience. My mealscame from five-star kitchens or twenty-four-hour delivery boys. The idea of standing over a stove seemed so… domestic.
Lucus, with his golden, sun-drenched hair falling into his eyes, bowed his head, lips twitching with amusement. “I wouldn’t offer if I couldn’t deliver.”
With a half-hearted shrug, I dropped into the chair. Fine. Let the vampire chef prove himself.
“How’s breakfast sound?”
I tilted my head back, offering him a smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes. “Sounds great.”
He leaned in just enough for his golden hair to fall around us like a curtain, blocking out everything but him, then he kissed me softly, upside down, which was unexpected. A flutter danced in my chest, reminding me how much I actually enjoyed this man.
He pulled away with a chuckle, the rich scent of tarragon, roses, and sweet myrrh lingering after him. “Coming right up.”
A glass hit the table in front of me with a soft clink. Clear liquid shimmered inside, touched with an iridescent sheen.
Ras’ warm, honeyed voice followed. “Drink. This’ll help your body recover faster.”
When my brows pinched, he held up the life essence bottle I kept tucked in the fridge like he’d done me a favor, then turned to put it away without waiting for thanks.
Staring at the glass for a beat, I picked it up and drank it. Fast. If only it was the answer to all my prayers and the cure for the unease curling low in my belly.
I barely noticed the way the guys shifted around me until I realized they’d created a perimeter. Alic across from me, arms crossed but alert. Van at my side, still watching for signs of something I wasn’t showing. Ras, on my other flank, quiet and observant.
Surrounded, protected, like glass they were afraid might crack.
It would’ve been suffocating if it wasn’t so… oddly comforting. Annoying as hell, yes, but something in me softened at how seriously they were taking it. Takingme.
The sound of a door opening and closing caught my attention, and I turned toward the sound of it. My whole body froze when I sawhim.
Maso.
He stood in the kitchen doorway, eyes locked on mine, every inch of him just as maddeningly beautiful as I remembered.
The golden threads inside me snapped taut. A sharp pull radiated through my spine, wrapping around my ribs and throat like they wanted to tether meto him.
Heat licked up my limbs, not the pleasant kind, but an overwhelming swell of need and energy I didn’t understand. My pulse jumped. My breath caught. Everything in me screamed that something was changing,becoming whole, by having the five of these men in the room.
I tried to keep my face neutral, tried to school my expression into indifference, but my hands were trembling. Subtle but real. The essence I just drank churned in my stomach—not violently, but with a shimmer of somethingalive.
Then he moved.
In a blink, Maso was beside me, crouched low, wide eyes glowing with that feral, aching heat I remembered too well.
“Aniyah,” he breathed, his voice a rough velvet scrape that turned my insides to static. “My mate.You’re awake.”
“What the fuck?” My bones shook from the inside, and something cracked wide open, freeing some piece of me I didn’t recognize.
A fresh pulse shot through my body, spreading like wildfire. My back arched slightly in my chair before I caught myself, digging my fingers into the wooden table as if it could anchor me.
Every golden thread that had been gently humming earlier now blazed with light. Not pain but…connection. His voice had activated something old and hidden and utterly primal in me.
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. The atmosphere in the kitchen shifted, thickening.
Standing up, I backed up away from him, staring at him like he had grown a second head. His brows pinched, confusion filling his eyes. “What do you mean? You’re my mate. My wolf picked you, and I agreed.”
My breath hitched, coming too fast, too shallow. I couldn’t get enough air. The walls were beginning to close in.
