Kendrick
Kendrick moved around the kitchen with practiced ease, stirring pots and setting the table for supper. Rue had messaged to say they were on their way home, as he’d done every day since they arrived. However, Monty had also messaged earlier in the day, giving Kendrick a heads-up that things hadn’t gone well overnight for the omegas. With no real details, Kendrick had imagined the worst and with it came a sinking feeling deep in the pit of his stomach at what that meant for him, for them.
They hadn’t talked about ‘what if’s’ relating to problems if the omegas struggled with the transition. Kendrick kicked himself for not discussing it with how it had ruined his day, plaguing him with questions and doubts.
The looming question of whether Rue and Monty would need to move up to the ranch was the one that gave him the biggest headache. It nagged along with his thoughts all day. When he’d run out of things to do to keep his mind off the subject—whichhe’d failed miserably at—he had given in and gone online to get the full story on the omegas and the situation in Drinkwater.
It sickened him, and it gave him a different perspective on Rue’s family. He’d understood in principle that they’d done a good thing when Rue had mentioned it before, but hadn’t gotten the enormity of it. Now he understood what they’d done and spent to free those men from purgatory. It could have been nothing less than that, if he believed all that he’d read. Those Drinkwater alphas were monsters. Superior fuckwits who believed divergents were worthless throwaways.
Bile burned the back of his throat, and he had to make a concerted effort to swallow.
When he’d fallen down the rabbit hole, Kendrick had also done a little more research on Derick and Lane Starling. He’d met them once before, when they’d visited Bayfield and came into the bar. From what he could recall Trey mentioning at the time, they had stayed at Vaughn winery, not Silas’s ranch, up in the mountains. Why was that? Was the winery’s visitor accommodation better than the ranch?
He'd never bothered to take a trip to the winery, even when Trey had gotten an invite. The owners of the winery were three brothers, Thorn, Dacian, and Calvert. They all visited the bar, but Thorn was the one who frequented it the most. There was just something off about the brothers that Kendrick couldn’t pinpoint. His bear wasn’t able to determine what species they were, which was strange in itself because he didn’t think they were divergent.
Determining the species of a divergent was much harder than a shifter. And even though Thorn liked to hook-up with huge alphas, nothing about the man suggested he wasn’t an alpha too. He’d once hit on Kendrick and as attractive as Thorn was, Kendrick had never been interested in a hookup.
At the approach of a car turning into the drive, he turned down the pots bubbling on the stove, his pulse skipping a beat. He rubbed his hands down the cloth tucked into his front pocket of his jeans and walked to the front door, a grin tugging at his mouth. He leaned against the frame watching Rue and Monty gather their things from the back seat, a habit that he’d picked up the last few days. If he was acting like the little woman, he didn’t care.
“Hey y’all.”
Monty looked like a bright ray of sunshine, coming quickly up the path, lips puckered for a kiss which Kendrick was more than happy to give him. It was such a natural move, it was as if they’d been doing this for years instead of days.
Monty skipped past him and into the house. Kendrick heard him drop his laptop bag on the cabinet sat at the bottom of the stairs. However, he didn’t take his eyes off Rue, watching for signs of what might be coming. He was much harder to get a read from, but his wide shoulders were rigid and his moves seemed stilted as he locked the car.
When he came up the path, his attention was on the ground and not Kendrick.
Kendrick waited until Rue reached him, then blocked his way into the house. One brow quirked up before a furrow appeared between them. Kendrick cupped stubbly cheeks and forced Rue to look at him as he leaned in slowly to brush their mouths together in a light kiss.
Paying attention, he witnessed the moment Rue relaxed, swaying forward, adding more pressure and seeking a deeper kiss. Kendrick kept it light, moving until his mouth was at the corner of Rue’s and nibbled gently.
“Hey, honey, I hope you’re hungry.” He witnessed a stain of red appear over Rue’s slashing cheekbones, his nostrils flaringand pupils dilating. Witnessing the clear flush of arousal, Kendrick added, “For dinner.”
A chuckle rumbled out at Rue’s look of disappointment. Kendrick ran a finger down his nose, tapping the end. “Did you want something else?”
“You,” Rue rasped sexily.
The openness and ease of the admission punched Kendrick in the chest. It was worse than the time he’d stepped in between Cranny and Zippy, taking the punch the lion shifter had thrown at Zippy in fury, which would have snapped the omega in two.
“You’ve got me,” he confessed. And he didn’t just mean for sex. He wanted Rue to share whatever burdened him. Kendrick wanted everything and that was fucking scary when he wasn’t quite convinced Rue wanted the same. The man held so much back—except when he was naked.
He does want the same.His bear was adamant on that score.
Until he says it aloud, you don’t know that,he argued back.
“Something's bubbling over,” Monty called from inside, stopping any argument happening between him and his animal side.
“Crap.” Kendrick kissed Rue, unable to resist the undecided pout that Rue would most definitely deny graced his mouth.
Swinging around to dart back into the house, Kendrick heard Rue mutter, “Giving me another kiss wouldn’t have hurt the food.”
In the kitchen, amused at grumpy Rue, Kendrick found Monty eyeing the pots, his hands hovering over the knobs on the stove.
“I got it,” he murmured, a smidge pissed because he wanted to have everything perfect. These evenings together were flying by and in another week, he’d not be home in the evenings to do this for his men.
“It smells like a little bit of heaven in here. Is that apple pie I smell?” Monty groaned, bending to investigate the oven, his jacket now slung over one of the kitchen chairs like usual.
“It is.” Kendrick was fully aware of Monty's sweet tooth. “It’s my grandmother’s recipe.” He met Rue’s bemused stare as he strode in, a flush of embarrassment working its way up the collar of his T-shirt at how domesticated he was being when Rue eyed the kitchen and pretty table setting.
