Chapter 13
Thirteen
Winter cursed himself and his incredibly shitty luck as he stood in the kitchen alone, gripping the edge of the counter.
Of course Fox could kiss like he was trying to tongue Winter’s fucking soul.
And Winter had never wanted him to stop kissing or moaning or that delicious little squirm he did that rubbed their bodies together.
He wasn’t even going to lie to himself and say it was good that they stopped.
Fuck. That. Shit.
The second his family was out of his house, he was tossing Fox over his shoulder and carrying him to the first bed he could find. He needed inside that man, needed to feel him moving and hear him screaming Winter’s name in pleasure.
This had to be karmic payback for interrupting Bel with his wolves a few months ago. It wasn’t like Winter had tried to intrude on a sexy moment, and Bel had never said he was intruding, but it had only taken one look to know that Winter had arrived at a really bad time.
Right now, his main worry was his family overwhelming Fox and making him feel bad about his supposed part in this prophecy or his powers.
Shit!
His family didn’t know about the ghosts.
Shoving away from the counter, Winter raced up the stairs.
He only had a couple of minutes between his brothers pulling into the garage, parking, and climbing to the second floor.
He barged straight into Fox’s room without knocking on the door.
The man was standing by the bed shirtless, a collared shirt on a hanger in his hands.
“Out! I just got everything to start settling down. I’m not your fucking yo-yo!” Fox snapped, pointing toward the door.
“No, it’s not that. The ghosts.”
Fox stiffened, his face instantly shifting from frustration to worry. “What? Can you see them again?” He dropped the shirt onto the bed and started patting on his chest. “Did I like…turn off or something when we were kissing?”
Winter relaxed a little and smiled. No one should be this adorable. He had no defense against it. “No, I can’t see them still.”
Fox dropped his head and released a relieved breath. “Oh, good.”
“I just wanted to warn you, don’t mention the ghosts or what you do for me to my family.”
Fox’s head snapped back up, his brows beetling over his slender nose. “What? Why?”
“There isn’t time to go into it. They don’t know, and now is not a good time to tell them everything.”
Just the idea of telling his brothers everything he’d been hiding from them made his stomach flip and churn. He prayed he never had to tell them, and that was at the top of a very long list of things.
Fox’s eyes narrowed on him, but he huffed a “fine.” It was clear the young man had a lot to say about Winter’s choice to keep his family in the dark, but he was kindly keeping his opinions to himself. At least for now.
“Hurry up and get dressed,” Winter said with a smirk.
The witch flipped him off with one hand as he picked up the shirt with the other. “You should count yourself lucky if I don’t come down the stairs naked. Let your family think you’re fucking me on every flat surface,” Fox said to his departing back.
Winter smiled. He wasn’t sure if that would make it their most interesting family meeting, but it would definitely make the top five.
On the main floor, he quickly darted into the guest bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face.
He cringed when he looked in the mirror.
His lips were swollen, and his hair was a mess from Fox’s exploring fingers.
Someone started pounding on the front door as he pulled his hair into a fresh ponytail and prayed his family didn’t notice the lip issue.
The cold shock of his family’s imminent arrival was helping to cool other problems.
Groaning, Winter shuffled to the door, unlocked it, and stepped back as he swept it open.
Marcus’s angry frown immediately greeted him on the other side.
Of course the family sledgehammer was in the lead.
It was kind of amazing that he was also the family negotiator when it came to dealing with the Ministry and other vampire clans.
Marcus had a light, manipulative touch when he wanted one.
When it came to dealing with his own family, he was all brute force and angry grumbling.
“Where is it?” Marcus growled.
Winter rolled his eyes. “He is getting dressed. He’ll be down in a minute.”
Marcus narrowed his eyes on Winter and held him pinned for another second before walking into the loft with a smiling Ethan right beside him.
To his credit, Ethan just shook his head.
The fledgling was already so damn good at handling Winter’s older brother, and they’d been together for less than a year.
“Getting dressed, huh?” Rafe drawled, pulling Winter’s gaze to the open doorway where his next oldest Varik brother was lounging against the doorjamb. A lazy smile was tilting up the corners of his mouth. “Did we interrupt something interesting?”
“Shut up, Rafe.”
“Behave yourself,” Philippe commanded from behind his mate.
Rafe straightened and grinned at his youngest brother. “I’m so glad Marcus invited me to join this little expedition. It’s going to be far more interesting than I thought it would be.”
The nightclub owner and his angelic-looking boyfriend strolled into the loft.
River entered next. He didn’t stop walking until he had his arms wrapped around Winter in a tight hug and to Winter’s credit, he didn’t panic this time. He was getting accustomed to the wolves’ need for physical contact, particularly River. In short, River and Wyatt were huggers.
“Everything okay? Do you need us to pick up anything else for you?” River asked as he released Winter.
“Everything is fine. Fox said you got exactly what he needed.”
“Good.”
Winter immediately fell under Beltran’s loving, worried gaze.
His scientist brother was completely devoted to his wolves—something that had never entered Winter’s wildest imaginings when it came to Bel.
His brother was a strange, awkward soul who didn’t seem to notice most creatures outside of his own family.
But Wyatt and River had barged their way into his life, and Bel had never been happier.
The vampire quickly hugged Winter as well. The wolves were definitely having a tactile influence on Bel; he was also turning into a hugger.
“We’re just worried about you,” Bel murmured as he straightened.
“Oh yes, Rafe is just oozing concern.”
“Rafe has the emotional depth of a mud puddle,” River grumbled.
“Behave,” Bel muttered, pushing the younger wolf farther into the room.
Wyatt followed the other two and paused in front of Winter. The older werewolf was usually more controlled and even-tempered than his lovers. Wyatt managed to restrain himself enough to pull Winter into only a half hug with his arm across Winter’s shoulders. “We’re here for you. Whatever you need.”
“Thank you, Wyatt.”
As the werewolf trailed after his lovers, Aiden stepped into the doorway, a slightly amused expression on his face.
“Wonderful! The family intervention is complete. If I’d known you were all coming over, I would have had it catered.”
His father chuckled and slipped one arm around his shoulders, directing him into the loft while he closed the door with his free hand.
“Since you brought the witch, we thought this would be a good time to talk to him and you about this prophecy.” Aiden leaned his head closer and dipped his voice as if he were planning to share a great secret.
“And you would have known about our plans to descend on you if you hadn’t silenced your phone. ”
Winter dropped his head back on his father’s arm and groaned while Aiden laughed again.
Yeah, he would have known they were coming, but he would have also wasted most of his evening answering the phone calls and texts rather than playing video games with Fox.
If he had to choose between the two options, video games with Fox was an easy choice.
“Do I smell pizza?” Ethan asked, standing in the middle of Winter’s living room. He turned and looked at Winter, a confused expression in his face. “Did you make pizza? Do you even know how to use your oven?”
This was going to be such a long night.
“Fox made the pizza. Is this going to be your vampiric power? The ability to smell whenever someone has had food?” Winter sniped.
Ethan glared at Winter, but River was already talking.
“Pizza sounds good. Should we go ahead and order some for delivery?”
“How are you hungry? We just ate before leaving Marcus’s house,” Bel said on a gasp.
River shrugged, giving Bel a sweet smile. “I’m always hungry.”
“There’s more frozen pizza in the freezer if you don’t want to wait for delivery,” offered up a new voice.
Winter cringed inwardly when every eye in the room shot to the staircase. Stepping away from Aiden, Winter turned to see Fox on the stairs, a stiff smile on his face. It looked as if he were debating whether it was too late to retreat to his room and crawl under the bed.
Four Variks was manageable.
Nine was completely overwhelming.
If the missing four had been there as well, Winter doubted whether Fox would have come down the stairs at all.
Lola and Ryder were intimidating creatures, but their scariness was usually tempered by Gideon’s sweetness.
Jullien was typically Philippe’s brooding shadow whenever they were in the same room together.
Moving to the foot of the stairs, Winter extended his hand to Fox and smiled. He didn’t care what his family thought about this gesture. Fox was already overwhelmed, and the Variks had yet to hit him with questions and their usual insanity.
“It’s okay. They’re going to behave themselves,” Winter murmured.
Fox dragged his eyes to Winter’s face and managed a small smile. “I know you told me about your family, but it just feels like there’s more of them when I can see them.”
“I’m sorry to say it gets worse when we all start talking at once.”