Kellan shot us both a wink, but further replies were cut off as Finley stepped into view, wearing only a pair of boxer briefs. He crawled into his queen size bed, making it look tiny.
“Open your app,” Kellan said, drawing my attention back to him.
Luckily, my device was still in Hunter’s room from when I’d been reading earlier this week, so I handed Hunter the phone while I grabbed it from the drawer. It powered up and the new book was already in the library.
It had a dark blue cover, with stars and a huge moon above the title,A PackAge Deal: Shifter Pack Wars.
“Shifters,” I said, arching a brow. “Like us?”
Kellan’s expression relaxed as he leaned back in his bed. “I’m not sure if they’re exactly like us. I think this one is mostly about wolf shifters, and it’s no doubt written by a human, but the part you might find interesting is that it’s a ‘why choose.’”
I wasn’t familiar with that term, and as I squinted at him, he laughed. “It means that the female main character will end up with a pack of mates and she won’t choose between them. Figured you might enjoy the concept.”
Well, okay then. “I had no idea that was a genre,” I said, excited to see what it entailed in this fantasy world. “Now I’m going to have to search them all out. For research purposes of course.”
Hunter chuckled beside me. “You don’t need to research, baby girl. You know exactly what you’re doing.” My lower half clenched at the reminder of what had happened downstairs.
Clearing my throat, I flicked the pages until I reached the first chapter. “Chapter one.Being the outcast of a pack is never the role I expected to play. But here we were. Outcast. Rejected. And alone.”
My reading was slow, and I stumbled over a few of the larger words, but overall I managed to keep the story flowing well. Years of trying to learn, and struggling along, had given me the skills to do this. If I had the right font, background color, and line spacing.
As I continued, Kellan’s face was peaceful. When he shifted the phone toward Finley’s bed, my throat tightened at the sight of the bear’s serene expression, a hoodie in his hands.
Not just any hoodie—I recognized it as the one I’d worn yesterday, which he must have grabbed from my room before they left. As if he knew he’d need my scent to help him through.
Just the way I’d had to be in their clothes today too.
Fuck, away games sucked. Next time I was going with them, no matter what it cost.
CHAPTER 48
EMME
Over the next few days I forced myself to stay busy with training, visiting Talon, and baking—I wanted to surprise the boys with all the sweets when they returned. And every night was spent reading the spiciest “why choose” story on video chat.
The shifter tale was edging all three of us, but I at least had relief from Hunter.
Kellan and Finley got to suffer, though neither of them asked me to stop.
Their last game was today, and while usually they’d fly home tomorrow morning, they were taking the Reeves jet to get home tonight. These days without them felt like I was missing an essential part of myself, and the ache from my bond to Kellan was starting to drag deeper into my essence. It wasn’t the same pain it had been the last time, but it still grew worse with each day.
The only silver lining was how close we felt after nights of reading and chatting.
I’d grown closer to Talon during this week too. The more time I spent around him, the more our beasts bonded. The connection between us hummed for that final completion, andas scary as it was, I could barely remember hating and fearing him.
When he looked at me like there was no one else in the world, and he only needed me to be happy, there was no hate in my heart for him. Though I could never forgot that we still had our greatest test to come: the day he had to choose between me and his Alpha.
My visit to the containment room this morning came with treats, as I brought a plate piled high with cookies, croissants, cinnamon buns, and a slice of cake I made specially for him.
“Emme,” Talon murmured, gaze locked on me. “You came.”
“Of course,” I said, pausing at the dull edge to his voice. “I wanted to bring you some baked goodness.”
He didn’t glance at the plate. “I prefer honey,” he murmured, forcing a smile, “but since you made them for me, I’ll try the sweets.”
I twisted the plate to bring the cake closer, the scent of caramel and honey wafting from the golden icing. “I made you honey cake,” I said, my wolf perking her head up at Talon’s mood too.
For the first time since I’d entered the room, a genuine smile lifted his lips, which should have been a relief… but it wasn’t. There was a deep-seated unease in his beast, and I knew he’d been down here and trapped for too long.
