Page 84

“It was her last pair without holes,” Jorvik said solemnly.

Uriel snickered. He couldn’t help himself. Then the giggles broke free and he laughed until he cried, leaning against the car door with tears in his eyes. “Is that where ‘Long Hose Master’ came from?”

“No,” Bruiser grumbled, his face tomato-red.

“I bet Hunner was extremely proud of himself when he came up with it,” Maddox said.

“I’m going to kill both of you,” Bruiser said to the alphas.

“You shouldn’t,” Uriel said, still snickering. “I want more stories. In fact, I will accept ten of your most embarrassing childhood stories for the favor you owe me.”

“Fuck,” Bruiser said.

“Ha!” Cassie said. “Da oo.”

“Is she...” Maddox craned his neck to look at Cassie. “Is she just repeating all your swear words now?”

“It’s his fault,” Uriel muttered, jerking his chin at Bruiser.

“No, it’s your fault,” Bruiser retorted. “Your kid, remember?”

Uriel turned his head slowly, pinning Bruiser with a deadly glare. “Yeah, and she’s yours too.”

Bruiser froze. Uriel froze too, regretting everything.

In the front of the car, Jorvik and Maddox both gasped. Loudly. Maddox began typing on his phone.

“Fuck,” Uriel said.

“Ha!” Cassie said.

“So...” Jorvik trailed off.

“Nope.” Uriel turned bodily away from all of them. “I’m not explaining anything.”

It was impossible to hide the way his pulse picked up, though. He had spent all this time hiding the truth from his alpha friends. If they kicked him out of their friend group now... that would really suck. Even if he understood why they would do it. At least his omega friends knew his true gender, and they wouldn’t abandon him. Uriel bit his lip, trying to stay calm.

“So, your friend Fenn,” Bruiser said, changing the subject. He slid his fingers under Uriel’s hand and squeezed him gently. “Give us some tips so we don’t fuck up.”

Uriel sighed, some of the tension in his shoulders draining away. “He’s wary of alphas. Please don’t crowd him. He also has a baby so I don’t know how stealthy this will be. I’ll meet with him first; he knows me. The rest of you can be backup or lookouts.”

The conversation revolved around the rescue instead of Uriel’s secret, and he began to relax. When he glanced over at Bruiser, he found the alpha giving him a tiny smile. Uriel smiled back.

Jorvik and Maddox wisely said nothing. Hell, they weren’t even supposed to be on this rescue, but they were nearby, they had a car, and Bruiser couldn’t drive for 11 hours straight by himself.

Bruiser seemed to sense Uriel’s lingering unease. He steered the conversation into sports, which was something safe Uriel could join in, since he had seen countless messages about various sports teams on his alpha friends’ chat.

“The Blue Shoex are going to win this year,” Jorvik said.

“They’re not,” Uriel replied. “Someone caught their coach sleeping with their quarterback and now the whole team’s in an uproar. They’re fighting about whether sleeping with each other will affect their performance. Some of them are testing it for themselves.”

Bruiser’s eyebrows went up. “You follow sports that closely?”

Uriel rolled his eyes. “Please. Y’all talk about teams and scores and cups so often that I started to pick things up, whether I like it or not. Ace shared that news about the Shoex the other day, and which self-respecting o—person doesn’t click on that much drama?”

Actually, alphas were worse gossipers than omegas.

Bruiser snorted, but he moved the conversation along so no one mentioned Uriel’s slip.