Chichi rolled her eyes. “Honestly, those two never stop texting. It’s always vaporisation this, yeast growth rate that.”
Taylor smiled, watching the whole family talk over one another with hurried excitement as he slowly faded back into the corner of the kitchen. He liked to watch them, sometimes. The way the pack just moved around each other with ease and warmth. The way they brushed shoulders, touched hands and showed easy affection.
It was easy to accept love when all you’d ever known was love.
It made Taylor feel warm too, most of the time. Sometimes, he would forget all about his life in Slough with his mum and dad, and the dark, empty house he had never called a home. His parents were not bad people. They’d tried to love him, but Taylor was just… a nightmare. That was what his dad used to call him whenever social services rocked up, or when he overwhelmed Taylor with his alpha scent just to get him to submit.
A problem child.
He’d hear his parents arguing through the paper-thin walls of their two-bedroom flat, crying into his hands and pleading with his wolf to just ‘be good.’
The tears had turned hard when he was nine, when his mum left, and he gave up trying to control it. He’d lived with his nan for a bit, but in the end even she couldn’t control him. Fighting with the older kids, breaking shit.Fuck, he’d lost his virginity at thirteen years old because he was just so fucking bored of being kicked out of the house all the time.
Where he was unlovable, the Atebas were just so damned easy to love. Johnny, especially, with his big hands that just seemed to scoop everything up and put it all back together.
Taylor looked at the floor. The warmth that had made his fingers tingle started to recede, and a cold hardness settled in his belly.
“Hey.” Someone nudged his shoulder. It was Johnny, because it was always Johnny, and he was shoving a bowl of ribs into his hand. “Eat up. Kofi wants us to take some stuff over to the restaurant.”
Taylor swallowed the thickness in his throat. “Y-yeah?”
One of Johnny’s eyebrows twitched as he held Taylor’s hand underneath the bowl. “What’s wrong?”
Taylor looked down at the ribs.
“Tay?”
“Nothing, dude.”
Johnny let out a soft breath. “Things turning dark again?”
Taylor made a wheezing sound in the back of his throat. “No…” he sighed quietly. “A bit.”
Johnny squeezed his fingers, his other hand fiddling with the hem of Taylor’s dark green T-shirt. “Oh, wait,” Johnny said, grabbing a bottle of maple syrup from the counter and drizzling it all over the food. He pressed his forehead to Taylor’s. It was warm, and Taylor could smell the forest on his skin. “Knowyou’re a pussy when it comes to spice.” He was looking at Taylor through his eyelashes.
Taylor pulled back, sinking his teeth into the meat, but found that for once, he wasn’t hungry.
CHAPTER 11
GAME FACE
Taylor
It had already gonenine when they pulled up at the restaurant. Johnny had changed into a light linen shirt and swapped his joggers for jeans. Taylor stayed in his chino shorts because the night air was still humid as hell.
Maman was in the back room, balancing the books like the goddamned Superwoman she was. She had her headphones on and was scribbling furiously into a dog-eared notepad. Papa was in his usual spot behind the bar, mixing cocktails and pouring pints to give to the waitstaff.
The night was winding down, but a few customers were still chatting away as they hung strips of meat over their tabletop grills.
“Here—they—are!” Papa sang to the tune of ‘Take on Me.’He was pouring something that looked like frothy brown sludge into a dainty little glass. “My boys!”
“Bonsoir,” Johnny said, dropping a crate of Kofi’s home brew onto the bar. The bottles jingled, and Papa gave the crate a look of disdain.
“Not again,” he said, shaking his head. “Kofi’s a sneaky little con, getting you to bring it here.”
Johnny shrugged, placing a second crate next to it. “Sorry, but in a toss-up between you and Aunt Chi, I’ll take your huffing and swearing ten times over.”
Papa sucked his teeth and shot a look at Taylor. Taylor let out a nervous laugh and took a seat at the bar. “Sorry, old man, I’m with JP on this one.”
