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CHAPTER11
SEVEN YEARS
Austin led me to the center of his modest living room. A long brown couch on the right side faced a massive television on the left. Just to the right of the couch was a hideous maroon recliner that matched nothing in the room. Sprawled across an oversized round carpet the color of cocoa powder was a guy who looked like he needed a guitar and a bottle of whiskey.
And maybe a shower.
He glanced up and Austin kicked him lightly. “Get up, Jericho. Company.”
Denver collapsed onto the sofa and pulled a pizza box across his lap. A couple of messy tomato stains colored his white T-shirt. “Jericho, don’t be a dick. That’s Wes’s sister,” he said with a mouthful of pizza.
Jericho slowly dragged his jade eyes over to mine. They were milky green with black rims—the kind of eyes that could stare into your soul. He sized me up and rolled over onto his feet. “That’sAlexia?” His eyes glided down my body and the corner of his mouth hooked up. “I thought you said she was a pipsqueak.”
Austin slid his jaw to the side and tilted his head, causing Jericho to look away. I was a little irritated because these men knew who I was, and yet Austin had never talked about his family with us. At least, not to me.
Jericho was leaner and taller than Austin, and his grungy hair fell around his shoulders like he was channeling Kurt Cobain, only his was different shades of brown. He looked innocent and damaged all at once. Especially with the charcoal liner smudged beneath his large, expressive eyes. But they looked haunted, like a man who lived through or had seen things he shouldn’t have. He carried an easygoing smile. A smile like that should come with a warning label and a list of side effects.
When he stepped forward, Austin touched his shoulder. “Disrespect her and we take a long walk. That goes for you too, Denver.”
“Austin, Denver, and Jericho,” I said softly as something finally clicked. “I’m sensing a theme.”
Denver spoke with a mouthful of pizza. “Family tradition.”
“To be named where you were born?” I asked.
“Our parents traveled a lot in search of a pack,” Austin explained, his hand sliding down my back. It felt overly intimate with his brothers closely watching his every move. “They bounced around but never settled for long if one of the local packs didn’t take them in. We’re all named after the city we were conceived in, not where we were born.”
“Tell her what they almost called you,” Denver urged his brother.
Jericho cocked one eyebrow in an irritated fashion. “They were in Utah at the time. I was almost named Beaver; thank the fuck they kept on driving.”
“That’s fucking epic,” Denver said with a chaotic laugh. “It never gets old.”
“You guys don’t look older than Austin,” I said observantly.
They smiled and looked at one another. “Shifters age slowly,” Austin explained, his thumb stroking my lower back. “I may look a little older than some of these guys, but we all age at different rates.”
“How old do I look?” I wondered aloud.
“Twenty-delicious,” Jericho replied with a sex-laced grin.
“You’ll meet everyone else later.” Austin turned his attention to his brothers. “Lexi is family to me, so watch your P’s and Q’s. As it turns out, she’s also one of us.”
“No fucking way,” Denver breathed. Both of them seemed to freeze up and really study me, as if they’d never laid eyes on a woman before. I folded my arms and looked to Austin for a little reassurance.
“What’s your animal?” Denver blurted out.
Jericho tilted his head. “I bet she’s a deer. She’s got them doe eyes.”
Austin’s voice changed, becoming like a sergeant giving orders. “Jericho, cut the bullshit. I want you to shift.”
“Now? What for?” he asked apprehensively.
“She needs to see what we are because she’s still skeptical. Lexi’s never been around our kind and just went through the change.”
Something wild stirred in their eyes and they looked at me like a succulent steak they wanted to pour sauce all over and devour.
“Fine. But put me outside before I shift back. This better not be some fucking joke to get me naked in front of a girl.”
