Lauren’s sister, Kylie, walked in with a few friends. She immediately sought her sister out and asked her, “Who was a lot?” in sign language.
I knew that’s what she said because Denny had insisted the entire fraternity learn ASL to be able to communicate with Kylie and make her feel welcome at the house.
I quickly signed back. “None your business.”
She snorted. I knew her well enough to know Kylie wouldn’t drop it that easily. Plus, with the backup of Autumn, Kevin’s sister, and Caroline, who was looking pretty cozy withTroy over in the corner of the room, I knew there was no getting rid of them for this.
In some ways it was good though because this was authentic life in the doghouse and that’s what I wanted Zoey to get comfortable with.
Zoey and I sat down on a couch as we waited for the girls to arrive. Her leg bounced up and down nervously. I reached over and put my hand on her knee to still it.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“Relax, they’re going to love you, if for no other reason than because you make me happy.”
We hadn’t truly brought a new person into our folds since Pete mated Sadie. So I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous. And of course they were late. They were always late.
Finally, they arrived. Delilah, Dakota, Rose, and then Sadie and Pete brought up the rear. One of them was talking to the guys because Remy, Brax, and Caleb also walked in from the hallway at the same exact time.
I stood up as everyone hugged. It had been a bit since we were all together without an event or party or something. Though arguably this felt like one of the biggest events of my life. I was introducing Zoey to my family, because that’s what they were, much more than friends—family.
Zoey stood behind me, sort of hovering at my back or maybe hiding, as we greeted one another. But when Rose moved in to hug me, she growled in warning.
Sadie grinned. “Steer clear ladies, we have territorial one here.”
“You still haven’t sealed the deal?” Pete teased me.
“Without her really meeting you guys first, no chance.”
“Idiot,” he replied.
“I think it’s sweet,” Dakota said.
“Yeah, kind of like meeting the family,” Delilah agreed.
“It doesn’t work that way. We’re stuck with her whether we like her or not. They’re true mates,” Sadie pointed out. “But we’ll learn to love her anyway because she makes our boy, Monte, happy.”
Remy had a hand to his heart. “You mean you didn’t consider me at all when you mated Pete?”
“Nope. And you hated each other, so we never would have gotten here if I based my mating off of you. Don’t worry, Zoey, it all worked out in the end.”
“Did it?” Pete asked, earning a shove from Remy.
I just shook my head. They were still like uncontrollable pups fighting over a toy when it came to Sadie, but somehow, they made it work.
“Ignore them,” she said. “Hi, I’m Sadie. We’ve met, but it kind of feels more like an official meeting this time. This is my mate, Pete. It’ll be nice having someone who gets it to talk to now. So far, I’m the only one of us mated. So I am super excited to get to know you better.”
Zoey stiffened, still hiding behind me. I reached back and pulled her around to my front and then wrapped my arms around her as she relaxed into me.
“Better,” I whispered.
She blushed.
“It would be nice to have someone to talk to,” Zoey admitted. “None of my friends have gone through this yet.”
I’d already prepped the crew on how nervous she was and how much I wanted them to get to know the real her and not the social media celebrity Zoey. No one even mentioned anything about that even though I knew Dakota and Delilah were both huge fans of her and obsessively watched all her videos the second they went live. I was actually impressed they managed to keep their composure at all.
Once introductions were complete, we sat back down. Some took to the floor while Sadie and Pete joined us on the couch.
