Page 138 of Shifter Situations

“Who are you sending that to?”

“Grim. He had it made. Or he told Jack about what I said last week and Jack made it. I bet he asked Franklin to put it in my closet, though.”

Footsteps sounded on the stairs above us, and I tossed my tights over the back of the couch as I tugged my t-shirt on.

“Barbie,” Briggs yelled. “Are you guys down there?”

He was usually a little grumpy, but his mood was off this morning. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was different, though. Maybe talking about his past brought up more than I thought?

“I know they’re down there,” York told him. “We can track her. You know that mark on your foot? That’s a tracker.”

They both rounded the corner, stopping at the doorway as Novak went to his laptop. Stone tipped his head at them, dropping onto the couch as he threw my tights at me.

“Why does it smell like sex in here?” Briggs asked, his forehead wrinkling as he took in our half-dressed states.

“I have no idea,” Novak commented as Stone said, “Because we had sex in here.”

York raised a brow, his island eyes alight with humor. “So which is it?”

I cleared my throat. “We have no idea, but it could be because we had sex in here earlier.”

“What movie did you want to watch?” Stone questioned, switching the subject.

Novak scoffed at him, and I pointed to the shelf beside the door. “One of those.”

The three of them moved to the far wall, searching through the titles as Briggs leaned closer to the laptop, his eyebrows bouncing as he browsed the list Novak had pulled up.

“What is Sixty-eight Take One? It’s not labeled like the rest of your work stuff.”

Stone snorted. “That’s part of his private collection.”

“Oh.” I bounced on my toes. “Briggs. Briggs, where are the balloons?”

“Maybe,” Novak muttered, putting a movie back on the shelf.

I tilted my head, a confused grin gracing my lips. “You, uhm, you didn’t hear what I asked, did you, Novak? Or were you talking to yourself?”

“Huh? No. Were you talking to me?” He touched his hand to his chest.

“No. She was asking me for her fucking balloons.” Briggs rolled his Cyprus green eyes. “Why do you want them now?”

“No reason,” I drawled, plopping back onto the sofa. “Where are they?”

“On your desk. The markers are there too. I know that’s the next question.”

I nodded enthusiastically, calling both items to my hand.

“I feel like you’re taunting me with the random shit you got at the store,” Briggs grumbled.

I called the bacon socks to my hand, grinning as I started pulling them onto my feet.

“I’m not.”

He eyed me as I curled up beside Stone, handing my demon the pack of permanent markers.

I hadn’t planned on taunting him, but I did love poking at him. There were so many ways to get a rise out of my wolf, and I’d enjoyed every single one I had found so far. But I needed him to relax, to come back from wherever his mind had gone.

As York and Novak bickered over action versus horror movies, I blew up balloons. I tied the ends, passing them to Stone for him to draw on.