My eyebrows flew up. “Oh? What do you like to do?”
He ran his hand over his beard. “Um, I’ll show you.” His broad shoulders were tight and slightly hunched. Whatever the fuck his hobby was, I’d smile and act appreciative.
He pushed open the door, and I gasped. Rafferty liked LEGO. Half of the room was framed with shelves displaying projects he’d built from kits, and two tables filled the floor between them. One held a work in progress, and on the other sat a couple of scenes—a beach and a mountain—that I thought he might’ve made freeform.
“These are fantastic!” I enthused over his skill, and he blushed harder. He was kind of adorable.
“Thanks. I got into it as a kid and never stopped.”
I smiled. “I love it. I can’t remember the last time I built anything with LEGO.” I gestured at the other half of the room, which was completely empty. “What’s going here?”
He shrugged, turning even more red. “I’m not sure yet. All of my LEGO stuff used to be spread out over the whole room, but last weekend I had the urge to move everything to one side.”
I opened my mouth to ask something else, but an alarm sounded from his phone.
“Time for dinner. Come and meet the pack.”
Couldn’t I stay here and play with plastic bricks instead?
In the dining hall, people were arriving, greeting each other, and sitting down. Almost everyone I saw was a shifter, but there were a few magic carriers also in attendance.
Rafferty led me over to an empty table in the corner close to the kitchen. I was glad to see both men and women working to get the meal ready. He pulled a seat out for me near the center of one of the longer sides of the table, and he took the seat to my left, making sure there was enough distance between our chairs that we did not touch.
“My betas and their families will be sitting with us. Usually we spread out among the pack, but I asked them to join us so they can meet you.”
“How many betas do you have?” I didn't know a ton about wolf pack hierarchy, but betas were like the assistant managers of the pack, and usually some of the best fighters. Though I wasn't sure what kind of fights a modern pack would get into.
“I have four.” He smiled at a family of three—a man, a woman, and a teenage boy—who came to sit across from us. All of them stared at me as if I were a mythical creature in a zoo. As they took their seats, Rafferty gestured. “Elton, this is my head beta, Gordon, his wife Kathy, and their son Parker.” Gordon had a prosthetic eye in his right socket, and I flashed back to Rafferty listing the physical issues some of his pack members had. I squashed down the accompanying flush of shame. I really was better off than many people.
I put on my most confident smile. Hopefully the smell of the food coming from the kitchen would mask any scent of my nervousness. “It's nice to meet all of you.”
They smiled and greeted me, and I didn't have to use my empath abilities to feel the curiosity emanating from them. It was only amplified by the arrival of the other three betas—Ward, Theresa, and Vinnie—and their families.
After bowls of spaghetti and meatballs, along with platters of garlic bread, were placed on the table—not a salad or vegetable in sight—Gordon was the first to broach the subject of my presence. “Elton, we don't get too many guests joining us for Friday night dinners, but it's nice to see a new face.” He deliberately switched his gaze from mine to Rafferty’s. I stuffed my mouth with bread.
Rafferty glanced around the table. “Like I told you when I texted earlier, Elton is here as my date. We resonate very strongly but we’re trying to take things slow and keep a physical distance between us so we don't create a permanent connection too quickly.”
Overall everyone seemed pleased, and I understood from the context of their questions to Rafferty and me that he’d neverbrought a date to the packhouse before. Did he go to the other person’s place for hookups?
I let Rafferty answer most of the questions, but a few people asked me what I did for a living and other small talk. Eventually the novelty of my presence wore off, and I was able to finish my meal. Everything was delicious, but I was incredibly sensitive to the presence of balls of any type, and I’d wasted no time in cutting my meatballs up into little pieces with my fork.
During a lull in the conversation, I decided I should try to learn more about Rafferty’s packmates. I started with Parker, as he hadn't been talking much during the meal, and he was also the least intimidating person in my general conversational area. “Parker, I'm sorry, but I'm not great at guessing shifter ages. Are you in high school?”
He didn’t have a chance to answer my question, as Gordon jumped in to answer it for him. “He is! He's a junior this year and is a running back on the football team. He won the school district’s Most Valuable Player award last season. The college scouts are already sniffing around!” He clapped his son on the shoulder, and even though I had my magic closed down quite a bit, I got a huge whiff of discomfort and shame coming from Parker.
Without pausing to think, probably because I was so tired from everything that week, not to mention my social battery being almost drained, I blurted out, “You don't like football?”
Parker’s eyes went wide in horror, and Rafferty's head swung around from where he'd been speaking to Ward on his other side. Gordon scowled at me. “What are you talking about? He loves football!” He clapped Parker on the shoulder again. “You love football.”
I opened my mouth to apologize, but Rafferty leaned forward. “Parker, no pressure, but my door’s open anytime you want to talk.” Was he getting the same vibes from the kid that I was?
Kathy made an “o” with her mouth, then put her arm around Parker’s shoulder. “You don’t have to decide if you’re playing next year right now, sweetie. And if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
He leaned into her and nodded, but Gordon wasn’t having it. He narrowed his eyes at his son. “Why wouldn’t you want to play? You’re a champion. Football will pay for college.”
Parker hung his head, staring down at his plate. Crap.
The rest of the table had gone silent. Rafferty cleared his throat. “Let’s address this topic another time, huh?”
