“You provoked him into attacking you, and then you beat him. The fact that he put on a front and walked away with as much of his dignity intact as he could muster is not something you should be getting this upset over.”
August slumped.
“I know,” he mumbled, voice muffled by the way his mouth was pressed into the t-shirt stretched tight over Ryker’s pecs.
“You wanted him to roll over and show you his belly, and when he didn’t, you got offended.” Ryker stroked his back. “I understand.”
“I did not get offended. I just think he’s a little shit.”
August jerked against Ryker’s hold, trying to lift his head, but Ryker didn’t let him.
“I know you do. We can make friends with him on the full moon this weekend, and then he can beourlittle shit. I’m sure he’ll be happy when we invite him to run with us.”
August took a deep breath and slumped. “We’re still doing that?”
The pouting tone made Ryker chuckle. “Yes, we are. I like him, and so do you. It will be nice to have someone new to run with.”
August might not want to admit it, but they both knew that their full moons were not as fun as they should be. They had each other – and that was great – but it wasn’t enough to get any real games going or to make a puppy pile.
Ryker missed puppy piles.
“Can we bring Dylan?”
Ryker barked out a laugh. He released August and scooted back on the bed, sitting up and resting his back against the headboard. August lay between his legs, propping himself up on his elbow and looking expectant.
“Not only are we not bringing Dylan with us on the full moon, we’re not going to see him at all in the three days before and after it.”
Ryker did not want Dylan to see them when they were high on the energy of the full moon, and that high tended to last a while. Three days was on the cautious side, but Ryker wasn’t going to risk scaring Dylan off because he and August got carried away by their inner wolves.
“Three days?” August frowned, sounding outraged. “You mean we’re not going to see him for a whole week?”
“We don’t have enough control as it is.” Ryker held up a hand to forestall August’s objection. “Around the full moon we’ll be even worse. You don’t want us to hurt him, do you?”
“We wouldn’t,” August grumbled.
“We might,” Ryker shot back. “We wouldn’t mean to, but things could very easily get out of hand. We don’t have the greatest track record for controlling our impulses with Dylan, and the full moon is only going to make it worse.”
Ryker knew himself well enough to know that the moon would lower his inhibitions to a dangerous degree. He wouldn’t think he was doing anything wrong or hurting Dylan in the moment, but some of his darker impulses were things that should only be explored while he was completely sober.
“So tomorrow is our last chance to see him for a whole week?” August flopped over onto his back, scooting up the bed until his head was on Ryker’s lap. He nuzzled the back of his head into Ryker’s thigh and looked up at him. “That’s so long.”
Ryker frowned. He’d thought that Wednesday was their last day to see Dylan, but counting it out in his head he realized that August was right. The full moon was on Saturday, so if they were sticking to the three-day rule, Tuesday was their last night to have fun with Dylan until Wednesday next week.
“We can invite him over to the apartment for dinner and a movie tomorrow.”
Ryker had worked late, but now he regretted not shifting his schedule around and asking Dylan to have dinner with them tonight as well.
“I’ll text him.” August jumped off the bed and grabbed his phone from the dresser. His thumbs flew across the screen, his face a study of concentration as he texted. When he was finished, he looked up with a grin. “Done. I invited him over at four.”
Ryker rolled his eyes, but he didn’t object to the absurdly early time. He was just as eager as August to spend as much time with their little human as possible, and the earlier they had dinner, the more time they would have for other activities.
He wondered when they could ask him to move in. The thought of spending every night cuddling up to Dylan, August holding the boy from his other side, had Ryker’s chest filling with warmth.
They’d have to get through a few full moons before living together was an option. They needed time to get used to the way he roused their instincts, and more importantly, they needed to learn how to control those instincts.
August’s phone pinged, and Ryker sat up a little straighter and watched as he unlocked his phone and read the message. Judging by the unhappy frown on August’s face, he knew the message was nothing good.
“What?” Ryker asked.
