AllFreeNovel
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“I got you, they’re Adair’s, since he’s the shortest between the three of us, but they will probably still be big on you.”
Rio was right, the clotheswerebig on me. I was so used to wearing clothing by my beta boyfriends who had all been the same height as me or a bit taller. The clothes had either been tight or had fit me perfectly. These though? These were massive.
I had to roll the ankles and waistband of the sweatpants several times so that I didn’t trip, and the black t-shirt was more of a dress than a shirt. I only remembered a few blurred glimpses of Rio’s packmate Adair. His name sounded familiar, but I just couldn’t place where I’d heard it before. What was clear, however, was how well I remembered the scent wafting off of the clothing.
Adair’s scent was a musky mix of bergamot and leather, like sinking into a soft leather armchair with a cup of citrussy tea. It was comforting and, while alpha scents didn’t do the same thing for me that they did omegas, I couldn’t help but associate the scent with being protected.
I gave the neckline of the shirt one last surreptitious sniff before opening the door to the bathroom, and reentering the bedroom where Rio was sitting on the edge of the bed and typing something into his phone with a frown.
“Everything okay?” I asked as I joined him next to the bed.
Rio looked up at me, still a little lost in his own thoughts as he answered. “Yeah, I was expecting Marcus to stick around to meet you when you were awake, but it looks like he already left for work....”
“That’s okay,” I shrugged. “I don’t want to put anyone out. I’ll thank him another time for his help.”
Rio opened his mouth to say something, but instead just shook his head. “Yeah, well, hey! At least you get to meet Adair today.”
Leading me from the bedroom we went down a long hallway and entered an open space that housed the apartment’s kitchen and living room. Someone was already in the kitchen and standing at the stove, muttering to themselves. I couldn’t see their face, but their back was broad underneath an untucked, white button down shirt.
“Adair, our sleeping beauty has finally emerged from her long slumber.” Rio chirped from behind me and the figure turned around to reveal...holy shitwas that the candidate for governor?
The last time I’d seen his face, it had been plastered to the side of a city bus.
Madeline Zhao lookedabout a hundred times better than when I’d deposited her on the bed in the guest room last night. Last night, she was clammy, pale, and miserable. This morning she was freshly showered and pink-cheeked, not to mention the fact that she was wearing my clothing. Seeing her swathed in my sweatpants and t-shirt made me perversely happy that I was the shortest member of my pack.
Last night, I’d kept her out of Rio’s reach more to tease him than anything. It was so rare for him to have a crush outside of the pack, that it had been a source of stress-relieving amusement amongst the backdrop of chaos that we’d dealt with last night. But somewhere between her sugared cherry scent, and the fact that I’d been filled with the desire to check on how she was sleeping every hour throughout the night. Maybe Rio had the right idea about this beta. I hadn’t had more than a mumbled conversation with Madeline, but I was definitely curious about the pretty dark-eyed woman who was currently standing barefoot in my kitchen with an agape expression.
“I take it Rio didn’t tell you that I was his pack member?” I asked with a chuckle and fixed a stare over her shoulder at Rio.
“Ididsay your name, several times in fact. It’s not like there are tons of Adairs running around San Francisco.” Rio pointed out as he came around the counter and pulled the coffee maker out of its corner to start making our morning coffee.
“That’s on me,” Madeline said as she hesitantly slid onto one of the stools that lined the island counter. “I’m afraid I don’t keep up with politics as much as I should.”
The itch to jump into my ‘the importance of voting’ spiel was strong, and I had to remind myself that I wasn’t in election-mode at the moment. I was currently in ‘wow-that’s-a-cute-girl’ mode. Besides, it was kind of refreshing to meet someone who didn’t already have an idea of who I was based on my career.
So, instead of continuing that line of conversation, I changed the subject. “How do you like your eggs, Madeline?” I asked and gestured to what I was cooking on the stove.
“Over medium,” she said with a shy smile. “Thank you. My stomach was just starting to scream at me.”
“Do you feel okay?” I asked as I cracked eggs into the pan, “I wish you’d have let us get you checked out last night.” The fear that something would happen to her while she was asleep because of the drug had driven me nuts all night, and I’d spent an hour obsessively googling what to do and, note to self, WebMD is the worst place to go when you are worried about someone’s health. After about a half-hour of that, I was convinced that she was dying and that I had cancer. It had taken everything in me just to check on her, and not scoop her up and take her straight to the hospital.
Madeline, oblivious to my rambling inner monologue, shrugged a thin shoulder. “Going to the hospital means dealing with my overbearing family.”
“You’re Ric Zhao’s little sister, right?” I flipped the egg in the pan, pleased when the yolk didn’t break.
Madeline went quiet and, one glance over my shoulder, told me that she’d shut down a bit. Her brown eyes became guarded as she examined me through more calculating eyes.Shit, I’d fucked up somewhere in the last thirty seconds, and I needed to fix it.
“Our packmate is Marcus Whitlock, so he put two-and-two together last night.” I offered, hoping that she didn’t think I was being creepy.
Recognition at Marcus’s name flashed across her features and she blinked, the stony expression disappearing. “You know,” she said, “despite the fact that this city has almost a million people living in it, I am continually surprised at how small it feels at times.”
I snorted, “tell me about it. Who would have thought that the woman that Rio had a crush on was also connected to Marcus’s law partner.”
“Adair!” Rio, who had spent the past few minutes meticulously preparing our morning coffee, glared at me.
“What?” I grinned at him as I plated the eggs and popped some bread into the toaster. “It’s true, you were acting a bit, what does Marcus call it?”
I tried to remember the phrase snapping my fingers and then made a little ‘ah-hah’ noise. “Moony. You’ve been acting moony for the last couple of months.”
