"I'll take Adam," I offer. "He can sleep with me and you can?—"
"I don't need a babysitter."
All three of us turn toward Adam’s voice.
The beta is standing in the kitchen doorway with damp hair and bare feet, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a faded shirt that's seen better days. His narrowed, honey-brown eyes move over us. He’s not happy.
Cliff looks at him steadily. "Nobody said you did."
"You were about to." Adam crosses the kitchen and opens the fridge, pulling out the juice carton and pouring himself a glass with the unhurried ease of someone making a point about how unbothered they are. "I could hear you coming down the stairs."
Perrin and I exchange a look.
"Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?" Cliff asks. "With me, Raff, and Elowen."
Adam is quiet for a moment, turning his glass slowly between his palms, staring down at it. "I don't know," he says finally. "I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet."
"Ready for what?" Cliff asks, his voice careful and even.
Adam looks up. "To see you with her." He says it simply, without self-pity or drama. "I have no problem with her being in the pack,” he says quickly. “And I mean that. I'm genuinely okay with it." He takes a sip of his juice. "I just need a little more time before I watch my alphas rut her." He shrugs one shoulder. "That's all."
Cliff crosses to him without a word and leans down, pressing his lips to Adam's cheek, lingering there for a moment, and Adam's eyes close.
"Okay," Cliff says against his skin. "Take the time you need."
Adam nods, staring back down at his glass.
"I'll sleep in your room with you," Perrin says, pushing off the counter. "Like when we were kids. We can pull the mattress off the?—"
"Perrin." Adam cuts him off with a pointed look. "I’m twenty-six years old."
"I know how old we are."
"Then stop treating me like I need a nightlight and a glass of warm milk." Adam makes a face, making it clear he doesn't want to be handled with kid gloves. "I'm fine. I simply want to sleep in my own bedby myself."
Perrin holds up both hands in a gesture of surrender that doesn't look remotely sincere. "I was simply offering."
"You were hovering," Adam says. "There's a difference."
"I'm not hovering. I'm standing in the damn kitchen."
"You've been hovering since we left Elowen's apartment, and you know it."
Perrin opens his mouth.
"And don't say you haven't," Adam adds, pointing at him, "because I will lose my mind."
Perrin closes his mouth. Then he looks at me and Cliff with an expression that says he finds this deeply unfair.
"He's not wrong," I say.
"Nobody asked you," Perrin cuts back.
I lean against the counter and cross my arms. "I mean, you did follow him into the bathroom twice today."
"I was checking on him." Perrin’s voice lifts an octave.
"That's hovering, baby," I say.
