“Listen here, you little—”
“Look, I know you’re like, dating…someone… or whatever, but you know, maybe we could go as friends? Your aura is so bright, and I think you should be taking better care of your colo—”
“Tommy, I am not dating someone—”
His face breaks into a huge grin. “You’re not?! That’s—”
“I’m married to someone,” Nix states as clearly as he can. The human wouldn’t understand he was mated to seven men who would rip his throat out for even suggesting he leave with him instead.
“Oh,” he says, feverishly adoring eyes fixed on Nix’s face. “But—”
“No buts,” Luca growls.
The only warning Nix gets that Luca had been humoring him by allowing him to keep hold of his arm is a low growl of outrage. He rips it free, causing Nix to scramble to keep dinner off the asphalt.
Stalking the bigger man until he’s right up into his shocked face, he pokes him in the chest. “You should go before I change my mind and make you.”
For half a second, Tommy looks afraid—like he’s seen a ghost. Nix can’t see his mate’s face, but the pale flush draining from the human’s says enough. He slams the car door like it’s a shield.
Banging his hand on the roof of the car, Lucapoints toward the gate before stalking back to Nix and kissing him hard on the mouth.
“That little shit. We should tell the others about him. Dating! How dare he?” Luca grumbles, his tiny fangs poking his red bottom lip.
Nix sure hopes that Tommy didn’t see those.
The pink car does a three-point turn toward the gate, but he stops and winds down the window to wave and shout, “See you next time, Nix!” before driving away.
Nix bursts out laughing at his non-existent self-preservation instincts. Ah, well, maybe Grayson can persuade him without causing bodily harm…he’s reasonable. Or he had been, until recently.
Luca slaps Nix’s ass, and flexes his biceps. “Come on, baby-papa, let’s eat. Being all macho and shit is hungry work. It’s no wonder the alphas eat like they do.”
It’s then that Nix sees Tsuki and Domino sitting like two furry sentries in the wide open door, accusing eyes on him.
Only two.
The absence slams into him before thought can catch up and Nix’s stomach drops.
Whirling he watches the security gate sliding closed, slow and stupid, and—like a goddamn queen—Doodle sits on the back shelf of Tommy’s cursed Civic.
“Oops,” Luca mutters, gaze still on Tsuki and Domino. “We left the door open. Hey, where’s Doodle?”
Tsuki shakes her head with a huff that Nix hears way too often before she turns on her heel and walks away.
Well, shit.
It’s a Cat-astrophe
“Well, shit,” Nix mutters, handing off the food. He trails after Tsuki, back into the living room, where Ross is still shrieking about being on a break.
Stomach in his toes, he goes for Luca’s phone to try to call Tommy back through the app, but when he checks, the driver has logged out and marked the delivery as complete.
“Luc.”
“What?” Luca looks at him and the door, then Tsuki and Domino sitting innocently in the living room, putting the pieces together in an instant. “Shit, where is she? Did Doodle get out again?” Luca asks, taking the stairs two at a time to Gideon’s room, where she likes to hide under the bed and scare the dust bunnies.
“Luc! Stop. She’s gone.”
Slipping back into the room, Luca flinches.
