“What do we want for dinner?” I ask, ignoring Leo’s attempts to decline Willow’s invitation. This is one of those moments I’m glad she’s hard to say no to. In fact, it makes me feel better abouthow I wish she bit me earlier. The moment was tense, and the only thing that ran through my mind was how much I wanted her to lose control. Her canines popping down instinctually made me hopeful that her body thinks we could be fated mates.
The dinner question gets Layla’s attention, who instantly turns towards me with determination written in the set of her perfectly even eyebrows.
“Pizza. One whole box for each of us. A meat-lover for me, with everything. Gosh, a pizza sounds good right now,” she says, plopping onto the couch. Willow puts Sunny on a leash we got on the way home and has her following Willow’s every move. She watched videos about dogs and new homes or something the whole way home. I learned quickly when it comes to pets, there is no such thing as half-assing anything with Willow.
As I get settled on the couch opposite to Layla and Nola, my phone dings with a text from my Pack’s group chat. Felix’s name comes up with the message to visit the house for dinner and to bring some food. Which probably means he doesn’t want to leave the house and wants one of us to feed his grown ass. “Can we move dinner to the Pack house?” I ask moving to put my shoes back on.
“We can’t leave Sunny here on her first night,” Willow mumbles, still correcting and praising the dog around the house.
“Take her with us.”
“Two new locations is too much. Can’t they come here?” That question makes me pause, my hands freezing over my second shoe while I balance on one leg. She wants my Pack here? She wants to host my brothers for dinner? Willingly?
“Let me see what I can do,” I mumble. I stand back up straight, setting the shoe back and taking off the other. My phone light glares at me as I figure out how to ask my Pack to come here instead. I have a bubbly sensation in my chest—am I nervous? They’ve met each other before. Why am I nervous?
I type out the text, and as soon as I press send, Jackson, my Alpha, comes through with four words.
We’re on our way.
They’re coming. To Willow’s house. To have dinner. “They’re coming.”
“Good. Good thing you stayed, Leo, or else you’d have to turn right back around. I’ll set the table. Can you order, Eddie?” She’s so natural, so calm. Does she know she’s got a Pack of rowdy shifters plus a vamp coming over?
I order six boxes of pizza and pray it’s enough.
Leo shrugs with a smile before disappearing to the kitchen, probably to help Willow set the table. He’s the only gentleman of the Pack, except maybe Ryder.
It’s a mere thirty minutes of Willow running around her house cleaning for some of the nastiest guests she’ll ever have before my Pack is at the door with eight boxes of pizza. Holding the door open for them, they all pile in.
“Hi,” I mutter while holding the door still as they take off their shoes. Most of them have been here before, watching over Layla on days she’s not working, and I’m not here, but they’ve never been over on a visit like this.
“Cat got your tongue, Eddie? Or maybe a certain bear around here? Why has it taken long for you to invite us over?” River, the youngest member of my Pack and a wolf shifter, says as he comes in with a few pizza boxes in his hands. He laughs way too fucking loud as I furrow my eyebrows, questioning the two extra pizza boxes.
“Where did the extra boxes come from?”
“Remi wanted cheese pizza,” Jackson clarifies as the vamp floats into Willow’s house. She’s made a total one-eighty since we first met her after finding her locked up in a fox shifter’s cabin for two years—she’d never have asked for anything before.
“Willow, darling, where are you?” Flora yells as she pushes the guys aside and searches for her best friend.
“Please behave. She barely tolerates me,” I say to the remaining members of my Pack. I want them to make a good impression. This is my family. I find I really want her to like them.
“I highly doubt that by the smell of this house. You do that with a kid in here?” Ryder says.
“Layla’s twenty.”
“Yeah, a kid.”
“Shut up, and let’s eat. Willow’s probably waiting,” I mumble, trying to stop the smirk clawing its way through my defenses.
“Y’all thought you were going to have dinner without me?” Luxe’s voice rings through the house as she flies past me. I chuckle, wondering if it was Willow or Jackson who texted her. Or maybe she had some sort of Luna instinct that we were all gathering here. Who the hell knows with that one?
I walk into the kitchen, where the boxes are set, and see Jackson opening the top box of each stack to showcase which toppings were where.
“Posing for Instagram, Jackson?” I ask, tilting my head to the side with a smirk on my face.
“Ha ha, very fucking funny. Go get everyone, and let’s eat.”
“I think that’s my line, Jackson, thank you,” Willow says, setting plates beside the assortment of pizza boxes on the counter. “Everyone, grab a plate and file into the dining room.”
