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“You heard her. Dig in.”
Deciding he wouldn’t worry about anything else at the moment, he did just that, putting four pancakes on his plate, smothering them in syrup, and half a dozen pieces of bacon. He finished that and then gave himself a huge serving of the fruit.
He’d only just started eating that when the door opened behind him, and Dare straightened on his side of the booth. Even without the scent of orange blossoms wafting into his nose, he would’ve been able to tell it was Quinten.
He could feel his presence, an awareness in the back of his mind, his body warming before he even noticed. He looked up just as Quinten got to the end of the table. He had a suit jacket over his arm and his shirtsleeves rolled up, showing a few of the rune tattoos. His short beard and salt-and-pepper hair were impeccably groomed, and the first couple of buttons on his white shirt were undone, exposing the base of his throat and some of that chest hair he’d so admired the other night.
Caden wasn’t staring though.
“When you’re finished, we’ll take off,” he said, checking the time on a watch that had probably been more expensive than Caden’s last car. “Arnold is ready whenever.”
Caden started to slide out of the booth, ready to get going, but Quinten’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. A small smile graced his full lips. “Finish your breakfast, Caden. Then we’ll leave.”
He debated saying he was done, but the scent of freshly cut pineapple was teasing at his nose. Slowly, he nodded and settled back down. “Okay. I won’t be long.”
Dare had eaten most of the bacon and a couple of pancakes and picked out a few strawberries from the bowl. He slid out from his side of the booth, wiping delicately at his mouth. “I’ll check on Arnold.”
Caden watched him leave, a little surprised, but Quinten was unfazed, leaning a hip against the other side of the booth and pulling his phone out to check something.
Shrugging it off, he quickly finished, hoping they could slip out without anyone noticing and be on their way back to Illinois before he knew it.
Steps from freedom, Rick came out of nowhere and raised a hand, silently telling them to stop.
His frustration was probably leaking across the entire entrance hall, but he paused, keeping Quinten just in front of him out of deference.
“Tashmica’s in the blue room,” Rick said, barely casting Caden a glance. “She examined the note left for you.”
Quinten glanced back at him, frowning. “Caden, go find Dare.”
He would have rather gone with Quinten, but he didn’t argue, not wanting to undermine him in front of the others. Quinten lightly touched his hip, then strode off, spine straight and shoulders back, and Caden couldn’t help but watch until he disappeared from view.
Sighing, he only took two steps forward before a voice called, “Wait a second.”
He turned, frowning at the stranger. He was human, white, with long blond hair pulled up in a bun on top of his head and an easy smile that immediately put Caden on edge.
“Yes?”
“Caden, right? I just wanted to talk to you for a sec.”
He hesitated. Quinten had told him to go find Dare, but he didn’t want to be rude and offend Alpha Kincaid. “What about?”
Once he was only a few feet away, the human stopped and pulled a small cloth bag from his pocket. Caden frowned at it and inhaled, sneezing at the strong scent of herbs and magic. That was a hex bag. Something witches used to make spells transportable or usable by non-magic users.
The man muttered a word, and there was a soft pop.
Caden’s instincts went crazy. He took several steps back, bringing his hands up to defend himself, but he couldn’t get his claws to extend in his weakened state. “Stay back,” he hissed.
“Easy, man. I just wanted privacy for this conversation.” The blond held up the hex bag. “This prevents anyone outside our little bubble from hearing what we’re saying.”
“Break it,” he snarled, taking another step back, stopping only when his back hit the door.
“In a second. Listen, my name’s Gabriel, and I’ve known Quinten a long time.”
“Okay…” That gave Caden pause since it wasn’t what he’d been expecting.
Gabriel put his hands in his pockets, doing his best to look as nonthreatening as possible, but there was a deadly aura surrounding him that prevented it. “You don’t know him, so I thought I should tell you some things.”
Caden pulled his lips back, showing his teeth. “I know him well enough.”
