“Gray? Everything okay?”
I jumped at the voice, shocked to find Elena sitting at the dining room table in the dark, sipping tea. She stood up to turn on the overhead light, wincing at the sudden brightness.
“I’m… good,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ears. I was wearing the bathrobe, my hair still damp from the shower Emilio and I had taken after our third round of… brownies. “Just looking for a midnight snack.”
Elena frowned. “Oooh, I hope it wasn’t brownies. I might’ve finished those.”
“No!” I teased, letting out a playful gasp.
“In my defense,someoneleft them out on the coffee table. Abandoned. Clearly, they needed to find a good home.”
“Clearly.”
“Have a seat,” she said, rising from her own. “I’ll fix you something.”
“You don’t have to—
“It’ll be quick, don’t worry. I was about to make some more tea, anyway. Do you likeyerba mate?
“I’m… sure it’s amazing,” I said, no idea what I was getting into.
Elena buzzed around the kitchen, insisting I stay put and relax. No less than ten minutes later, she was back, with two steaming mugs of thematetea and a plate of toasted, crustless sandwiches, pressed thin with three layers of bread.
“Sandwiches de miga,” she said. “This one is ham and cheese, the other are roasted red pepper and asparagus. Try one.”
She handed me a plate. I reached for a ham and cheese, taking a bite. Gooey cheese melted into my mouth.
“You just made these?” I asked, marveling at the culinary skills of the Alvarez siblings. I could only imagine what their parents were like in the kitchen. “Wow. Thank you.”
“De nada,” she said, helping herself to a red pepper sandwich.
We finished our sandwiches and sipped ourmatethrough a round of small talk, then her eyes turned more inquisitive, and I knew what was coming next.
“Can I ask you something, Gray? It’s kind of personal.”
I nodded, smiling into my mug.
“You and the guys…”
My cheeks heated, my smile growing broader.
“You’re connected to all of them?” she asked. “Like, romantically?”
“I know it seems… unconventional,” I said.
“No, it seems like a lot to manage!”
“As long as they’re okay with doing their own laundry, I don’t foresee any problems.” I laughed. “Honestly? Having a relationship like this… It’s not something I ever thought about before they all came crashing into my life. For so long, there was only Ronan. I had such intense feelings for him. I couldn’t imagine caring for anyone else on that level.”
“Did things between you and Ronan cool off when you met the others?”
“No, just the opposite, actually. This might sound crazy, but being with Ronan, loving someone so deeply like that… I don’t know exactly how to explain it. But it made my heart expand. The other guys came together to protect me after I started… coming into my powers as a witch. A lot of crazy stuff went down, and we all bonded really quickly after that.”
“I can understand that. Intense circumstances can definitely have that effect.”
“The more time we all started spending together,” I continued, “the more it just felt… right. Like we belonged together. It’s not that we don’t have our challenges, just like any relationships. And all of this is still so new—I mean, your brother and I are still… getting to know each other.” I lowered my eyes into my mug, feeling myself blush again. When had Elena even gotten home? I really hoped she hadn’t heard us. Then again, she was a wolf shifter, with wolf senses. Not to mention a cop. It didn’t take a detective to put the clues together.
I sipped mymate, then looked up at her again. “I trust them with my life. We have each other’s backs, no matter what goes down. I never doubt that, even in the middle of the worst kind of craziness.”
