“You guys are werewolves,” Marcus said, even as he relaxed further against my chest.He smelled sick and was still too pale, but with rest and pampering, he’d get over the cold in a few days, tops.
Linc shifted back.“Yes, that’s right.”
He stood there naked while Marcus stared at him, our mate’s gaze unsubtly dropping from Linc’s head and going down.Linc managed to keep a straight face, even if I didn’t.The attraction in Marcus was sweet.It made me hopeful, even if it was just physical.For now.
“You said he’d be fine.”Dom pointed a finger at me.“How’s he only getting with the group now?How bad was that concussion, really?”
Linc shrugged.“Seeing me shift seems to have helped.”He grinned smugly at Dom.
“Actual werewolves,” Marcus said, not really following along with the conversation, his brain still caught in the loop of realization.
I gently squeezed his arm.“He’ll be fine.Won’t you, Marcus?”
Marcus turned to me.“You’re all werewolves?”
“Yes.”I let my other hand drop from the back of the couch to Marcus’s arm.
Touch was different for humans, especially men.They gave it less, expected less of it and even rejected it to some degree.I was very aware of keeping my distance because of work, but getting Marcus used to accepting more non-sexual physical contact would help ease him into…whatever he would let himself be eased into.
If he was an omega… But no.Omegas had been stories—almost myths—for too long.
“All of you?This whole damn town?”Marcus asked.
“Nope, and thank fuck for that.”Dom pretend-shivered.“Just some family and friends, you know.”
He waited to shift until Marcus looked at him.Dom clearly enjoyed Marcus’s small gasp of surprise at the sight of him turning wolf.After a delighted huff and a wolfish grin, he leaped toward the front door and ran outside.
Linc was pulling his clothes back on.“There are a few werewolves in town, and they mostly run with the Wind Creek Pack.We’re loners.”
“Loners,” Marcus said.
“Loners together,” I told him.
Linc closed the front door after Dom and sat back down on my other side, where he got close enough to kiss my neck and place his hand on my thigh.“Loners.Together.”
“Oh…Oh,” Marcus said, and just like that, the gears in his head were turning once more.
Linc leaned forward to catch Marcus’s eye.“After kicking that…man out, I should get you a drink.Does that hot tea and honey still sound good?”
Marcus nodded.“Yeah.Everything’s hurting.Tea can only help.”
Linc stood and headed to the guest room.I heard him grab the pill bottle from my bag, and he handed it to me after also filling a glass with water and putting that in our mate’s hand.
I unscrewed the bottle.“One now, and another after we get some food into you.We’ll make that soup.”I caught Linc’s eye.He nodded.
Marcus looked at the pill I shook into my palm with clear suspicion.I held it out to him with the kind of smile I gave the very contrary toddlers who’d had bad experiences with being too sick for their years.Just like the toddlers, Marcus caved after some thinking time and swallowed the pill with a gulp of water.
Linc was rattling around in the kitchen by that point.He wasn’t a soup person, more a kale and tofu salad person, but he could whip up a mean minestrone with cashew cream and lemon zest, and he was happily chopping away within minutes of setting the kettle to boil.
“Why did you put me in flannel?”was the thing of all the things that Marcus chose to ask first.
I gaped, just managing to swallow the burst of laughter that wanted out, but Linc didn’t even try, chuckling away as he chopped.“Oh, you perfect little human.Could you please not say that within earshot of Dom?Those are his.”
“He’s the closest to you in size.”I tugged on Marcus’s sleeve.“And he likes his flannel.”
Marcus examined the sleeve I’d touched.It reached past his fingertips.“I see.Let me summarize.The three of you are loners together, and you also turn into wolves.”
“We all sleep with each other, if that was your question,” Linc chimed in from the kitchen.
