“You married someone and never told them you can turn into a giant, fluffy furball at will?”I asked.Owen had barely acknowledged me, so politeness wasn’t required.I also thought that the guys telling me as soon as I was conscious enough to sort of get it was a very up-front move in comparison.They were good guys.And werewolves.Good werewolf guys.Nobody’s perfect.
“Aw, that’s our boy,” Dom crooned and patted my calf as he pulled my other shoe off.
Owen’s face flushed scarlet.“I’m not a…a werewolf.And I’d appreciate you keeping your furry side to yourself,” he told me.
My eyebrows went up.“Don’t have one.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t have a furry side.Since I’m not a werewolf.”Who’d have thought I’d ever put that on my résumé.
Owen gaped, and Dom tied the laces of the other hiking shoe, then stood.“Yeah.Just think how fucking shocked we all were.Stand up for me, Marcus.”
I got to my feet.
“But look at him,” Dom went on, pulling me close with an arm around my waist.“Our pretty mate’s been taking it all in stride.”He ran the knuckles of his fingers along my cheek and brushed the top of my head with his chin, minding the area at the back that was still sensitive.
Owen huffed.“Very subtle, asshole.”
Dom shrugged.“Just telling you how it is.”
Owen ran a hand through his hair.“Well, whatever.Look, I have inventory, and Dad’s on the phone with a vendor.Just say hi to him before you leave, okay?”He turned to get back to his work in the back of the store, then stopped and spun to look at Dom and me again.“Welcome to the family, I guess,” he said to me.He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say more, but then he just walked off.
“So that’s my brother and his lawfully wedded better half.”Dom’s arm slid off my waist slowly.“How’re the shoes?”He squatted again to feel my toes through the fabric.
“Feel okay.”They were nice, comfy shoes in fact.“How isn’t he a werewolf?”
“Walk the track a few times.”Dom pointed at the textured path set into the floor.“Our dad’s human,” Dom went on when I did as he’d told me to.“Mom and he just fell for one another.I got the good looks and the tail, and Owen got the neuroses.He also makes a damn fine mac ’n’ cheese, though I don’t know how much of that’s hereditary.”
I stared at Dom, but Dom was looking at my feet.“Wait.The green eyes.And the blue eyes.Is that a thing?”
Dom looked up at me, his mouth forming a silentoh.“Look at you, Little Red.Brainsandlooks.Guess you’ll make all the betas jealous and all the alphas envious that you’re ours.We’ll have to lock you up so they don’t try to steal you away.”
He said all of that in a voice that was the verbal equivalent of a seriously smoldering look.It did things to me.I stumbled and almost face-planted on the gravel, but Dom was faster than gravity’s pull.He caught me with an arm across my chest, holding my weight effortlessly.
“Easy there, Marcus.Don’t make me see you hurt again.”
I pulled myself up, or rather let Dom put me back in an upright position.“I-I’m fine.Thank you.”
“Any time.You’re right.Brown eyes are very rare in a wolf.Kind of the opposite of how it is for humans.”Dom’s mouth was kissing distance from my own.“Most people don’t ever notice it—most humans, that is—even when they know.Dad never did, not until Mom told him Owen was gonna be more like him.”
“I see.”I had the feeling he wanted to tell me something else, but I wasn’t quite getting what it was.
“I like these for you, but we’re trying the other two pairs just in case.”He pushed me back onto the bench.
I didn’t get to tie a single pair, and I wasn’t even surprised anymore.
18
Iwas glad Dom had taken Marcus into town, but at the same time, I missed having our mate near, being able to make sure he was okay.Rationally, I understood it was because I’d found him unconscious out in the forest.On top of that, he was still getting over his cold and hadn’t accepted my mating bite yet.There wasn’t an alpha alive who wouldn’t be troubled by all of that.
But understanding why I felt what I felt didn’t necessarily mean I could change anything about it.While I knew Marcus and Dom had only left ten minutes ago and wouldn’t be back for another hour or so, I still kept my office door open, just in case.
Ell texted the all-clear for Marcus’s blood tests maybe twenty minutes after Dom and Marcus had left, and I breathed a sigh of relief.I didn’t get to enjoy that feeling for long though.Dom shot me a text about the ex still having keys to Marcus’s place, which was not good but at least gave me something to do, a way to protect our mate.
I called Smith right away.He’d moved shortly after I had, happy to follow me.
“Boss!”The puppy-like excitement lifted his normally gruff voice.“Got something fun for me to do?”
