Chapter 1
Callie
Iwake up in pieces, noticing things in segments before the whole picture forms. The feel of a warm, hard body beneath mine and a heavy weight on my lower back. Sounds of people taking in the slow, deep breaths of sleep. A solid, steady heartbeat thumping in my ear. Sweat making my wavy blonde hair stick to my face and its weighty tresses falling into my eyes. Looking through the curtain of hair, I see my bedroom filled with the light of late morning. My mouth is dry.Shit, am I drooling?
Subtly, I shift my arm and use the sleeve of my pajamas to dry off the chest acting as my pillow… and bed, since I appear to be lying on my belly completely on top of him, with my flannel-clad legs bracketing his. A voice so deep I can feel it roll through my bones murmurs lines from what sounds likePride and Prejudice—if Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are any indication, but there’s also mention of the undead.Right, Kaleb was recitingPride and Prejudice and Zombiesto help me sleep last night. Oh fuck, last night!
The night before floods back in painful and embarrassing flashes—memories I’d rather not have for various reasons. I push down any guilt and thoughts relating to obliterating the pack’s previous Alpha, aka Connor’s father, via magic death lasers from breaking the spell that bound my magic. I’m not even close to being equipped to deal with that at the moment. Sadly, this means focusing on the flaming humiliation that was me falling apart in to a desperate, crazy person. I want to crawl into the deepest hole and never escape just from the mere recollection of how I begged Kaleb not to leave me.
I can become Queen of the Mole People. A mute queen, because I can’t be trusted to say things that won’t force me to dig a deeper hole to live in.
I’m choosing to blame Nolan’s Halloween party. Every time I go to a party, something monumental happens, and I end up an emotional wreck. Okay, had I not gone, I’d probably have been attacked by demons, but from where I’m standing… or more accurately lying, as the current case may be, I’m thinking I’d take a demon attack over becoming a crazy person. Physical injuries are a lot less embarrassing.
Speaking of, my entire body is in various degrees of pain. My head is throbbing, my back is hot and itchy, and my limbs feel like they have experienced the aftereffects of being electrocuted—they’re tingly and achy. It’s been years since I’ve woken up this way, because every night has always been a reset button—broken when I fall asleep, good as new with the rising sun.
Panic threads its way through me, whispering my fears. I’m vulnerable now. I can be hurt. I can die.
No. I have to heal. I have to be whole. Fix me!
At the unknown, silent command, I feel the familiar sensation of my flesh repairing itself and there’s immediate relief from the pounding in my head and the hot pain in my back.
Well, that was easy.
Unfortunately, it feels like the muscle ache in my limbs is getting worse and starting to spread. My first thoughts are to take a hot shower to help, which makes me recall the shower last night and…
“Shit, Kaleb saw me naked.”
“I didn’t see you naked,” he murmurs back sleepily, which means I said that out loud.
Forget the hole. Shoot me now… not literally, in case you’re listening, magic.Apparently, I have to watch out for that now. Fun.
“From what I witnessed, he definitely saw you naked,” Nolan comments around a yawn from the floor.
“What?” I squeak, sitting bolt upright and displacing Wolf Connor from his position where he’s snoozing on my lower back, while Kaleb makes a hissing grunt sound. “You saw me naked too?”
“Ididn’t see you naked, but you were in the shower and all of your clothes were on the floor. Really liked those booty shorts, by the way,” Nolan answers.
He rolls onto his back, moving from his position of being half flopped on Donovan, who is lying on his belly next to him. Stretching his arms up over his head, Nolan’s smooth movements remind me of a cat slowly waking from his long nap in the sun, highlighting the toned, lean muscles of his bare chest.
Also shirtless, Donovan’s full back tattoo—black angel wings with the phraseOmnem diem contere velut ultimawritten down his spine—is on display, the dark ink contouring the thick, well-developed muscles of his upper body. With a lightweight, blue-grey blanket draped over their lower halves, all I can see is bare skin, which is so not helping the naked discussion.
Wolf Connor growls and huffs, repositioning himself across the foot of the bed—his dense black-brown fur a heavy blanket over Kaleb’s legs.
“Don’t growl at me,” Nolan chides, blinking his arctic blue eyes in Connor’s direction. “I wasn’t the one who saw her naked.”
Apparently, Nolan speaks wolf. Though considering how little Connor talks, maybe it’s not much more of a challenge than understanding the man.
I groan, covering my face with my hands, and drop my head to Kaleb’s bare chest. Heat flares in my cheeks from equal parts embarrassment and overexposure to attractive male flesh.
Clothes. They all need more clothes.
Kaleb grunts again, then clears his throat.
Donovan snickers, the gravel still heavy in his voice from sleep. “Careful there, Angel, or K’s going to have some morning cleanup.”
“You think all angels are assholes, andI’mnot an asshole,” I mutter, the words muffled behind my hands, and then I lean far enough to peer over the side of the bed. “Also, huh?”
Donovan opens one eye to meet my gaze, the blue-green color all the more vibrant from being framed by his thick, black lashes, and smirks knowingly.
