Reed didn’t bother knocking. Instead, he strolled through the unlocked door.
Steeling myself, I followed him.
Emma greeted me with a hug inside the threshold, before I even knew what hit me. “Welcome,” she said, flashing me a wide smile.
“Hello,” I said stiffly when Emma released me, trying to make my brain catch up. I would have expected her to be wary of me, but she was beaming with what looked like genuine enthusiasm.
“Thanks for coming,” Daniel chimed in, giving me a tiny wave from the couch. He was sandwiched between Lacey and Sarah. She nodded at me cooly, but I caught the way she tensed up at my presence—I wasn’t sure I blamed her. If Sarah was cool, Lacey was the opposite. She narrowed her gaze at me with barely concealed hostility.
Lee and a man completely identical to him—Reed had told me his name was Hunter, Lee’s twin brother—were both seated side by side on the loveseat. Lee flashed Reed and me a knowing grin. “Hiya, Reed! And Harris. Have a good night?”
“Knock it off, Lee,” Reed said, shooting him a look that managed to be amused and disapproving at the same time.
Lee winked at me.
I shook my head good-naturedly in reply.
Another of the wolves—a Black man in a cardigan, with glasses perched on his nose, a thick book in his hands—sat at the kitchen table. Oliver, maybe. The book looked older than everyone in the room combined. He looked up as we entered.His gaze lingered on me, and when I met it dead-on, he nodded once, a small smile crossing his lips.
“Welcome to the wolf den,” Reed said, leading the way into the kitchen. The food was laid out on the counter, buffet-style: a heaping pile of bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, toast, and sausage links. “We need to grab a plate. Everyone must be starving.”
“Are they all waiting for you?” I stage-whispered.
“Wolves wait for their alpha,” Emma explained, handing Reed and me each a plate. “And his—”
Then she broke off, blinked a few times in surprise, and her expression turned rueful. “Well,youknow what you are to him, I suppose.”
I realized my command was still operating on her, preventing her from talking about our relationship. A wave of guilt washed through me. The fact that I hadn’t intended to magically command her didn’t seem to matter. Intentions meant very little when compared to consequences.
“Exactly,” Reed said smoothly, loading his plate with scrambled eggs. He cast me a look. “You’d better start filling your plate. Otherwise, they’ll all starve. We wouldn’t want that.”
“Right,” I replied, then started loading my own plate with food.
The rest of the pack got into line. Emma passed out plates.
“Where’s Lindsey?” Reed asked.
“She’s got an appointment at her clinic this morning, but she said she’ll stop by later,” Emma said.
“Lindsey is the only vet in town, but there’s not a whole lot of folks here to keep her busy, so her schedule is sporadic,” Reed explained. “I’ll officially introduce you two later. She’s a friend and ally to the pack, but not technically one of us.”
“But she’s a wolf, too?”
Reed nodded, then took a spot at the table. I sat down across from him. I was aware that everyone else was looking at us but trying very hard to pretend they weren’t.
“Dig in,” Reed said. His expression told me he sensed my discomfort at being watched. “They won’t start until we do.”
I nodded and took a bite of the scrambled eggs. They were perfectly fluffy and had a nice buttery taste without being too oily. Emma was a damn good cook. I made eye contact with her—she was still waiting for the rest of the pack to finish getting dished up—and she kept shooting furtive looks at Reed and me, as if waiting on our verdict. I spoke first. “It’s delicious. Thanks for cooking for us.”
Reed ate a piece of bacon and nodded in Emma’s direction. “Oh yeah, it’s really good. Thanks, Emma—you didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
Emma’s cheeks went red and she nodded back at us, flashing a smile. “It was no trouble at all.”
Everyone else in the room seemed to relax in unison. They all began eating.
Reed hadn’t been wrong—they had been waiting for us.
He kept his gaze trained on his plate and, despite his relaxed demeanor, I had the strong impression that Reed didn’t quite want to be here. He wasn’t as comfortable among his pack as he appeared.
