Page 50 of Beasts of Mine

“I would put clothes on first,” Tavian informed Luca, looking genuinely offended that anyone would think otherwise.

I rubbed one hand over my face.

“This is why you're meeting her as a leopard,” I told Tavian, dropping my hand as he began laughing. Luca laughed too, the sound quieter but no less amused, and some of the tension I'd carried into the conversation finally eased. Once Tavian recovered, Luca leaned back against the stone and crossed his arms.

“There is going to be one difficult part,” Luca said, his voice returning to its more thoughtful tone as he looked toward me.

“One?” Tavian asked Luca, turning toward him with exaggerated optimism.

Luca ignored him.

“She is human,” Luca continued, looking at me. “She'll understand courtship. She knows packs, heats, blockers, all of that. She may even know human packs with more than two partners. But she isn't going to know how we live.”

“No,” I told Luca, because that was the part that had occupied far more of my thoughts than deciding whether I wanted Evie. Tavian leaned his shoulder against the stone.

“She can learn,” Tavian said, his answer immediate.

“She can,” Luca agreed, looking toward him. “But Malek said she travels constantly.”

“She does,” I told Luca, remembering the stories Evie had shared beneath the roots. “Sometimes she finishes one assignment, goes home long enough to swap equipment, and leaves again.”

“She likes it?” Tavian asked me, his forehead creasing as though he couldn't understand why I made that sound concerning.

“Yes,” I told Tavian. “She likes moving. She likes new places. Her apartment sounds more like somewhere she stores things between jobs than somewhere she actually wants to be.”

“Then don't ask her to stop,” Tavian replied, turning one palm upward as if I'd presented him with a problem that didn't actually exist.

Luca looked toward him.

“Our home is here,” Luca reminded Tavian, gesturing toward the surrounding forest.

“So?” Tavian asked Luca, shifting away from the rock. “Her work isn't.”

Neither of us answered immediately. Tavian looked between us.

“Malek has more reason to stay near the territory than either of us,” Tavian continued, pointing toward me. “I could travel. You could sometimes. If Evie wants to go somewhere for work, she goes. If she wants one of us with her and we can go, someone goes with her. Then she comes back.”

“You're assuming she wants somewhere here to come back to,” Luca told Tavian, not dismissive so much as cautious.

“I'm assuming that's the point of courting her,” Tavian replied to Luca, lifting his eyebrows. “We find out.”

That silenced Luca for a moment. Tavian seemed encouraged. “If she needs electricity for the cameras, we improve the power system. If she needs better storage, we build it. If she needs hot water⁠—”

“She needs hot water,” I interrupted Tavian, remembering the number of times Evie had complained about Dolores and the station's unreliable shower.

Tavian pointed at me.

“See? Hot water,” Tavian told me, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “We can manage that.”

“Usually,” Luca told Tavian, one corner of his mouth lifting.

“Then we make it more than usually,” Tavian replied, waving away the problem. “Those things are fixable.”

“The cameras are more complicated than electricity,” Luca said, his thoughts already moving ahead as he rubbed his fingers over his jaw. “She'd need somewhere dry for the equipment. Secure storage. Reliable charging. If she works from a computer while she's here, somewhere to⁠—”

“Luca,” Tavian interrupted, lifting one hand as his mouth began to curve. “She doesn't know we're men.”

Luca stopped, his gaze dropped briefly toward the ground.