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Damn it. He’d ordered all the cakes and pies, and even a pot pie! But all he wanted right now was crispy skin and succulent meat.

“Take some,” Bruiser said quietly behind him.

Uriel startled. “But that’s... yours.”

The alpha shrugged. “There’s more than enough to go around.”

On any other day, Uriel would’ve refused, because it came from Bruiser. But this new, tentative truce between them seemed to hold, so Uriel carefully wrapped his fingers around a chicken leg, biting into its crispy skin. “Gods, it’s amazing.”

“Yeah?” Bruiser rumbled. He carried the box to the table and gestured to it. “Help yourself.”

Cassie reached for Uriel’s chicken, wanting to try some too. So he sat down and pinched a tiny bite off, feeding it to her.

When she seemed to like it and reached for another bite, Bruiser said, “I can... help?”

He looked uncertain, so Uriel shrugged. “If you want.”

Bruiser brought over a plate and grabbed one of the chicken pieces, shredding it into tiny bites. Then he set the plate in front of Cassie.

Uriel swallowed hard. “Say thanks to the nice alpha,” he told Cassie, helping her wave her hand. “He just shredded some chicken for you.”

Cassie continued to stare at Bruiser, so Uriel said in a higher pitch, on her behalf, “Thanks, Mr. Alpha.”

“You’re welcome.” Bruiser smiled.

Actually, he was kind of handsome like that. Uriel’s heart stuttered. He ducked his head and focused on feeding Cassie, trying to convince her that the shredded chicken was the same as the one in his hand.

In between, he stuffed the chicken leg into his mouth, trying not to moan at how juicy it was.

“You... enjoy chicken?” Bruiser asked.

“Meat,” Uriel said. “I enjoy all kinds of meat.”

Then he froze. That sounded wrong.

“I didn’t mean—” Uriel groaned. “You know what I meant.”

Bruiser gave him a tiny smile. “Just this once, I’m going to cut you some slack.”

“Thanks.”

Uriel eventually ate his pot pie too. By the end of it, he was the most indulgently stuffed he’d ever been. He eyed the cake slices still sitting on the counter. “I wish I could taste those. There isn’t space in my stomach for more.”

“You could have a bite of each.”

“Just one bite?” Uriel frowned. “And then what?”

“Then they go into the fridge.”

Uriel tried to wrap his mind around that idea: all those cake slices, each missing one bite. “And you don’t mind?”

Bruiser shrugged. “They’re yours. You can do whatever you want with them.”

Uriel decided to try two slices—the one that was all heavy dark chocolate, and a strawberry cream cake. “Oh gods,” he moaned. “They’re both amazing.”

“Yeah?” Curiosity flickered across Bruiser’s face.

It took Uriel a bit of effort, but— “You can have a bite of each too. So you can see what the fuss is all about.”