Dylan wasn’t his to get excited over, and he needed to remember that.
“Annie, this is my friend Steve.” Dylan gestured toward Steve, presenting him to his friend. “And Steve, this is my friend Annie. I’ve told you both about each other.”
“Only good things,” Annie said, reaching across the table to shake his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Steve said. He shrugged off his jacket and draped it over the back of his chair, trying not to notice the way Dylan stared at his arms as he twisted around in his seat.
“So,” Dylan said, a faint blush visible on his cheeks. “What do you guys want to eat? I can go up and order for everyone.”
Steve glanced at the menu, choosing a steak sandwich with fries, while Annie went for a salad. Dylan rose to order, leaving Steve and Annie to talk to each other.
“So you’re a werewolf from Alaska, huh?” Annie said, her tone friendly. She glanced over at Dylan. “Are you from Anchorage, too?”
“Too?” Steve asked. “And no, I’m from Fairbanks, though I went to college in Anchorage.”
“Didn’t Dylan tell you he grew up in Anchorage?”
Steve leaned back in surprise. Dylan hadnotmentioned that. To think he could have met Dylan when they were both teenagers. Steve might not have grown up in Anchorage, but he’d visited the city many times.
He couldn’t believe that he’d had the home field advantage, and he’d still lost out to a pair of city wolves from Arizona.
“No, he never mentioned it. I wish I’d met him back then.”
Annie studied him. There was clearly something she wanted to ask, but she was holding herself back.
“Yes?” Steve prompted.
“I’m just wondering why Dylan is getting so much werewolf attention all of a sudden?” Annie lifted her hand. “I’m happy for him, as long as he’s happy, but it’s kind of weird.”
“He smells really good,” Steve said, settling for the truth. “The first time I met him on the street, I almost lifted him up and carried him back to my apartment. That, and once you get to know him, he’s really nice.”
Annie bit her lip. “He is very nice. As long as no one takes advantage of that, I’m all for anything that makes him happy.”
This was the shovel talk, Steve realized. He grinned, rueful.
“August and Ryker seem to make him happy,” Steve said.
“Are they nice?” Annie asked, both of them glancing over at Dylan who was still waiting in line. He waved at them and they both smiled and waved back.
Nicewasn’t exactly how Steve would describe August and Ryker. They were a pair of extremely dominant alphas who were used to getting their way. There was a reason he’d despised them so much before they invited him into the fold.
“They’re nice to Dylan.”
Annie studied him, and Steve started to sweat at the intensity of her expression.
“Well, I guess that’s okay then,” Annie said, sighing. Her expression was worried. “When he told me about his pheromone addiction, I was pretty worried, and I can’t say I was happy to hear that they bit him. But he seems happy.”
The pheromone thing had to be Dylan’s cover story for his come addiction, Steve reasoned. The biting, on the other hand, was news to him.
“They bit him?” he asked, his stomach squirming unhappily.
Annie narrowed her eyes. “He didn’t tell you?”
Steve shook his head.
“Last night, on either side of his neck,” she said. “Though it looks like it happened months ago.”
Claiming bites.
