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TWENTY-FOUR
We were dressedand cleaned up in less than two minutes, and rejoined the pack. Though we got a few knowing smirks or grins, no one called us out on the length of our absence. We didn’t bother giving an announcement about our relationship; everyone expected it, and it wasn’t like we were sneaky about it.
The dinner went by quickly, while Zed cooked up a mass amount of food faster than I would’ve believed, and everyone chatted. I got along well with all of the ladies in the pack, and the guys too.
Out of all of them, I hit it off with June the best. She didn’t beat around the bush or seem to have a filter of any kind, which I liked tremendously. I wasn’t one to sugar coat things or avoid difficult topics, even though I didn’t tell anyone but Elliot the full extent of my past.
She and Zed were the newest mates other than Elliot and I, too, which made me feel a little more connected to her as well.
Rocco and Elliot did the dishes together, Rocco shooing me away when I tried to take his spot drying. Tea and Jesse had to head out because she was still in classes, and June and Zed left because he had to work. But Ford, Ebony, Dax, Ryder, Sab, Del, and Rocco stuck around, still chatting.
I leaned up against the kitchen counters next to Dax, my gaze following Elliot’s movements for a moment before tracking my baby across the room.
He and Felix were playing with a ball in their wolf forms, chasing it around like mad while Del and Sab rolled it for them, chatting up a storm.
I noticed Dax leaned against the counter just a foot to my right, so I slid over a bit. My gaze followed his, and I realized what he was watching.
Sab.
“Did you meet my best friend, Sabrina?” I asked him, curious about his attention.
“I did.”
Damn.
Not mates, then. As far as I knew, a wolf decided his mate the first moment their eyes met. I wasn’t a werewolf professional by any definition of the term, but I’d been part of the world for a few years at that point and was raising a werewolf of my own, so I wasn’t completely clueless.
Sab was dying to find a wolfy mate of her own, and Dax was pretty much Elliot’s best friend, so I was kind of bummed that fate hadn’t paired them together.
Dax’s gaze lingered on her anyway, though.
“You could go talk to her. Be her friend,” I nudged. “She wants to meet every werewolf in town.” I didn’t clarify that she wanted to meet them in the hopes that one of them would declare her his mate and sweep her off her feet.
“Befriending beautiful single women is never a good choice for an unmated werewolf,” Dax murmured back, though he continued to stare at her.
“Afraid you’ll develop feelings?” I checked.
“Always. At my age, when all of my other pack mates have already found their other halves… the risk is high, and I’m not willing to take that bet.”
“Not a betting man?”
He chuckled. “Not even a little.”
I nodded. “I respect that. And your loyalty to your future mate, too. But Sab has a lot of human friends—she could introduce you. Help you meet new women, while you help her meet new men.”
Dax’s jaw clenched.
A knock at the door distracted me from the conversation.
Shit.
My parents.
“There’s cake and ice cream in the fridge,” Elliot told me, turning halfway toward me. There were soap bubbles on his hands and arms, and he was only halfway done with the dishes.
“Thanks.” I gave him a ghost of a smile.
He rinsed his hands off as I headed for the door, and after a quick conversation with his buddies, caught up to me when I reached the entrance.
