Indigo scoffed, moving to stand behind me to point to each one. "That's Sally, she's from the 1950s, and probably has an angry murdered housewife in her. That's Annabelle. Not the famous one, obviously. But I wouldn't be surprised if she had a demon hiding in there, she has someattitude,let me tell you…”
“And that diva in the center,” Joon pointed to a babydoll in a frilly pink dress, “is Polina. She’s Indigo’s favorite.”
“And she knows it,” the alpha said fondly. “Hey—Eva, are you okay?”
I blinked, touching my face to find it cold. This was a lot, even for me.
“Um, yeah, just a little—” I eyedthe girlsnervously.
"Oh! Right, I know it's not for everyone, but I like them.” They led me back into the hall, and I felt the nervous ball of energy in my chest loosen. “Feels like I'm never alone, y’know?"
"I get that."
And I did, but it was also majorly creepy. Not that I was about to tell Indi that.
"They freaked me out at first, too," Joon admitted. "But you get used to them. And I've only seen them move, like, one time."
The hair on my arms stood. "Which one?"
Joon laughed. “I think you’ve pretended to care about this tour long enough, let's go get a drink.”
“That’ssonot an answer,” I whined, assuming the other rooms belonged to Cameo and Marcus.
Everything in me wanted to snoop around, but that would be way too weird, even in a house full of haunted dolls. So, I committed to waiting for an invitation.
Besides, if I said yes to this arrangement, I was sure to get one soon anyway.
Indigo led us back downstairs and into the kitchen, which was… jarring to say the least.
Where the rest of the house had been dark and moody in color, the kitchen was so bright it almost felt sterile. Black and white checked tile ran the length of the room, the stark, white stone countertops bouncing the light back onto the stainless steel fronts of the cabinets.
I blinked, the questions I had about haunted dolls, the other alpha’s bedrooms, and pregnancy contracts tying into a jumbled mess that I pushed aside in favor of the far more pressing, “Is this where you commit your murders?”
Indigo laughed, grabbing us each a soda from the fridge. “Not unless you want Marcus to throw a fit.”
“It's so… bright in here,” I pointed out, the confusion evident in my tone. “Modern.”
“Yeah,” Indi grumbled. “Marcus was pretty insistent on having an industrial-style kitchen. It really ruins the vibe.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Of all the passions I’d expected from Indigo, interior decorating wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list. “It does look very…” I paused, hunting for a word that wasn’t‘murdery’as Indigo handed me a cold can, “Uh,clean.”
The conversation made me think, not for the first time, about the member of the pack I hadn’t seen since Halloween. Marcus might’ve been the first of the Lombardi pack to touch me, but he’d been just out of my reach ever since.
Does he think about me?Does he know about Cameo’s offer?
“It does look a little too clean, doesn’t it?” Joon mused, walking over to the fridge and smacking the unmarked stainless steel front, startling me with the noise. He dragged his palm down, creating a large streak on the front of the appliance with a grin. “And for good measure,” he said, before going to the counter and swapping the knife block with the utensil jar. “That’ssomuch better.”
I laughed. “Why are you doing that?”
“Because he’s a brat,” Marcus said, making Joon almost jump out of his skin.
At the Packtacular, in the thrill of the moment and with heat making everything fuzzy, it was hard to keep track of who was who, but now I wasn’t sure how that’d even been an issue.
Marcus wasbig. Sure, most alphas were, but not like him. I practically had to look directly up to see his face, and his chest was so wide it looked like his shirt was bound to split at the seams any minute.
Mental note: add in-game emote of werewolf tearing their shirt off.
The alpha’s gaze flicked to mine, and I looked away, realizing I’d been caught staring.
