Page 59 of Found Objects

“Don’t oh me,” he snapped, and then he suddenly licked a spot on the side of my neck before he gently nibbled.

I turned to stare at him.

“Yeah, well, I have no idea why you would be even remotely surprised that I want to take a bite out of you.”

“You’re not thinking about what’s best for you, you just wanna get laid.”

“I do, very much, wanna get laid,” he said, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “But I promise you, I see you clearly, and you are a good man, Mere. I think being the guy who belongs to you would be great for me.”

I shook my head at him.

“You can think I’m nuts, I don’t mind.”

“I just want you to think about what’s best for your future.”

“I am, I swear,” he whispered, leaning close again and making it impossible for me to smell anything but him. “I think you should kiss me now so I know you’re not mad at me anymore.”

“I was never mad at you, I was just sad that you didn’t listen to me.”

“Well, I’m done not listening to you,” he promised. “Now will you kiss me?”

“I’ll think about it.”

He groaned, loudly. “Killing me.”

Reggie and Fletcher returned then with all the food, which made Cole groan again and me laugh.

Once everything had been passed out, Cole gently woke up his brother, who was thrilled to find the cheeseburger of his dreams in front of him on the table that rolled up to the bed. His shake, onion rings, and fries looked amazing as well. He thanked Reggie and Fletcher profusely, and I could tell they were touched.

Reggie had handed me my food like it was radioactive, and Fletcher shook his head as he watched me eat my veggie burger.

Abel finally turned to me after a few minutes.

“Merritt, if you could explain, please, what happened, we would all be so appreciative.”

I met his gaze.

“I know you’ve heard that I was mistakenly angry with you, and I’m very sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction that was short-sighted and ungracious after all you did for us.”

I huffed out a breath and let the irritation go, then smiled at him. “Thank you, Alpha.”

He blew out a breath of his own and smiled back at me.

After finishing the last bite of my burger—everyone always said I ate way too fast—I wiped my hands, passed my fries to Evan, who’d already finished his own, and his onion rings, took a sip of Pepsi, then leaned back in my chair. “Evan was possessed by a ghost, and normally that can’t happen unless it’s a person who’s related to you. The channel can open because of the bloodline.”

“I don’t understand.” Cole turned his chair so he was no longer sitting beside me, but facing me. “You’re saying some entity that’s related to us tried to kill him?”

“No, not kill him. The ghost was just trying to communicate. It had no idea that it was hurting Evan in the process. Possessions have differing effects on the systems of the body. Some people would have been sicker, some less. It’s an unknown. The truth is, the spirit just wanted to talk to you.”

“To me?”

I nodded.

“So this ghost wanted to say what to me?”

Whenever I spoke to ghosts, spirits, any kind of spectral anything, I spoke in a lower register than humans could hear. If Teague had been there, or Ondine, they would have heard me, because that was in their wheelhouse as well, but the shifters in the room with me had seen my lips moving but heard no sound.

“It wanted you to know its death was unnatural.”