Now that they were home, I was even more settled, and a bit torn. The book was good, but Mason was holding out the second controller to me.
“Care to kick Lennon’s ass?”
“Yeah, right,” Lennon grumbled.
That did it. Mason smirked and looked at me, one expression all I needed for him to silently say,You gonna let him get away with that?
“Sure,” I said. “I’d love to kick his ass.”
Mason scooped me up, depositing me in the middle of the couch right next to him. Conrad let out a growl of warning that Mason promptly ignored.
“Have you played this before?” He leaned in close enough that his tart green apple and fresh rain scent wrapped around me. I had to bite back a sigh of contentment. Despite my brother’s protests, my touch-starved omega was desperate for these little moments.
“No, but I’ve played enough like it. I think I can handle myself.”
It felt like I was part of the group as Lennon rolled his eyes and teased everyone, including me. It’d been a while since I felt like I belonged somewhere.
Mason gave me a quick rundown of the rules, which were pretty straightforward, and before long we were dropped onto a map. It was me against Lennon, with a horde of zombies between us.
I locked in, my eyes narrowing and tongue poking out just a little as I focused on the game, clearing out a row of zombies before getting a headshot on Lennon. It didn’t drop him, but it tanked his shields.
The curses that erupted out of him made it worth it, and I couldn’t even hide the giggle that escaped me.
“Oh, this is going to be sweet,” Kieran said with a wicked grin, rubbing his hands together. “Cade, Wilder, get in here!”
Soon, I had the entire starting lineup in the room with me, watching as Lennon and I faced off.
I cleared another row of zombies before ducking behind a barricade. Despite the cover, the moment I popped up to take a shot, a stray bullet clipped my arm. My shields were down, but I wasn’t giving up that easily.
I ran to the side, sliding behind another set of crates before popping out and mowing down another row of zombies, then aiming for a second headshot. This one hit him in the shoulder, but it still did damage. He only had about a quarter of his health left now.
The guys’ whoops and hollers weren’t enough to throw me off. One more hit and his character was down.
He didn’t throw his controller, but he looked at me, those sharp gray eyes practically peeling away the barriers I kept around myself.
“Really? You’ve never played before?” he questioned. Despite the fact that he looked ready to throw his controller at me, there was amusement in his eyes.
“In my defense,” I said. “I haven’t playedthisgame. I’ve played the first one in the series.”
“She used to kick my ass on it daily,” Conrad said. The pride in my brother’s voice had Lennon’s glare moving to him.
“Looks like there’s more to the princess than we thought,” Lennon chimed in. “Who’s next for their ass-whooping?”
He held up the controller, and of course Mason stole it, diving into his spot and shoving him aside.
Round two went off much like the first, though Mason had far less cussing and a whole lot more trash talk.
I clipped his leg, dropping him to his knees, then shot his shoulder before diving back as the zombies got too close.
“Really? You’re going to do me like that? I thought we bonded over dishes this week.”
“No one bonds over dishes,” Lennon snorted. “Nobody even likes doing dishes.”
“Not true. I quite enjoy them,” I said. “Not that I’d want to do them every day, but a little cleaning is nice once in a while. Maybe you guys should try it.”
“It’s nice to have you around, sis,” Conrad said, chuckling. He was loving every moment of this.
“Thanks,” I said, grinning at him, then wincing because that was the exact moment Mason took me out.
