“What’s up?” he asked, clocking where the others were.
“We’re going home!” Max called out from the bedroom.
“At least to see if I can,” I murmured. “We were just waiting for you.”
“Ah.” He grinned. “Things are starting to make sense now. Carys texted me a while ago to ask if we wanted spaghetti and meatballs or chicken Kiev for dinner tonight. I thought someone was delivering it here.”
“I hope you chose the chicken. You know, for maximum vampire jokes,” I deadpanned.
He frowned, then chuckled. “I did, actually.”
“I don’t get it,” Max admitted as he carried their bag to the door.
“Carys puts garlic butter into hers,” I explained.
“Oh.Oh.”
Rian’s snickering from the kitchen made us all laugh.
I went to put my own bag together. It was like ripping off a band aid, right?
It wasn’t like ripping off a band aid.
For one, as soon as I stepped inside the pack house, I could smell everything.
The kitchen was leaking the scents of cooking, but nothing was making my mouth water. Except, my alpha’s mate, Kye. The brave human stood behind his much bigger partner and peered at me curiously.
I could sense two more heartbeats in the house—the two young women upstairs—and I swallowed hard.
“How are you doing?” Brodie’s words made me tear my gaze off Kye’s.
“Uh… a bit overwhelmed.”
“Tell me more?” Rian squeezed my fingers.
We were all standing in the hall between the living room and the kitchen, with the stairs behind Brodie and Kye. I felt the warmth from Max and Ben at my back, and one of them put his hand on my hip for support.
I swallowed hard. “My mouth watered. I know there’s humans here.” My eyes flicked up past Kye, and Brodie’s jaw tensed. “But… but I don’t feel like….”
“Like mauling me?” Kye piped up, grinning.
I snorted, and so did Ben and Max, while Brodie snapped, “Not funny.”
Rian snickered. “It is a bit funny.”
Brodie growled, which made Kye wrap his arms around his mate from behind. “Come on. It’ll be fine. And if not, you promised to keep me safe, mate.”
That was enough to relax our alpha, and he sighed as his shoulders dropped a little. “Okay. Let’s… let’s get this done, I guess.”
Kye stepped around him and now Brodie put his arm around him as if to hold or pull him back.
“It’s good to have you back home,” Kye said, smiling that angelic smile of his.
As a kid, I’d learned that angels had long golden hair, but not Kye. His hair was down to his shoulder blades, but it was dark. There was something angelic about his features though.
Then he held his hand out to me, and I moved forward with the trio on my side. It was like the weirdest standoff ever.
When I reached to take his hand, the scent of what made him human invaded my senses. I could feel it, how the predator wanted a taste. It was like walking past the bakery first thing in the morning when the bread was fresh and the scent almost overwhelmed you.
