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“D-do you shop here?” Moon asked in a whisper. His brain scrambled for a way to escape this conversation without arousing Wyatt’s suspicions.
“Nah, but this store carries Ethan’s favorite brand of ice cream. I promised to grab some for him while I was running some other errands.”
Moon wracked his brain for a moment until he came up with a face to match the name. Ethan Varik. Mated to Marcus Varik, who was the eldest son of King Aiden of the Variks. He’d met the vampire once. Nice, quirky guy who smelled very much like a brand-new vampire.
Moon huffed a nearly soundless laugh. “Ah. Guess that comes with being part of that kind of family.” The ones who could go out during the day got stuck with running the daytime errands since the vampires couldn’t go outside. Moon mentally shrugged. It was the tradeoff for the powers and near immortality they could enjoy.
“Definitely. But why are we whispering?” Wyatt inquired, dropping his voice to match Moon’s.
“Oh…I…the store, it’s quiet. I was afraid of disturbing the other shoppers.”
Wyatt’s face spread into a wide grin, but the smile disappeared almost as quickly as his eyes jumped to something just behind Moon.
Before he could look, a hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. Moon yelped, not because it was painful, but out of surprise. Though Sean was holding on to him tightly, reminding him that his so-called warden was right there.
“There you are!” Sean shouted. His tone was joyful, but the squeeze on Moon’s shoulder was a warning. Sean shoved a colorful box with a bear on the front in his face. “I found cereal!” Moon’s eyes were still trying to focus on the box when Sean chucked it over his shoulder and into the cart. “Who’s your friend?”
“Th-this is Wyatt,” Moon stammered as he struggled to get his rising panic under control. He could not let this explode out of control. That was the last thing anyone needed—a grocery store brawl between a vampire and a werewolf.
“Wyatt Varik,” Wyatt corrected in a firm voice.
Moon glanced up to find that Wyatt had taken a couple of steps away from Moon, putting a comfortable distance between them. His strong nose wrinkled as if he were sniffing the air and his eyes were wide with confusion as they locked on Sean.
“Who are you? A friend from Boston?” Wyatt asked.
“Boston?” Moon’s brain broke as he tried to follow Wyatt’s train of thought. Then he recalled Wyatt knew he’d gone to Boston recently for a concert with friends. “No! This is Sean. New friend. Just moved into town. I was just helping him stock his pantry. He’s still getting settled.”
“With my family,” Sean added. “Moon’s trying to get my brother to sleep with him.”
Moon almost shouted at Sean for blurting something like that out in the middle of the store, but the announcement shattered Wyatt’s cautious expression, replacing it with a wide grin.
Wyatt chuckled. “Yeah, that seems like a fair trade. Grocery shopping for dating rights.”
“Whoa! Whoa! Let’s not be crazy now. We’re talking about sex, not dating. Nobody said anything about dating.” Moon held up his hands at Wyatt and waved them.
Sean shook him with the hand on his shoulder. “What do you mean you don’t want to date my brother? You’re just going to screw him and leave him?”
Moon groaned. “You were saying not an hour ago that you enjoyed being mean to him and torturing him.”
“Me. I’m his brother. I can be mean to him all I want. You cannot.”
Wyatt laughed again. “Sounds about right. Well, I’ll leave you to your shopping. I need to get these things delivered. You’re all good, right, Moon?”
And there it was. That last sentence held a wealth of weight to it. Wyatt sensed that something was off. Part of Moon wanted to hug Wyatt. The werewolf was faced with…well, he probably had no idea what he was looking at when it came to Sean, but he suspected that something was off. He was willing to help Moon, and they weren’t even that close.
“Oh, yeah! Totally good. Everything is great,” Moon blurted out. He bit his tongue to stop his babbling and grinned at him.
“Okay…” Wyatt drawled, his eyes moving over to Sean. “Give me a shout later. I can make sure you’re hooked up with some produce from the pack this summer.”
Wyatt continued down the aisle, his smile becoming more brittle as he passed Sean. The two magical creatures eyeballed each other until Wyatt turned the corner and disappeared into another part of the store.
The moment he was out of sight, Moon dropped into a squat, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands as he hyperventilated just a little.
Holy fuck, that was close!
“Who is he? Were you planning to escape with him?” Sean demanded in his ear.
