“Good morning,” I said enthusiastically, but wasn’t met with the same energy.
“‘Mornin’,” he grunted, eying the coffeemaker.
“Want some coffee?” Adam asked.
“Yup.”
“How do you take it?”
“Black.”
Adam and I looked at one another and shrugged.
“You sure are talkative,” I said, handing Adam a cup from the cabinet.
“Gonna be in the garage,” he said, stepping back out of the kitchen.
“Wait a minute,” Adam said sharply, setting the cup on the counter before folding his arms. “Pour your own coffee, and you’re only allowed in there for an hour. I’m putting my foot down before it goes into your ass.”
“An hour’s not long enough,” he said, turning back around. “Need at least three.”
“Why?”
Austin grabbed the cup. “Just trust me. I need three hours,” he said, pouring his coffee.
The smaller werewolf’s glare softened when Austin gave him a reassuring smile.
“All right. You’ve got three hours, then I want that big, needy ass of yours in the bedroom.”
Austin’s tail sprang to action as he turned to leave without saying anything more.
“Never thought I’d see him so calm and happy,” I said. “So, you saw everything in those visions?”
Adam nodded. “I hated him, Cody. The shit he put me through while we were kuu mates was awful, but after seeing all that…” He turned back to the sink. “He wanted people he loved to hate him, but he was also desperate for anyone to love him. If I had only known about the hell he was going through, I could have helped him.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t think anyone here could have helped him. You saw what happened to him when I tried. He said he loved me, and that was the start of his downward spiral.”
“He said he loved you?” Adam’s eyes shimmered as he gritted his teeth.
“He said a lot of things like that, but I knew he was just clinging to me because he had alienated everyone else.”
The smaller werewolf’s shoulders slumped forward, and I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.
“Austin’s only ever had two ways of looking at people: either with complete disdain, or with devastation. The way he looked at you just now was so different from any of that. He barely even acknowledged me.”
“We’ve got a lot to work on, but at least he doesn’t resent me anymore. He listens to me now.” Adam rinsed the last of the dishes and pulled the plug on the drain. “We only had sex fora couple hours last night. We spent the rest of it talking. For as long as I’ve known him, he was a stranger lying next to me every night. I didn’t know who he was, but now it’s like I get to experience getting to know him for the first time.”
“And now that you know him, what do you think?”
Adam leaned back against the counter and rubbed the short fur on his chin. “I think we’re gonna be okay. We’re both scared of saying the L-word, but if that time does come, we’ll both mean it.”
“It’s the same with Roscoe and me. We’ve come close to saying it, but the timing just seems off. It’s too soon, even though I can’t ever see myself leaving him. There’s something about him that makes me a better person.”
Adam wrapped an arm around me and squeezed.
“I think we all make each other better,” he said before pulling away. “I actually feel sorry for humans.”
“Why’s that?”
