“Oh, you’re awake!”
Sebastian came into the room, his voice pitched low. Bjorn had heard him coming, recognizing his footsteps.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Bjorn said. His wolf, the lucky bastard, was curled up in the back of his mind and ignoring everything, relaxing and luxuriating in the lack of responsibility.
He could hear more movement downstairs, guessing it was Josh based on the unevenness of the footsteps.
It would take time to get used to packmates who didn’t heal properly.
“You’re the first one up,” Sebastian said. “Of the werewolves, I mean. Josh woke up yesterday after a few hours. I drove him to the hospital to get his leg checked out, but he’s fine. He just needs rest like he said. Did you know he’s getting his doctorate in applied mathematics? I don’t even know what that is.”
Bjorn needed a second to process the fact that he’d slept all through the last morning and into the next one, but then he reached out and tousled Sebastian’s hair.
“Thanks. I’m sure Max and Conrad will appreciate that.”
Sebastian shrugged. “Josh was worried about leaving them here, but we left them a note. They didn’t wake up, though, so it was fine. I wonder how long they’ll sleep?”
“Could be a while, yet. Have you gotten any water into them?”
Judging by his own dry mouth, Bjorn expected the answer to be no, which was why he was surprised when Sebastian nodded.
“A little. I was coming up to give you more, now.”
“Thank you,” Bjorn said. His stomach rumbled and Sebastian grinned.
“There’s breakfast downstairs. Why don’t you go eat something?”
Bjorn shot one last look at Viggo before nodding. “I’ll do that.”
Downstairs, Bjorn found Josh standing by the oven, looking inside, the smell of fresh baked bread filling the room.
“Morning,” Bjorn said, and Josh jumped into the air with a yell. He clutched his chest and turned around, breathing fast.
“You startled me!”
Bjorn held up his hands, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. How are you feeling?”
Josh relaxed, though he still looked wary. Bjorn realized suddenly that much of his bravado from the night before – or the night before the night before – had probably been due to adrenaline and desperation. Now he’d had time to calm down and he was alone in the kitchen with a six-foot-nine werewolf that he’d never spoken more than three words to.
“I’m fine. Sebastian insisted we go to the hospital, but there’s nothing wrong with me that time won’t fix. How about you?”
Bjorn shrugged. “My head is killing me, but that should pass quickly enough. Is there any food?”
“I grabbed a bunch of meat from the freezer yesterday morning and put it in the fridge. It should be thawed by now.”
The words made Bjorn’s mouth water. He opened the fridge and grinned. Josh was obviously used to werewolves, having stacked the top two shelves with three packs of steak for each person in the house.
Bjorn resisted the temptation just to dig in, taking a few of the steaks over to the stovetop and grabbing a pan, unwrapping them and putting them directly onto the heat.
All he wanted was a slight crust for propriety’s sake.
Josh snorted. “You don’t have to be polite. If you want to eat, eat.”
Shooting him a look, debating how much of a caveman he wanted to be, Bjorn gave in to temptation and unwrapped another steak. He let his teeth shift, tearing into the meat and swallowing in great big bites.
Josh watched him like he’d seen it a million times before, which he probably had.
He finished off the steak, swallowing the last of it as Sebastian walked into the kitchen. He flipped the ones cooking in the pan.
