“Always leaving his mark on you.” Skel wrapped an arm around my waist and tugged me against him.
Kat wiggled her brows at me. “It’s so cute seeing Skel and Dex like that with you.”
I pressed my fingers to my lips, feeling the ghost of Dex’s kiss still lingering there.
Before I could suffer through more teasing, Skel’s dad came into the living room. “You made it,” he said, giving us a smile.
“Thanks for having me,” I replied.
Durge strolled into the room and over to Kat, kissing her temple. “Nice to see you all again,” he greeted us.
Skel crossed his arms, staring at him with thinly veiled skepticism. He wasn’t glaring, exactly, but there was a distance in his posture. I felt his hesitation about Durge through our matebond. “You too.”
Nelson, Skel’s dad, ushered us into the dining room and into our seats as he encouraged us to eat the dishes spread out on the table.
Skel and I sat together, and Kat sat on the other side of the table with Durge. Nelson took the head of the table.
Kat grinned as she leaned forward, her excitement bubbling over. “Do you guys know about the time Skel almost got murdered by our neighbor’s dog?”
“Murdered?” Durge raised a brow next to her, his lips twitching with amusement. “I feel like I need more context.”
Skel groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Please don’t tell this story.”
Kat ignored him completely, her grin widening. “When we were kids, I was still getting the hang of shifting into my cat form, right? And for some reason, I thought it would be hilarious to mess with our neighbor—an old demon with a horrible attitude.”
“Oh, Fates,” Skel muttered, shaking his head. “I hate even thinking of that guy.”
“I would sit on his porch like a stray, and when he’d open the door, I’d dart inside and hide there.” Kat snickered. “He hated cats, so he’d freak out and start chasing me with a broom. He was a dog kind of demon, okay? Remember that for later. When he would give up after not being able to find me, he’d go to sleep or whatever, and I’d jump on him.” She cackled. “Gave him such a spook.”
“That one is on you, Kat,” Nelson sighed. “I told you time and time again to leave that poor man alone.”
She waved his comment off with a giggle of her own. “And Skel, being the responsible younger brother, would always come running to save me.”
Skel groaned again. “Because you were causing problems, and Dad told me to!”
Kat waved him off. “Anyway, one day, I get into his house, and he loses it. I mean, full-blown warpath mode. But this time, he locks the door behind me. And, I didn’t know this, but the old guy got a dog.”
Durge’s eyes widened. “I take it this did not go according to plan?”
“Oh, not at all.” Kat pouted. “He had all the doors shut in the house, so I was stuck out in the open with all my hiding spots closed off. Skel comes barreling up the porch, bangs on the door, and shouts,‘That’s my cat!’And the dude just glares at him and goes,‘Not anymore, it’s not.’”
I gasped. “Oh, my Fates.”
Skel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“He was serious, too. The neighbor was literally holding me hostage; granted, he did think I was a cat and not a demon with a shifting power. He still told me to get ready to be dog food,” Kat said dramatically. “And Skel, bless his idiot heart, runs around and climbs through our neighbor’s unlocked kitchen window. Just as he’s halfway in, the guy whacks Skel with a broom, yelling all kinds of obscenities at him. He swung at Skel like he was trying to send him into the fae realm. He nearly fell into the damn sink that was filled with knives.”
Durge doubled over in laughter. “Oh, fuck.”
“I always got into shit like that because of you,” Skel muttered darkly, stabbing a piece of meat on his plate with a fork and shoving it in his mouth to chew.
“Oh, and then the neighbor strolls over to a room and opens the door,” Kat continued as if this experience wasn’t traumatizing for her. “And a fuckingdogcomes barreling out. So I freak out, go full cat-mode, and book it up the curtains.”
“That man screamed,” Skel said after swallowing a bite. “Like, horror movie-level screamed.”
“I’ve never seen a demon so scared,” she admitted. “He was swinging that broom like his life depended on it, and the dog kept snarling and trying to eat me!”
Durge chuckled. “How did you even get out of there?”
