Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ASTER
The kitchen was chaos when I came downstairs.
Kol was at the stove, wearing an apron that said "Kiss the Cook" in faded letters, waving a spatula around while he argued with Nolan about the proper way to scramble eggs.
Sawyer sat at the table with a mug of coffee, watching the debate with the faintest hint of amusement in his pale blue eyes.
And Reid was at the counter, slicing bread for toast with the kind of focused precision he brought to everything he did.
They all turned when I appeared in the doorway—four sets of eyes finding me at once, four different expressions that somehow all said the same thing: welcome.
"Morning, sunshine!" Kol's voice was bright and warm, his amber eyes crinkling with genuine delight as he brandished his spatula in my direction.
A bit of egg flew off the end and landed on the floor, which he pretended not to notice.
"Sleep okay? How's the room? Did you rearrange the furniture?
I always rearrange furniture when I move somewhere new. It's a thing."
"Kol." Nolan's voice was gentle but pointed, his green eyes flickering between Kol and the stove. He reached past the younger Alpha to turn down the heat under the pan, his freckled face soft with fond exasperation. "You're burning the eggs."
"I am not burning the eggs." Kol turned back to the stove, then made a small sound of dismay as he saw the slightly crispy edges forming.
His honey-blond hair flopped across his forehead as he frantically scraped at the pan.
"Okay, I'm slightly burning the eggs. But they'll still be delicious.
Crispy eggs are a delicacy in some cultures. "
"Name one." Sawyer's voice was a low rumble, dry as dust, but when I glanced at him I caught the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. His pale blue eyes met mine for just a moment, and something warm flickered in their icy depths before he looked away.
"I don't have to name one, I just have to believe it's true." Kol didn't miss a beat, still working to rescue his eggs. His scent filled the kitchen—orange blossoms and warmth—mixing with the smell of coffee and toast and something that was starting to smell suspiciously like char.
"Coffee?" Reid's voice was soft, and when I turned I found him already holding out a mug, steam curling up toward his weathered face. His dark eyes were warm as they rested on me, his lips curved in a small smile that made my heart do something complicated in my chest.
"Thank you." I wrapped my hands around the ceramic, letting the warmth seep into my palms. Our fingers brushed in the exchange, and I felt the contact all the way to my toes. "You didn't have to—"
"Wanted to." Reid's voice was simple, certain. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, the gesture so casual and intimate that it stole my breath. Then he turned back to his toast like nothing had happened, like touching me was the most natural thing in the world.
Maybe it was starting to be. I made my way to the table and slid into what had become my usual seat—between Reid's spot at the head and Kol's chair, across from Sawyer.
The wood was worn smooth from years of use, and I found myself tracing the grain with my fingertip, marveling at all the meals that had happened here before me.
All the conversations, the arguments, the laughter.
"Eggs are done!" Kol announced triumphantly, turning from the stove with a pan held aloft like a trophy.
His apron was splattered with grease, his hair was sticking up in three different directions, and his grin was so wide it looked like it might split his face.
"Only slightly burnt. Barely even noticeable. "
"They're black on the bottom." Nolan peered into the pan, his green eyes crinkling with barely suppressed laughter. He was standing close to Kol, their shoulders almost touching, and I watched the easy way they moved around each other—years of familiarity in every gesture.
"That's not black, that's caramelized." Kol dumped the eggs onto a serving plate with a flourish, completely unrepentant.
He set the plate on the table and dropped into his chair, immediately scooting it closer to mine until our elbows nearly touched.
"Aster will back me up. Aster, tell them the eggs look delicious. "
I looked at the eggs. They were definitely burnt on the bottom, the edges crispy and dark, the whole pile slightly lopsided where it had been scraped too aggressively from the pan.
"They look..." I searched for the right word, feeling four sets of eyes on me. "Enthusiastic." Sawyer made a sound that might have been a laugh—short and rough, barely more than a breath—and Kol let out a theatrical gasp, pressing his hand to his chest.
"Enthusiastic! She called my eggs enthusiastic!" His amber eyes were dancing with delight rather than offense, his whole body radiating warmth and good humor. "I'll take it. Enthusiastic is good. Enthusiastic means I tried."
"You definitely tried." Nolan set a plate of perfectly golden toast on the table, followed by butter and jam, his movements easy and practiced. He caught my eye and winked, his freckled face soft with affection. "Don't worry, there's also bacon. Sawyer made the bacon, so it's actually edible."
"Hey!" Kol protested, but he was already reaching for the bacon, piling several strips onto his plate alongside his own questionable eggs.
Breakfast settled into an easy rhythm after that—plates passed, food distributed, coffee refilled.
Reid took his place at the head of the table, his solid presence anchoring the whole room.
Nolan sat across from me next to Sawyer, his gentle calm balancing Kol's chaotic energy.
Kol kept up a steady stream of chatter, bouncing from topic to topic with the enthusiasm of a puppy who'd had too much coffee.
"So I was thinking," Kol said around a mouthful of toast, his amber eyes bright with whatever idea had just occurred to him.
He swallowed and leaned toward me, his shoulder bumping mine.
"Now that you're living here—like, really living here—we should do something to celebrate.
A movie night, maybe? Or a bonfire? Oh, we could do s'mores!
Do you like s'mores? Everyone likes s'mores. "
"Breathe, Kol." Reid's voice was dry, but the look he gave the younger Alpha was fond. He was eating his eggs—the burnt ones, without complaint—his dark eyes crinkling slightly at the corners.
"I'm breathing, I'm just also talking." Kol turned back to me, undeterred. "What do you think? Celebration? S'mores? Both?"
"I've never had s'mores." The admission slipped out before I could stop it, and I immediately wished I could take it back.
It was such a small thing, such a normal childhood experience, but I'd never had a childhood that included things like campfires and marshmallows and people who wanted to celebrate anything with me.
The table went quiet for a moment—not awkward, just... weighted. Like they were all processing this new piece of information about my past, adding it to the growing picture of who I was and where I'd come from.
"Well." Kol's voice was softer now, but no less warm. His amber eyes held mine, and I saw something fierce flash through them—determination, maybe, or protectiveness. "That's definitely getting fixed. This weekend. Bonfire. S'mores. Non-negotiable."
"Agreed." Nolan's voice was gentle, his green eyes bright with quiet emotion.
He reached across the table and gave my hand a brief squeeze, his touch warm and grounding.
Even Sawyer nodded, his pale blue eyes steady on my face.
He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to.
The agreement was written in every line of his weathered face.
"Okay." My voice came out rough, and I had to clear my throat.
"Okay. S'mores sound good." Kol beamed like I'd given him the greatest gift in the world.
The conversation moved on after that—ranch business, plans for the day, whether the fence on the north pasture needed reinforcing.
I listened more than I talked, content to let their voices wash over me, to watch the way they interacted with each other.
Reid spoke the least, but when he did, everyone listened.
His authority wasn't loud or demanding—it was just there, woven into the fabric of who he was.
Nolan was the peacemaker, smoothing over Kol's chaos with gentle humor and quiet competence.
Sawyer was the silent pillar, his presence steady and grounding even when he didn't say a word.
And Kol... Kol was sunshine. Bright and warm and impossible to ignore, filling every silence with energy and laughter.
I was starting to understand how they fit together.
How each of them filled a space the others needed, how their differences made them stronger rather than weaker.
They weren't just four Alphas living in the same house—they were a pack. A family.
They were trying to make me part of it.
"Hey." Kol's voice was quieter now, meant just for me.
He'd stopped bouncing in his seat, his amber eyes soft and almost hesitant as they met mine.
His hand was resting on the table between us, fingers twitching slightly like he wanted to reach for me but wasn't sure if he should. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." I set down my coffee mug, giving him my full attention. His scent had shifted—still orange blossoms and warmth, but with something underneath. Nervousness, maybe.
"You don't have to say yes." He was speaking quickly, the words tumbling over each other.
His honey-blond hair fell across his forehead as he ducked his head slightly, suddenly unable to meet my eyes.
"I know it's a lot, and we're still figuring things out, and I don't want to push or make you uncomfortable or—"