Unwaveringly staring straight ahead, he calmly states, “All of them, actually. One was the alpha prior to me, the one I referred to taking over for. Remember that pack I mentioned with the god complex? Their alpha doesn’t care much for being told no.” Sighing, he rushes out, “Six months later my mom mated into Hunter’s pack, and people stopped talking about them all together since she’d burst into tears at the slightest reminder. It was torture on her and her new mates, so everyone just... pretends they never existed at all.”
My brother curses, shoving his hand in his pocket with a scowl. A few seconds later, Kaige’s phone vibrates. It was touch and go for a while there, but it looks like the tune Kaige played on his tiny violin managed to break through the last bit of Bo’s defenses, his confessions buying him a ticket into our mate’s good graces.
“So, that’s it then?” We enter the bookstore as I size up Kaige from the corner of my eye, questioning my sanity for going along with my brother’s ridiculous plan of playing matchmaker for our mate. “You’re going to make a move?”
Running his fingertips along the spines of a row of books, Kaige takes his time pulling together his response. “I respect Damian, and I owe him one hell of a debt after- after everything.” Curiosity burning, I share a look with Bo and file away the tidbit to ask about later. “So I shouldn’t, but... yeah. I’ve only spent a week around her but, fuck. How could Inotthrow my hat in the ring?”
Boring a hole in the ceiling, he clenches and unclenches his fist. “She barely even knows that I exist. I’ve been trying to keep up with things so there’s something always on hand for her to grab and eat with minimal effort, but I don’t think she’s even processing that it’sme. She simply goes, ‘nourishment, yay’, and promptly passes out. I’m thrilled to help her, and I’d happily do it regardless, but I don’t know how to even get on her radar. I don’t know how to show her that I could take away some of her stress instead of adding to it, and from what you’ve told me, I can’t show up out of the blue with a gift and expect it to be received well, either.”
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he grumbles, “I don’t know how todoany of this stuff. Not like there’s exactly a lot of opportunities to date back home.”
My brother’s golden gaze is nearly overshadowed by his blown pupils, his wolf taking over, but curiously enough, that’s the only sign. He doesn’t even appear pissed off, more like he’s zoning out as he stands there stoically processing.
Or conversing, maybe? Is that even possible?Really though, Sabrina’s proof that anything is.
Snapping out of it, Bo leads us to a different section. “Think about how she bonds with each of us over something, bringing a different aspect of her personality to life like she feeds off our energy, and not in the literal way. With Reid, they’re subdued, bonding over computer shit, yet Cinjin acts like the devil on her shoulder and she lights up at the thought of going along with his terrible ideas despite it seeming at complete odds with her personality. Shewantsthe thrills that make her feel alive, even if her rational side tends to keep her from caving into the impulse. You and Cin are both fucking psychos, so you don’t need to downplay that side of yourself; she’ll likely be thrilled when she finds out you’re as messed up as the rest of us. But you also have a better handle on coping with things, are more calm and collected than the other alphas in her life. Lean into that. Help her not by taking things off her shoulders, butteachher how to handle the weight of her burdens so that they don’t crush her. She doesn’t want a mate that does everything for her, she wants to be an equal. Treat her that way, not as something precious that needs to be coddled.”
A snort slips out as I see where we ended up, and I reach for the nearest book, knowing we’re not walking out of here without buying enough of these that we’ll need to build another shelf in the library. “Honestly, we might be better off loading up an e-reader so she can take them with us on the trip.”
“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Bo murmurs, grabbing a book and reading the back. When Kaige doesn’t budge, my brother obnoxiously clears his throat. “Don’t you think she’d like a distraction for the trip so she can ignore our dumbass brother, Kaige?”
Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, he nods, heading off to go pick out a new e-reader while Bo and I start making a list of titles to load onto it. Grabbing the nearest paranormal reverse harem, I start flipping through it.
“I’ve got knotting,” Bo declares, waggling a book and typing the title into his phone before putting it back. “You?”
“Incubi and primal play,” I one-up him with a smug grin. “Thank the gods for hentai, or this stuff might ruin porn for me. Once you go demon dick, you don’t go back.”
He snorts, but doesn’t disagree. By the time twenty minutes have gone by, we have enough of a list that we’ll keep our mate busy, hopefully in multiple ways, for a couple of months. While we continue to browse, I drop my voice until it’s barely audible.
“Did you notice that he was never looking us in the eye for any of those confessions?”
He hums in contemplation. “With the exception of how he’d protect her to the best of his ability... shortly followed by declaring there was a pack next door that killed his parents.” Grimacing, he concedes, “Which is literally no different than what we’re doing here, to be fair.”
I nod, but a knot still tightens in my stomach as I confidently state, “They’re hiding something.”
Withdrawing his phone, Bo types out his reply, making absolutely certain that there’s no way that Kaige could be eavesdropping.And we know how Sabrina feels about secrets. Let them dig their own graves, and we’ll be there to help her bury them alive.
