And he’d grown used to having El once, even twice a day when the need struck her.Which it did.
Often.
So much so Marc had joked the other day, before her heat, that he was relieved there were four of them to see to her needs.
She certainly was a horny little thing.
“What are you smirking at?”El demanded with a huff.
Ryan snickered at him, but then pulled out his cellphone.He did a quick internet search, then showed her the phone.“That’s Old Man Ledger.”
The minute she saw one of their oldest’s faces, her mouth dropped open.
“You can’t be serious?”
“We are,” Marc retorted dryly, turning his head from the window to stare at her gawking face.
“But he’s… He’s human!And forty!”
Ryan grinned.“Well, of course he’s human.To the humans.But he’s Shifter through and through.He’s also older than Marc.”
“Which is a hard achievement to reach,” Trip teased, laughing when Marc sent him the dead eye.
“I’m not that old,” Marc retorted with a grunt, and El, apparently sensing he was pissed, slotted her arm through his even as she was still gaping at Ryan’s cellphone.
“How old is he?”she demanded, apparently not realizing she was snuggling up to Marc as she pumped them for information.
“One-ninety-four,” Trip told her as he rubbed his chin.“That’s why he looks so old to humans.”
“Old?”El squeaked.“He looks in his forties.Forty is not old.”
Ryan wafted a hand.“You know what he means.I’m in my sixties and barely look out of my twenties.It’s just how we age.We tend to stay at our physical peak until we reach a grand old age.”
El’s mouth worked.“Is that… I mean, he has a boyfriend.”
“One of his Triad brothers,” Trip confirmed.“They haven’t found their third yet.Hence all the bunnies.”
“But won’t he, like, die soon?”
Ryan shrugged.“No guarantees in this life, darling.Plus, there’s no guarantee that you’ll meet your Triad and no guarantee thereafter that you’ll meet your mate.
“Why do you think we feel like the luckiest men alive?”
“Because you are?”Shawn piped up, his voice gritty as usual.
Trip grinned as he turned back to face the road ahead.
“I can’t believe he’s a Shifter,” El said again.“I like his music.And my mom is a huge fan.”She fell silent.“Well, Annabel is a huge fan.”
“You can still call her mom,” Marc told her gently.
“I don’t want to.She wasn’t much of a mother to me,” El confessed.“Not that I was missing out on much.I always knew she preferred my brothers.They didn’t exactly flourish under her care.At least I had my grandparents and Consuela was wonderful to me, too.She treated me like family; even had a birthday party at her home for me when I was still little.”
Shawn cleared his throat at that, but Trip was the only one who seemed to realize he’d done so.Shawn wasn’t making a space for himself in the conversation, the gesture was more nervous than anything else.
El, oblivious, carried on, “And then I had Shawn when I got older.It wasn’t all bad, just… I don’t want to think of her as my mother anymore.That’s all.”
“That could get awkward when you go and visit,” Shawn pointed out ruefully.
