Chapter Eight
Holt
“Someone say something,” Poe said once we’d polished off three pieces of triple chocolate cake and multiple mugs of coffee.
We didn’t usually caffeinate at night, but we would’ve done anything to get a refill from our mate.
We’d been about to leave when Katie showed up, and Vaughn, who’d been ready to go the whole time we were there, surprised us by wanting to order dessert.
He’d jumped right on the Katie train. We were kind of obsessed. Hooked. Desperate.
“She’s ours,” Vaughn confirmed with two words. Nothing more to say.
“Okay,” I replied. “Let’s ask her out, but first I have a confession.”
Poe cocked his head. “Go on. We’re wasting time.”
“I scented her days ago when her truck broke down on the highway and I called Darryl and had her towed into his mechanic’s shop. Got her to the motel. Made sure she was safe.”
Two legs kicked me under the table. Right in the fucking shins.
I kind of deserved it.
“Okay. Anyone else have any confessions before we act like a pack and get our girl?” Vaughn held his hands out.
“No,” Poe responded.
“Me either,” I said.
Vaughn nodded. “Good. Then let’s get a whole pie to go and ask her out while we’re here. No time like the present, and if she’s supposed to leave when her truck gets fixed, then we have no time to waste. Darryl is pretty damned good, unfortunately.”
“Good plan. Let’s get her over here.”
I raised my hand to signal Katie and after refilling some drinks, she headed over with our check in her hand.
Bold assumption. She thought some burgers, fries, milkshakes, and cake could fill wolf shifters up?
We were just getting started. “Can you box up one of the cherry pies and one of the clementine cakes for us to bring home, please? Add it to our check?”
She blushed and stuffed the check in her pocket. “Sure. Coming right up.”
As Katie boxed up the cake and pie, she eyed us more than once. Hell, more than ten times. Good. I wanted her to know that she had all our attention. Even in this place with smells of food and other people, hers called to my wolf like a siren.
When she came back with a new check and the boxes, I reached out and lightly touched her hand. “Katie, we wanted to ask…would you go out with us?”
Not the most private moment with a diner full of shifters, but we didn’t really have a choice.
“You’re a pack?” she asked.
“We are.”
She blushed. So many shades of rose. Her scent bloomed in the air, needy, musky, with an edge of want so heady, I nearly slid out of the booth, tossed her over my shoulder, and took her home. Judging by her scent, it would be welcomed.
“No.”
Vaughn and Poe whipped their heads back like they’d been slapped.
“No?” I repeated.
“No.”
“I see. Well, okay, then. Um, thank you for the amazing service.” I slipped two hundreds into her hand with the check and told her to keep the change.
Everything about this omega told me she wanted us, except for her words.
And this alpha needed words. I needed to hear permission. Want. Need.
We slid out of the booth and past her out into the night then piled into the truck and rode home without speaking. When the friction of the tires against the rocks of our driveway got loud, I asked, “Am I the only one confused as fuck?”
Poe shook his head. “Nope. Her scent…I smelled her. I scented her slick. Her perfume was captivating. That was for us.”
Vaughn got out, carrying the extra desserts we’d bought in vain.
They were good, no doubt, but Vaughn could outbake anyone, anytime.
“There was more. She’s scared or ashamed.
Dejected. I know that smell, and she’s swirling with it.
There’s more to her story. She didn’t tell us no because she wanted to. She is scared.”
“Of us?” Poe asked.
“No. I have no idea, except we aren’t what is frightening her.”