“Lero’s moved all the way out here?” Mori asked and Colton, the bigger bear-wolf, ignored my question.
“Bear and wolf,”my bear agreed.
“Yeah. He doesn’t know,” Colton said.
“Doesn’t know what?” I asked.
“That Kodiak and his brother used to live out here. Brother’s dead now. Not a great guy. Together they nearly killed me but eh, I’m here,” he shrugged.
I was about to ask why they tried to kill him, but another wolf came out onto a nearby back porch.
“Don’t sound so fucking nonchalant about that!” a beta wolf called from the back porch of the nearest house. “The next time someone raises a gun at you, I’m going to give them a reverse birth and shove their head up their ass!”
“Hey, Ivan!” Mori waved, hugging Colton again.
“Don’t mind him,” Colton said and stopped short of extending his hand. “I’m Colton. I’m Lero’s sire. Ivan’s his dad and his carrier is inside.”
“Oh! Another polycule!” I said.
“Uh… We’re a closed polycule so don’t you get any ideas, snow boy,” Ivan said.
“He’s not mad at you. He’s just grumpy because Bolt kept us up all night,” Colton said, taking my trunk from my shoulder and starting up the back steps. “Your twin’s inside too, Mori. You two come in out of the cold. Lero’s made up about fifty thousand gallons of eggnog and hot chocolate. He’s gone overboard with this. Well, maybe,” Colton looked me up and down over his shoulder. “I bet you eat a lot, huh? Maybe even more than the bears here. Are you like carnivore only?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I can eat whatever’s good.”
“Well, damn,”my bear sounded off in my thoughts.“Didn’t expect to meet the whole damn family!”
“Let’s just get it over with. I bet Lero is mortified too. Can you imagine your own parents thinking so little of your abilityto protect yourself that they all have to show up and crash your holiday fling?”
“Platonic fling. Sex doesn’t come with the package,”my bear reminded me.
“I’m not sure I want to have sex with him at all. Not if this would be my family if something snuck into him through the condom,”I shook my head.“They’d probably come over and watch to see if we’re doing it right.”
CHAPTER THREE
Preston
Nightshade Bear Territory
Baby Andy dunked his tiny hand into my cup of eggnog and sucked it dry. Then he dunked it again. On the other end of the sofa, a nervous Lero cringed and scrunched up his nose.
“He’s putting his slobber in your drink,” he crinkled his nose.
“I grew his slobber,” I shrugged. “Besides, it’s good for him to try different things to find out if he likes them. Plus, he’s not old enough for his own cup. Worry about the alpha who you’re going to swap slobber with.”
“Uh… You do know that it’s not a s-e-x exchange, right?” Lero asked.
“That’s what they say but I bet people hook up a lot. Together, in a house, during the loneliest time of the year?” I rolled my eyes. “Sure, no one is having a r-o-m-p.”
Lero shot me a warning look and glanced through the little window that connected the kitchen and the living room without having to open the door. His carrier was putting the finishingtouches on whatever he’d cooked up in there. Bolt wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea of someone none of us knew coming to stay with Lero. Truth be told, I felt bad for the guy if he was a sleaze. Lero would gut him and feed his entrails to all the birds he put seeds out for every morning. He might’ve been Bolt and Colton’s kid biologically, but he was scrappy and strategic like Ivan could be.
Lero said something else, but Baby Andy dunked his hand into my drink again and I wondered if having me around was strange for Colton. I was named after his brother who died. Sure, my parents made sure he was okay with it, but I always wondered if it bothered him or made him sad whenever he saw me. Colton was the sort of guy who would never bring it up if that was the case but that was the sort of shit that plagued my thoughts now that I had a baby. I didn’t mind the honor of being named after someone special to my brother, but I gave my baby his very own name, so he never had to wonder about such things.
The back door swung open letting in the blustery winds of late mid-November. Baby Andy cried and attempted to slap the glass to vent his frustration. I moved it out of the way and opened my mouth to tell those assholes to close the door when that blustery wind slapped me in the face. Everything inside me turned to ice. There was a polar bear coming into the house. A big, alpha polar bear. I knew that, right? Of course, I knew that! The polar bear was here to suck face with Lero and… No, he wasn’t.
Oh, no, he wasn’t here to suck face withLero.
He was here to suckmyface. Maybe something else too. Shit!
