“Point taken. We’ll go hunting in the fridge instead.”
We quickly showered before winding down the stairs towards the kitchen. I laced my hand with Matteo’s, loathe to be apart from him even by a few inches.
I threw the fridge door open and scanned it. “What are you in the mood for, Matteo? Dinner? Dessert?”
“Maybe we should hold that thought,” Matteo said behind me.
“Why?”
When I turned around, I saw why. All six of my brothers were gathered in the kitchen, watching us with various levels of amusement.
“Look who finally showed up,” Crimson remarked. Taylor and Ruby weren’t with him, so I figured they were having a father-son moment elsewhere.
I raised a brow at Crimson. “Hey, you’re not one to talk. After season one, you and Taylor did your fair share of vanishing for...reasons.”
Aurum snorted. “We’re all adults here. Just say you guys fucked.”
Jade loudly cleared his throat to bypass the semantic shenanigans. He wasn’t a prude, but he was clearly more interested in Matteo than our banter.
“Nice to finally meet you,” Jade said. He strode over to shake Matteo’s hand. “And welcome to the Chromatimaeus family.”
Matteo blushed. “Thanks for having me.”
“I think Thystle is the onehavingyou,” Aurum said, then ducked when I threw a loaf of bread at him.
Unlike his smart-alec twin, Saffron sighed wistfully. “You guys look so cute together.”
Hearing a compliment from one of the twins was a pleasant surprise. I grinned and pulled Matteo closer by the hip.
“Matteo, the one with the yellower hair is Saffron,” I explained. “The one with gold hair and the attitude is Aurum.”
“Yo,” Aurum called from his seat, handling the bread loaf like a football.
I nodded around the room. “You know Crimson and Cobalt already.”
Crimson smiled. “Hey.”
Cobalt nodded, stoic but polite.
“That’s Jade with the glasses.” As my gaze skimmed to the final figure, I hesitated to continue. “And...sitting in the back corner is Viol.”
Viol barely lifted his head when I addressed him. He was fully clad in black leather as he manspread in his chair a few feet away from everybody else. I hadn’t spoken to him once during the Games, so his opinion of Matteo was a mystery to me. But if he hadanythingnegative to say about my mate, I couldn’t guarantee his safety. It might end in a flat-out brawl.
The kitchen was dead silent. Nobody spoke.
Viol slowly raised his face to look at Matteo. I tensed, bracing myself to jump to his defense.
But Matteo wasn’t fazed by Viol’s ominous gaze. He smiled and said, “Nice to meet you, Viol. Thystle’s told me good things about you.”
I heard an audible intake of breath among the room. Meanwhile, I nearly passed out. Why didn’t Matteo just say hi and move on?
“Really?” Viol rumbled, his voice edged with disbelief. Or maybe that was my imagination.
But Matteo held fast. “Yes. It’s great to meet you, and everybody else.”
Viol smirked. Or was it a smile? It was hard to tell with Viol.
“So, you knocked up with Thystle’s egg yet?” Viol demanded.
