“Fangs are better than fur, detective,” Cole replied sweetly, taking a sip of his wine. “I don’t make the rules, I’m afraid.”
“Why choose?” Jeremy asked, strolling up to us, hand in hand with Thierry. A wide grin split across his rugged face, and his piercing blue eyes were dancing with amusement. A rush of familiarity washed over me. How many times had I seen that expression over the years? He added, “You can always have both.”
“Don’t scare the mortals, darling,” Thierry drawled. Like with Lee and Hunter, it was stunning how identical he and Cole were. He was also holding a glass of red wine. They must have brought their own bottle—we hadn’t provided any wine. To the rest of us, he added, “He is, of course, merely joking.”
“That makes one of us,” Cole said seriously, searching Harris’s eyes. “Any time you want to become whatever Jeremy is—a vampire and a werewolf—say the word.”
Harris raised his eyebrows. “Um. Thanks, Cole. I think.” He shot me an amused look, which I interpreted as:See what I go through?Then he turned back to Cole and added, “I’ll definitely take that under advisement.”
“Either way, we’ll still be besties,” Cole assured him. “Now, we’re eating ice cream later. Just so you know.”
“You’ve got to learn how to let things go,” Eli said, shaking his head, a small smile on his lips.
Cole pouted, but brightened considerably when Harris said, “Fine. But I choose the flavor.”
“Can we still talk about how vile men are?”
“Wait,what?” Eli said, mock-offended. “Ihappen to be a man.”
“You’re an Eli,” Cole assured him. “We’ll make an exception for you. Even though you do hog the covers.”
Eli’s eyes danced with amusement. “Vicious lies.”
“We can discuss how vile men are, but only in the abstract,” Harris replied, bemused. His gaze was warm when he turned to me. “They aren’t all bad.”
Thierry made a gagging noise. Then he said, “Oh, Nicolas, Lacey was wondering which of us could do more Jello shots. Since we’re identical.”
Everyone stared at him, except for Jeremy.
Cole’s eyebrows drew together. “J—Jello shots?” He sounded baffled. “What in the college frat boy nonsense is she talking about?”
“You know what?” Eli said, shooting his mate a meaningful look. “I thinkI’mcurious, too. Also, I’d pay good money to see you take a Jello shot.”
Cole locked eyes with Eli, as if trying to puzzle him out.
Unspoken communication seemed to pass between them—unsurprising, given that they were telepathically connected. Then his expression lit up with understanding. “Ah. I see. Yes, we’ll go do…” His expression curled with disdain. “Jello shots.”
“I think I’ll help them with that,” Harris said, not even being remotely subtle about it. “Besides, I’m not sure anyone has warned Lacey about vampire alcohol tolerance.”
When it was just us, Jeremy shook his head regretfully. “Poker wouldn’t be their game. None of them.”
“No kidding.”
“I’m proud of you,” Jeremy said, without warning. “I wouldn’t have thought to initiate Daniel. And I’m not sure how I would’ve felt about splitting leadership, either.”
I shrugged, heat creeping into my cheeks. “The pack needs to change.”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. It does.” He paused. “They’re lucky to have you. It’s been a long time since this pack has had agoodalpha.”
“Now it has two,” I replied. “I don’t know about being good, but we’re going to try to be better.”
Jeremy smiled but didn’t reply. The silence that fell was easy rather than awkward.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
Jeremy’s eyebrows drew together. “What for? This isn’t about my transformation again, is it? I’ve already told you, there’s nothing to apologize for.”
“It is about that, sort of,” I admitted. “But I’m mostly apologizing for being a dick. You’re still my friend. You’re still the same Jeremy I grew up with. And I guess I kind of used the vampire thing to push you away.”
