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She flushed slightly at his first statement but got a stubborn expression at his second. "Agreed that I am now the St. Louis Beacon, and tethered to the three of you, Wolfie. That still doesn't automatically make me your little Beacon. I'm hardly little."
"Compared to the three of us, you sure as hell are," Shea said with a huge grin.
Ava gestured to first me and then him and stuck her nose in the air. "Pretty much any person on this earth seems little in comparison to you three giants among men."
"Did you hear that, Finn? That's high praise coming from Ava."
I finished dressing and started toward the door. "Must have been all those bedroom shenanigans we got up to. I made areallygood impression on her. Andinher."
Ava started sputtering. I glanced at her and winked. "We're just teasing you, Ava. It's my turn to stand watch, so I'll leave you two to get some sleep."
She frowned and slid toward the edge of the bed as if she wanted to stand, only to remember the whole lack of clothes thing. "Shouldn't I take a turn standing guard?"
Shea and I responded in unison, "Absolutely not."
Ava's expression darkened. "Excuse me? I can pull my fair share."
"Of course you can, Blondie. Nobody would ever question that. But the best way for you to pull your 'fair share' is to rest is much as possible until we catch up with Alexander's traitorous ass. You're going to be the best shot we have of taking him into custody."
That had her body relaxing and a soft smile appearing on her face. Which of course meant Shea felt the need to shove his foot in his mouth by sliding beneath the covers next to her and saying, "Besides, now it's my turn."
She pressed her lips into a prim line that would have done any schoolteacher proud. "Your turn for what?"
"Bedtime snuggles, of course. What did you think I meant?"
I snorted and continued walking toward the door. "When do you want me to wake you?"
Shea consulted his smartwatch. "Five hours should see me functional. There’s some frozen meals in the freezer and canned goods in the pantry you can eat for now. Connor wants to hit a nearby grocery store in case we get stuck here for very long. So I’d say wake him in an hour or so. Then we can make our last couple phone calls and plan our next steps over a decent meal."
"All right. Sounds good." I threw a smirk over my shoulder. "And now I'll leave you to your own bedroom shenanigans."
13
CONNOR
It felt like I'd only been asleep for a few minutes when Finn shook me awake. A quick check of my smartwatch revealed that I'd actually slept for six hours. Meaning it was now close to noon. Pretty perfect time for grocery shopping on a weekday. There wouldn't be nearly as big a crowd as in the evening or on the weekend.
Finn seemed entirely too chipper for someone who hadn't had his usual triple shot of coffee considering I hadn't seen any in my earlier search of the cupboards. No, that wasn't quite the word for it. He seemed entirely too smug. Like a man who'd just eaten the most delicious meal of his life...or had incredible sex.
My eyes narrowed and I couldn't help sniffing, activating my Shifter sense of smell. And then I realized there was a very good reason my brother looked so fucking satisfied with himself. "You sly dog! You and Ava got busy while I was sleeping."
His eyes glinted with another burst of satisfaction. "I can neither confirm nor deny your allegation."
"That's because you don't want to piss Ava off if she manages to hear us."
He stepped toward the door with uncharacteristic-for-him bounciness. "I can neither confirm nor deny your allegation."
Damn, he definitely had sex with our little Beacon. And if I didn't miss my guess, they must have worked out at least some of the tension between them. There was a true lightness to him that I hadn't seen in—I couldn't even remember when. Maybe never.
I rolled my eyes and waved him out of the room. "Get your smug ass out of my bedroom so I can take a shower and get us some damn groceries."
"Don't forget the coffee," he threw over his shoulder.
"I’ll consider buying you some coffee if you let the Spellbinders know I'll need one of them to accompany me. I don't want to go even the two miles to the store alone."
Finn's expression grew much more serious. "Good plan. And will do. Now go wash the stink off your ugly ass."
"First of all, you're the one who smells like sex. Second of all, I have an ass that Adonis would be proud to claim," I growled, standing and mooning him to prove it. He covered his eyes with a melodramatic gesture before slamming the door behind him. And damned if seeing him so happy didn't warm the cockles of my heart.
