“Merry Christmas,” I add, opting out of the hugging.
Both doors swing open behind Kole, and Thane strides in wearing a pair of sweatpants without a shirt on. Between the two of them, it suddenly feels like I’m on fire, and I pull my gaze, focusing on the food instead.
“Merry Christmas, Alpha!” Sienna chimes, walking over to join me at the table.
“Mhm,” Thane grunts, clearly still not in the holiday spirit.
“Looks like the scrooge is alive and well,” I mutter to Sienna, knowing Thane can still hear me.
A low growl rumbles from him when he sits down, and I flash him a taunting smirk before piling food onto my plate.
“So what’s on the agenda for the day?” I ask Sienna, knowing she most certainly has an itinerary planned already.
“Well after we eat breakfast, we have to open presents and—”
“Presents?” I blurt, cutting her off. “I didn’t know we were doing presents! I didn’t get anything.”
“That’s okay!” she reassures. “You didn’t need to.”
I set my fork down, slouching back in my seat. “I feel bad now.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Kole says, looking at me from across the table. “It’s not like you had much of a notice.”
“Does that mean you didn’t get anything either?” I ask hopefully.
“Oh, no. You’re going to like what I got you,” he says with a mischievous grin that only makes me feel worse.
“What the hell?” I toss my head back, releasing a sigh.
“If you really feel that bad about it, you can just make it up to us next year,” Sienna offers, giving my hand a comforting squeeze.
Next year.
I don’t know why, but hearing her mention something so far in the future is jarring to me. My entire life, I’ve been living day by day. Even before the Last War. To think that I might be here a year from now, celebrating Christmas with them, makes me feel all kinds of emotions. Most of them good, but there’s also a little voice in the back of my head telling me to not get comfortable. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that life is unpredictable, and just when things are starting to look up, the scales tend to even out.
I finish my breakfast in silence, letting Sienna and Kole do all the talking while guilt over not getting them anything and thoughts of the future eat away at me. I barely even hear Sienna tell us all to head to the living room, too lost in my spiraling thoughts to be fully present.
As I follow Kole and Sienna out into the hallway, I do my best to banish my anxiety, not wanting to let it ruin the day. I’m just about to chime into their conversation when Thane grabs a hold of my hand and stops me.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his eyes running over my face like he’s trying to find the answer there.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say dismissively, turning back around.
“No, you’re not,” he argues, whirling me back to face him. His thumb strokes the back of my hand as his grip tightens.
“This is all just a lot to process,” I admit to him, knowing he won’t let me go until he gets a real answer.
“I see.” His eyes drop to the floor, and he lets go of my hand, taking a step back.
“But not in a bad way,” I quickly add, getting the feeling I’ve said something wrong. “I’m just not used to thinking about the future.”
He scratches the back of his head like he doesn’t know what to say next, but instead of trying to fill the awkward silence, I take in the view of his tan skin and firm muscles. Whatever we had just been talking about seems to vanish from my mind as I take a step forward, closing the distance between us.
“You don’t have to be scared anymore,” he says, moving my hair back so that he can see the mark on my neck.
“I’m not scared.”
His thumb trails along my jaw as his eyes follow the movement. “Then why is your heart racing?”
