It took a lot to keep from smiling. “Silver and Charlie both can talk to you about feelings and actions and how mates respond to one another. So can my parents.” I hoped that Ma behaved with Duncan more than she did when Silver met Charlie. She’d been put in time-out, essentially, and that seemed to have corrected a lot of the issues. Hopefully, it continued to be that way with me and Duncan. “Although I’m going to hold off on introducing you to my parents for a bit.”
Duncan snorted. “Yeah, I heard about your mom. I don’t know if I had a mom or an omega dad.” Duncan smiled, but it was such a sad one. “I don’t know how to act around parents, honestly.”
“Just like you would around anyone else.” I signaled to turn into Duncan’s apartment complex. When he’d told me where he lived, I felt some sense of relief that it was in a fairly safe neighborhood. It was full of apartments that had a mix of college students and younger adults. It was no surprise that he livedhere with three others now because I knew the rent could be close to three thousand a month for a two-bedroom.
“When does your lease expire? Have you mentioned that you were signing again?” I asked.
“It ends at the end of August. Mark and I already said we weren’t going to renew. That sort of started a lot of the issues with Jake and Chris.” Duncan pointed to the left. “My spot is over there. Number sixteen,” he told me. I pulled my truck into his assigned spot and put the truck in park. “The apartment number is 203. I’ll climb up to the window and come meet you at the front door.”
We could hear the music as soon as we opened the doors. “Is that them?”
Duncan sighed. “Yeah. Probably. That’s why Mark left to go to his sister’s apartment. He’s moving in with her sometime in July when one of her roommates leaves to go back home. It’s also why I was planning on finding somewhere else to sleep tonight. Most likely here in my parking spot in my car.”
I nodded because I didn’t want to say anything that would upset my mate. The thought of him having to sleep in his car because his roommates were inconsiderate didn’t sit right with me.
“I’ll wait until you get into the window and then head on upstairs.”
Duncan nodded, and we walked over to the building together. I had thought that he was going to struggle to get up to his window, but no. He had an actual ladder and a small balcony. Once Duncan was outside the window, he carefully pulled it up and then looked down and smiled while giving me a thumbs-up. I nodded again and went around the other side and quickly climbed the stairs. I came back to the front and shook my head at the noise coming from the apartment. How had they not had the cops called on them yet? Of course, the noise was going to botherme more than it was them because Duncan had said they were human, and their hearing wasn’t nearly as sensitive as ours was.
I knocked on the door but didn’t get an answer. Not that I expected to. They couldn’t hear anything, let alone me knocking on the door. I tried the handle, found it unlocked, so I simply welcomed myself in. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t there with a resident.
When I entered, it was obvious that they weren’t expecting anyone else. All eyes suddenly turned toward me, and if not for the still-blaring music, I might feel uncomfortable. I was definitely outnumbered in this situation. I could take them though, if it came to it, but I didn’t want to put Duncan in that kind of predicament.
“My room is back here,” Duncan shouted at me over the noise as he came out of the hallway.
I nodded, followed him, and then closed the door behind us. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but the room I was suddenly in wasn’t quite it. There were two single beds, but neither of them actually looked to be full-sized twin beds. “Do you actually sleep on that thing?” I asked.
Duncan smiled at me. “Yes. I’m not nearly as big as you, and Mark is only a couple of inches taller than I am.” Duncan had a bag on the bed, but before anything else could be said or we could get anything packed, the door suddenly burst open, and immediately, my gorilla was on alert. We saw a threat to our mate, and the asshole who had just entered without so much as knocking was about to learn some manners.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out. Away.” Duncan moved to go to the dresser on the far wall, and when the asshole tried to move around me to get to him, I stepped in between him and my mate and growled.
Immediately, the guy’s eyes widened, and he held up both of his hands.
“One more step and I’ll rearrange not only your face, but some other bones in your body as well. Roommate or not.”
“He’s not a roommate,” Duncan said. “That’s Dave. Their douchey friend.” Duncan made another noise. “Those are the roommates.”
“Good. Get lost,” I told them and pointed to the door they had just come through.
“You can’t tell us what to do in our own place.”
“I just did. Get out. This room you don’t pay rent on, and he does. I’m wanted in here, and you’re not,” I told them. “If I have to, I can get my brothers here to help. Trust me, you don’t want that. Get out.”
“I didn’t invite any of you guys into my room,” Duncan said.
“Get out. Duncan is moving out. Tonight.” I moved toward Dave, who was actually smart enough to take several steps backward. I had worked in security, both personal and cyber, for several years now, and I was aware of the other two in the room as they clung to the wall beside the door. But it was Dave who really kept drawing my attention. He had a sudden look of panic on his face, and I was sure it wasn’t completely because of me walking toward him.
“Out,” I said. I did gently push Dave out the door and then turned my attention to the two roommates. “That goes for you two as well.”
They scurried out the door, and when I closed it, I realized there was no lock on it. “Why is there no lock?”
“There aren’t any locks on any of the internal doors of the apartment. Not even the bathroom that we all share.”
Nope, that wasn’t going to do. “Get everything you can right now. My brothers and I will be back with you tomorrow to get anything else that you don’t bring with you right now.”
“The place was already furnished. I only have my clothes and bathroom stuff.”
