I gave him a flat look.It was hard to hide my newfound napping problem from them, true.It hadn’t helped that I’d accidentally done it right on the couch downstairs a few too many times, all out in the open where anyone could see.
Perhaps it was time to give coffee a try.
“I don’t nap,” I said.
Linc’s eyes twinkled.“Right.Sorry.But how about taking a break anyway?You’ve been doing a lot.You can take a break.”
I scrambled out of my chair.“Well, you’re the boss.”
“I try to be good at that.Want some tea?Or some of the walnut coffee cake Dom made?”
That was another thing.Dom had made the in-law’s recipe a few times, then decided he was ready to put his own spin on it.I really liked the nuts, but he’d made a lemon poppy one the other day, and that had been to-die-for.
“No, that’s okay.I’ll just take a quick break, and then I’ll be right back and finish up, okay?”
Linc brushed his knuckles against my cheek.“Sure.Don’t feel rushed, hmm?”
I nodded and hurried out of the office to avoid embarrassing myself any further.Out in the hallway, I started toward the stairs but…almost as if on autopilot, I headed toward Linc’s bedroom instead.I’d basically moved in there.Or maybe that was a poor choice of words.I slept in there.They all did.I didn’t know if it was because of me or something else, but to date I had yet to see Dom or Ell use their bedrooms for sleeping.
At any rate, I felt pulled that way, and I followed the pull stopping at Dom’s room on the way.He’d changed into painting clothes earlier to give the deck its second coat, and his normal shirt was on his bed.
I had no idea what drove me to do it, but I went in there and grabbed that shirt.It wasn’t flannel, just a regular T-shirt, but that barely registered.I’d only gotten brief glimpses of Ell’s room, and the door stood open to the neatly organized space.For a moment, I wanted to stop and hole up in there instead, but I managed to resist that urge.
In Linc’s room, I looked around for something instead of lying down like the good little napper I didn’t want to be.I had no idea what I was even looking for, except when I spotted the sweatpants Linc had slept in on the dresser in the corner, I grabbed those too, and with the stolen shirt and pants, I finally dropped on the comforter, gathering both garments in my arms.
They sort of smelled like Dom and Linc, but I was missing Ell.I could imagine him on the pillow next to me, big and warm and protective.It was upsetting me a lot right then that he wasn’t here.That was probably on account of the stress thinking about leaving here had induced.That alone should probably tell me a good deal about how I really felt about leaving, but staying here went against all reason.It went against everything I’d learned it took to be a grown person.
Also, if I stayed, they would probably want to bite me at some point.It hadn’t come up again, but if it was really part and parcel of being their mate, then they probably expected it.Like how people expected certain things once they got married and moved in together.
That launched another spiral.Was me moving in here like that?Aside from the legal stuff, would they think of me like a spouse?There had been comments about them being family to each other.They certainly acted like it.
I sighed.Family.I could almost trick myself into no longer remembering what it was like to have one.I’d considered reaching out to my parents a few times over the years to see if maybe they could be okay with me not being as high achieving as they’d wanted me to be after all, but I honestly didn’t think that would lead anywhere good.
But Dom, Linc, and Ell?Thinking of them as family was easy.Really easy.
I squeezed my eyes closed.Maybe a nap would help with all the thinking.There was always a chance I’d dream of something nice.The other day when I’d napped in the cuddle puddle, I’d had this vivid dream about finding a goldfish in a pond and catching him in the cup of my hands.He’d been speckled black and red and white, and he’d looked up at me through the water with big round goldfish eyes.I’d woken feeling all warm and fuzzy.
Drifting off was easy, and before long, I was asleep.
I had no idea how long I was asleep for, but I was woken by a weight making the mattress dip, and then a large canine face right in mine when I opened my eyes.
Big golden-brown eyes looked at me, but this didn’t seem to have anything to do with soul gazing.Dom was sniffing me.
“Hey, what’s up?I showered.Come on, this is borderline rude.”
I shoved at his big head halfheartedly, but he was sniffing along my neck, then all over my chest.Luckily, he didn’t seem to have noticed that I had stolen some of his clothes.
He started sniffing my belly and crotch area too though.
“Dude, if you think this is foreplay?—”
But before I could even finish the sentence, he raised his head, looked me right in the eyes, and ran off.
“Okay, rude again.”I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.
I checked to see where he’d gone, and it looked like he’d dashed into Linc’s office.Huh.Was I still dreaming?
I was still wiping at my eyes when Linc came out of his office and all but jogged into the room, eyes wide.Dom was still a wolf.
