“So I take it this is the one?” Ric asked and I nodded.
With a sigh Ric pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead and went to the counter, “Alright Cinderella, one scary ass cat coming right up.”
24
“Down demon cat!” I shouted at Lucifer who was glaring balefully at me through his one eye. He currently had his ass planted on my open laptop which I had left for only about five minutes in order to go to the bathroom. I watched with dismay as random letters were typed into the code that I’d been working on all morning.
I nudged the cat and he just growled at me.
“Lucy you can’t get on Owen’s laptop like that.” Eloise said from behind me as she easily scooped the behemoth of a feline up and off my laptop. The damn thing immediately began to purr and nudge the top of it’s head with Eloise’s chin.
“That demon cat only likes you Eloise.” Dominic said from his place at the end of the couch. He’d been different over the past three weeks since the break in. He no longer went out at night anymore and spent most of his time in his bedroom or in the sunroom at the end of the house working or reading a book. It was the most days that I'd ever consecutively seen the alpha in the past two years that he’d been a part of the pack.
Ric came into the living room carrying a mug of steaming tea, “Hey I resent that. I think he’s really starting to warm up to me.” He reached out to pet the cat in question but was greeted with a hiss.
“Whatever you say.” Was all Dominic responded with as he turned back to his book.
“He doesn’t mind Leon.” Eloise pointed out. Which was very true, the demon cat and Leon seemed to be kindred spirits. In fact I’d woken up this morning with the cat glaring at me from its place on Leon’s chest. I’d never been so jealous of a cat before.
We’d settled the cat into the house two weeks ago, putting a cat tree and litter box in the room Eloise used to get ready (though she spent most nights in her nest). We thought it would probably hang around her room or the nest most of the time and boy had we been wrong about that. The cat was anywhere and everywhere it wanted to be. I’d even caught Leon ordering a sleek black cat tree online a few days ago. I thought that Eloise had disrupted daily life upon her arrival but she had nothing on the one-eyed creature.
Eloise pressed an affectionate kiss to Lucifer’s head and put him on the floor, the fat cat ran off—probably to put scratches in more furniture or hack up a hairball somewhere.
As I got to work getting rid of all of the extra letters that Lucifer had typed with his body Eloise flopped down onto the couch with me, her top half snuggled into my shoulder and her feet in Ric’s lap. We hadn’t gone any further than kissing and touching and I’d been so busy with Leon and making sure that our bond was strong that I hadn’t even had time to think about it. She spent most nights with Gage up in her nest and Ric had even been invited, though I was unsure of how far they’d gone. I wanted to get closer to her but I also didn’t want to push it—things were good.
She’d lived with us for over a month and a half now and things had settled into a comfortable schedule. Eloise had been granted her bachelor’s degree and we’d all gone out to celebrate at a famous sushi restaurant. She’d been so excited by all of it that we’d all gone out to dinner a few more times since. Her excitement was infectious to us who had gone for too long doing the same things everyday.
I’d even convinced Leon to go with us to Alcatraz one day and found out that he was viciously seasick whenever he got on a boat.
Everything was going so well that I was now the one afraid that the other shoe was going to drop. As if my thoughts had conjured the shoe, Leon and Gage stepped into the living room dressed in their office wear from the day. Gage had already loosened his tie and his eyes were already going to Eloise like a heat seeking missile.
“Hey, how was work?” I greeted from my place on the couch. Leon bent over and placed a chaste kiss on my mouth and offered a smile to Eloise who returned it before accepting a similar kiss from Gage.
“It went well. We’re getting everything back on track from all of the craziness of nearly losing the Worthington contract last month. But I have a huge favor to ask of all of you.” Leon sat on the free end of the sofa and Gage stood hovering, he didn’t look happy about whatever Leon was about to say.
“We have to do a circuit of appearances at various parties over the next month or so. The third quarter of the year will be ending before we know it and I’d like to attract more clients before that happens if we can. We’ve been invited—as a pack—to several galas and other events and I’d like to ask you all to go.”
Leon’s personality had changed so much over the past few weeks. He could still be gruff and growly at times but he seemed to be looking at everything through a new light ever since we bonded, not to toot my own horn or anything. He also now asked for things instead of demanding them of us.
Dominic looked completely surprised at his question, “Why would you need permission for that?”
“Well I realize that in the past I was never a very good pack member when it comes to things like this. I want decisions that affect our pack to be made by our pack—not just me anymore.”
Well holy shit. I was nearly bubbling with pride and it took everything in me not to drag him upstairs and have my way with him. But that would have to wait until later.
“Well…” Dominic didn’t seem to know what to say, “I’m fine with it, I suppose. I do love a good party.”
We all turned to the omega who’d been quiet so far, she was looking at Leon with a strange expression.
“Eloise?” I asked, nudging her. She gave herself a little shake, her cheeks reddening as she looked at me. Hmm. I’d have to ask her what that meant later.
“Uh… sure whatever I can do to help. It’s not like I have much going on here.”
“Great.” Leon’s shoulders drooped with relief as if he’d fully been expecting her to say no, “The first party is in a few days—Ric can you call Madeline and see if she can pull together a set of gowns?”
“Already on it.” Ric already had his phone out and was dialing.
“You know, the way to any woman's heartisthrough her pussy.” Tibby joked as she sipped on her latte, thoroughly pleased with herself when Madeline choked on her iced coffee. We were meeting in the shaded patio that was just outside of the academy’s coffee shop. Tibby couldn’t go away very far so we had been meeting here a few times a week together.
