“Shit, I’ve been gone for too long, it seems. Who is Millie and where can I get one?” He teased.
Right about now, I wasn’t interested in his bawdy sense of humor. Not when it was directed at my mate.
“Flint,” I warned, pinching the bridge of my nose where tension was starting to build.
“Fine,” he relented, his tall, muscular frame leaning against the counter. “I’m off of work for a couple of weeks and I wanted to crash here for a bit. No big deal. Nothing has to be wrong for me to want to come and stay with you, man. We’re family.”
That was true. Though, I couldn’t remember another time in our history together where that was the case. We were a rag-tag group of orphans who didn’t have many true connections. And while Gavin, Flint, and a few others of us, always stayed on the perimeter of each other’s lives, we rarely just dropped in. There was almost always a purpose in doing so.
But maybe I was being too cynical. Flint could be trying to connect with me after spending too much time at work. It made sense. I’m not sure if it was our inner wolves that craved that all-important pack dynamic, or just our human sides chasing the familial love we hadn’t received in our childhoods. Either way, the boys of Cascia House were connected to one another in a way that even pack brothers couldn’t understand or explain.
Like me, Flint had grown up hard. He’d been barely three years old when he’d come to our group home and I’d been thirteen. At that age, I’d been more of a father to him than his own. He told me once he couldn’t even remember what his parents looked like, let alone mourn them. I’m not sure I believed that. I think he didn’t want to remember them. Itmade everything too painful and real. I know, because I’d experienced it myself.
While I think Flint might have some seriously questionable moral tendencies and abandonment issues, I loved him and considered him family. Because he was and always would be.
My brother had joined the military at seventeen, in part, no doubt, to find a place to belong. He’d become a mercenary after he’d done his time in the marines, most likely to exorcise his remaining demons. Yet no matter how bad things got, he always had our backs, and we had his. That was what mattered. That was what family was all about. Not blood, but belonging. Something most of us had struggled with since our formative years, and would continue to struggle with long into our final ones.
“I don’t think you staying at the cabin right now is such a good idea,” I told him, my arms crossed over my chest.
Flint gave his trademark smirk. “Why? You afraid Millie might decide she’s not so sure about her choice in mate? I could help her with that, if you’d like? Give her a taste of what she’s been missing.”
With most guys, I’d have booted their asses out of my house for showing such disrespect. But with Flint, I employed a little more patience. He’d always had a need to test limits. To push boundaries. Even though I wasn’t going to entertain his bullshit, I understood where it came from. I knew how deep seated and rooted in childhood trauma it all was.
When he saw my hard stare, he chuckled. “I guess that’s a no.”
“You can’t stay here, Flint. Millie just found out who and what she is and that her mother is still alive after believing her dead for many years. The last thing she needs is a horny,unmated ware trying to get under her skirt,” I reaffirmed, putting the conversation back on track where it belonged.
“With how much she smells like you, Ethan, she’s already dealing with the problem of a horny, unmated ware. What’s one more?” Flint quipped.
Millie came down the stairs then, silencing my reply. She was wearing a worn pair of my sweatpants that had been folded over at the waist several times. If she wasn’t careful, she’d trip on the excessive length pooling at her ankles. The matching hoodie she’d paired it with came nearly to her knees. I had to suppress a smile at how adorable she looked.
My mate had accurately clocked Flint’s ass the moment she’d met him. I bet she’d put on the most shapeless garment she could find. Figuring the more clothes, the better, when she was around the unapologetic skirt-chaser. What she didn’t know was to an alpha, the clothes made no difference. The woman beneath them was as tantalizing and desirable whether she wore heels or a hoodie.
“Flint,” I said, hoping to ratchet down the tension several degrees before it turned into an inferno by properly introducing the pair, “this is Millie Summers, Calvin’s daughter.”
Absorbing my words, Flint hid his reaction well and gave Millie a knowing smile. “I see. Nice to meet you, Calvin’s daughter.”
Millie blushed, and I fought back a twinge of jealousy. It was ridiculous, I know. But I hated the idea of Millie finding anything about Flint attractive.
My brash brother didn’t have a hard time finding and bedding women, ware or human. Flint was tall, good looking, charismatic (when he wanted to be), and had moreconfidence than any man should. Most days, women lined up and took a number at his bedroom door. So yeah, I hated his fucking smiling at my mate with that lazy, sexy grin of his. The new bond, and my protectiveness over Millie, acted like a one-two punch to my heart.
“Nice to meet you, Flint,” she answered back a little stiffly.
I shouldn’t have taken pleasure in her cold reply, but I did.
“I’m sorry for coming on so strong earlier,” he apologized, though I knew it was only for show. “I didn’t know you were taken. My bad. It won’t happen again. Unless you want it to,” he finished with a playful wink.
Millie looked nonplused at his response but slowly shook her head in understanding. “I won’t. Apology accepted.”
The manipulative bastard gave me a shit-eating grin then. “See, I apologized for my roguish behavior and now Millie is okay with me staying at the cabin for a few days. It’s all good. I’ll be in the guesthouse so that I can give you two lovebirds some time alone. But if you’re interested in a third to spice things up a bit, you know where to find me.”
“Flint!” I roared in frustration.
Holding his hands out in front of him, he said, “Okay, okay. I’m going.” Turning to Millie, he mimed holding a cell phone to his ear and mouthed “call me” as he walked backward toward the exit.
As soon as he left, Millie turned to me with a look of utter disbelief on her beautiful face. “What just happened?”
I sighed, moving toward her and pulling her into the comfort of my arms. “You just met Flint. He has that effect on people.”
