Everyone turned around as we walked into the kitchen-diner. I hoped Lucas would interpret the looks on their faces as simply pleased to see us, rather than linger on the smirks Bonnie and Louisa were sporting. They clearly had ideas about what we’d been doing, other than me retrieving Lucas from the vet surgery.
I hurried to my chair beside Callum while Aster jumped up and hugged his best friend, pleasantly surprised by the heaped plate waiting.
‘I didn’t let them eat everything.’ Joshua slung an arm around my shoulders as Aster and Lucas joined us at the table. Lucas was directly opposite, his plate heaving with potatoes and gravy smothered vegetables too.
I allowed myself a second to lean into Joshua’s side, before using the excuse of picking up my cutlery to dip out of his embrace.
‘You needed a knight in shining armour to rescue you because you couldn’t say no?’ Bonnie asked Lucas, her eyes glued to the lamb on his fork.
If she used his good nature against him and suggested he shared his food, I might have to beat her a little. I’d probably get one good hit in before she tackled me.
Lucas swallowed, despite not placing any of his dinner inside his mouth yet, but Joshua jumped in.
‘I seem to remember you were late home last night, my dear.’ He shimmied his shoulders and went on in a voice that sounded nothing like his wife but which we claimed was a perfectimpression. ‘Little old ladies are the hardest to say no to. I hate seeing their wee shoulders slump in defeat.’
Bonnie growled as she stood, rounding her husband to stand at my other side. ‘Kit, will you protect me too? It’s not just the pet owners of the island who aren’t playing fair.’
I took a moment to enjoy her hand on my shoulder, before I shrugged her off. ‘You’re more than capable of fighting your own battles.’
Bonnie cackled, her hair sweeping across my face as she leant past to grab empty serving platters. I pressed into Joshua’s shoulder to make way for her, but quickly straightened once she moved over to the kitchen.
‘Have you got the new Becky Chambers’ book in yet?’ Callum laid a hand on my arm to get my attention while Bonnie and Joshua argued about whether it was acceptable for pudding to be served now that Kit and I had arrived.
I edged my arm away from Callum’s warm touch before I sunk into a discussion of his favourite space operas. Across the table, Lucas frowned. I couldn’t hear what Louisa was saying to him over Bonnie, Aster, and Joshua arguing about meal etiquette, but I hoped it wasn’t anything that would send him into another embarrassment spiral.
Before Lucas and I cleared our plates, a huge dish of apple crumble arrived on the table. Lucas had quickly agreed it was fine for everyone else to start their next course since it was his fault we were late. If he was worried about the pack warming to him, he only needed to keep acquiescing where their bellies were concerned and he’d be golden.
I caught his eye a few times across the table as we finished our dinner and helped ourselves to crumble before everyone else descended for seconds. Each time, he shot me a shy smile. I hoped the combined scents of everyone around the table were enough to hide the pure shots of happiness bursting from me.
After dinner, Bonnie insisted we play games. She and Louisa were viciously competitive during half a dozen rounds ofOne Night Werewolf, but neither of them could bare their fangs or claws with an unsuspecting human around.
The rest of the pack sprawled on the sofa, while Lucas and I occupied the two armchairs. Keeping myself a little distant stopped me from accidentally slipping up and leaving my hand on someone’s shoulder for too long or pressing uncomfortably close into their side. The rest of my pack were snuggled together, but I didn’t trust myself to spot the cues of when it became too much.
‘I like you,’ Bonnie announced to Lucas as we bundled out the front door.
He blinked, like he wasn’t sure what to do when the tables were turned and someone blatantly complimented him. He looked even more discombobulated when Bonnie ran her hands down his face and gently clasped the sides of his neck.
‘Come on.’ I nudged one of her arms, breaking her hold on the human who would have no idea why some strange woman he barely knew was manhandling him. I ducked when she grabbed at me, and was out of the door before any more scent marking could occur.
Lucas fell into step beside me as I walked along the island’s only road. His scent was muddled with the rest of the packs’, but his earthiness shone through. So did a thick line of warm contentment I’d not smelt in his presence before.
He might not be able to say no and he might have planned to avoid me, but I thought I’d done the right thing by forcing him into a fledging friendship.
Louisa smiled knowingly as she and Errol hurried into their cottage, but even her smugness didn’t deter the wide smile spreading across my face. She and Bonnie might have decidedme and Lucas were going to get together, but I knew it was nothing like that.
Lucas was uninterested in me sexually, and that was fine. He might be the most beautiful man I’d met and it might have been amazing to see more of his sun-bronzed skin, but I was the master of living without things I wanted.
Anyway, I wanted a friend more than I wanted someone to have sex with. Lucas was more than up for that if the soft scent of his happiness as we walked to our cottage was anything to go by.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LUCAS
Ishouldered open the cottage’s back door and an intense burst of garlicky tomatoes and cheese washed over me. My day of back-to-back appointments at the surgery had been gruelling. I didn’t manage to take a lunch break between cleaning up the examination room and checking over a hamster for a little girl. She came through the door crying but left hiccupping with laughter after I explained that her new best friend was just sleeping.
Coming home to a delicious meal after a long day was good, but knowing that when I climbed the stairs I’d be greeted by someone I didn’t have to avoid anymore was even better.
I pulled off my coat and boots. A casual observer wouldn’t have been wrong if they’d noticed the skip in my step as I made my way up to the main living space of the cottage.
