“No! Don’t move. Stay where you are!” he howls.
Sebastian launches over the rails and drops to the ground from the balcony, fully naked. I blink as Katsu appears beside me as quiet as a wraith. There’s so much happening that I don’t even know what to look at first.
What is making that noise?
Fox spins around, twirling and back-pedaling as fast as he can.
“What is wrong with you?” Sebastian hisses.
“There’s an intruder?” Fox shrieks. “Oh, my god, what is it?”
I pull out my phone, calmly turn the torch on, and shine it down at his feet. The creature looks like a half a ball of spikes with cute little legs and a long pointed nose.
“Ahhhh!” Fox screams again and bounces backwards.
I get the giggles.
“This is not funny! Why is it chasing me?” he shouts. He gingerly runs in a circle, but the little creature follows him. Unerringly cutting off his escape.
He stumbles back and trips over. But he springs up and scurries away, hiding behind Sebastian, who is blinking like he can’t make sense of it. That makes four of us.
“What is going on here?” Katsu murmurs. “Isn’t that an echidna?”
“What the hell is an echidna?” Fox shrieks and climbs Sebastian like he’s a tree.
I end up leaning on the house, laughing so hard I’m perilously close to peeing myself.
“You’re doomed now. It was nice while it lasted,” I call out. “Oh, god, I’m going to pee. Help.”
“Help me!” Fox shouts at the same time.
The creature lifts its front body up and tries to climb Sebastian’s legs. Seb shrieks and stumbles backwards, losing his footing in one of the holes the intruder dug, and they both go down hard.
I collapse to my knees, hissing so hard that I have no ability to talk through my hysterics. Probably going to pee myself, but it’s worth it.
“Katsu, save me!” Fox screams again, completely and absolutely panicked.
Lights turn on, and there’s Fox sitting on Sebastian’s face, adorned only in a shirt, in the backyard in the middle of winter. While Sebastian has an echidna trying to use his leg to pull itself up to get closer to Fox, I’m on the ground howling with laughter, and Katsu is standing there, his expression one of pure shock.
And then they appear. Mum and Randall; her boyfriend, Milton, Franco, Lorelei, Imogen armed with a bat, and Elijah, who holds up a phone and records the whole thing.
“What is going on here?” Franco barks.
“Get it away, get it away!” Fox cries.
“Darling daughter, aren’t you going to rescue your alphas?” Mum says pointedly. “I think they woke up all of Sunshine Cove.”
I wave a hand through my tears. “They are goners. I’ll leave pretty flowers on their graves. They’ll be missed. Death by echidna said no one ever.”
Mum’s lips twitch. “Evil child.” She walks over and calmly takes off her jumper, throws it over the little beast, and picks her up. “Come on, little lovely, there are better mates out there. These are a bit flighty.”
“Sebastian, why are you naked outside, and why is Fox sitting on your face?” Lorelei snaps as Fox crawls off Sebastian.
“I was hungry.”
My eyes bulge; I throw my head back and howl, my legs give out, and I hit the gravel hard, tears running down my face.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Sebastian snaps.
