Carter holds my left foot and plucks off my wet sock, then repeats the same on my right. I try to cringe away. I spent a whole shift in the diner on my feet, and I’m sure they can’t smell nice. But he doesn’t let go of my ankle. Instead, he cups my foot in his big, warm hands and presses his thumbs into the arch.
I gasp at the sensation, every nerve ending in my body waking up with a start.
It feels amazing.
“Here,” Sebastian says, thrusting a mug of coffee in my hands. “I made it with milk before I thought of asking—sorry—I don’t know how you take it?”
He says all this very fast, tacking the question at the end with a worried gaze. He sits awkwardly on the sturdy coffee table in front of me and hovers there, a bottle of whiskey clutched in his hand.
“This is great,” I say. “You guessed right.”
“Oh.” He seems relieved. “That’s good. Uh. Would you like some of this? Might warm you up faster. I don’t—I’m not sure if this is the correct way of thawing hypothermic humans. I think I read something about a warm bath somewhere? We don’t have a bath, just a shower, but maybe that’ll work in a pinch?”
I reach out to touch his knee, and he stills immediately, his hazel eyes widening. He takes in the sight of my pale fingers on his sweatpants.
“No, thanks. I’m okay,” I assure him.
He glances up at me, skeptical, but he puts away the booze. “You are?”
I dip my chin in a nod. “I’m not hypothermic. Just chilled, and see, I’m already warming up.”
I turn my palm up, offering it to him. He clasps my fingers, then intertwines them with his. He brings my wrist up to his nose and drags in a long inhale. His eyelids flutter, and his ragged, hot exhale fans over my skin. My arm breaks out in goose bumps.
“Fuck, you smell incredible.” His heavy-lidded gaze meets mine. “I knew you would.”
“Seb,” Carter barks. “Slowly, remember? Slow-ly.”
He enunciates the words carefully, as if dealing with a wild animal. Which…he is, in a sense? I remember the rough features of Sebastian’s other form, his freaking tail, for God’s sake.
I tug my hand from Sebastian’s, and I don’t miss the flash of disappointment in his eyes. To play fair, I pull my feet from Carter’s lap, too, even though he gives a killer foot massage, and slip from under Troy’s heavy arm.
“So.” I clutch the coffee mug with both hands, and for a moment, I regret refusing the whiskey. I could use a shot right now. But something tells me I need to be sober for this conversation, because otherwise, I won’t believe any of it.
The guys all sit up, alert. I glance from one to the other, trying to figure out how to breach the subject. But there’s no subtle way of going about this.
So I simply say, “Werewolves?”
Chapter
Four
CARTER
Emma stares at us, her brown eyes blown wide. She doesn’t smell as afraid as before, though there’s an underlying whiff of tension marring her delicious floral scent.
“Yeah,” I confirm, “werewolves.”
Her face is so damn expressive, but right now, I can’t tell what she’s thinking.
“Care to elaborate?” she asks, focusing on me.
I lean back against the couch, trying to stamp down on my worries. We nearly blew it with her already, first with the near kidnapping at her car, then with Sebastian prancing around the house in his half form. I knew we should have called ahead, but what were the chances of him getting firewood half-naked at the exact moment we drove up? He must have been distracted thinking about his art or something, otherwise he would have heard the truck coming and moved inside just in case. But to be fair, the likelihood of a stranger coming up to our house in this storm was so small, I can’t blame him.
“What would you like to know?” I ask, my voice gruff.
Troy throws me a frown, which I ignore. Yeah, I’m being an asshole, but the fact is, we haven’t done this—met our mate—before. So I’m fucking rusty at talking to women. And if I’m completely honest with myself, I’m terrified she’ll freak anyway, decide we’re more trouble than she wants in her life, and disappear as quickly as she appeared, leaving us alone again.
“Well,” she muses, “the how would be a good start.”
