Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
CARTER
Emma finishes her soup, scooping up the last bits of vegetables from the bottom. Sebastian and Troy watch her every movement with unblinking focus, both their bowls still half full. I cough and motion for them to finish up, and Troy grabs his bowl and drinks straight from it, gulping down the food.
“Stop that,” Sebastian hisses, nudging him with his elbow. “She’ll think we’ve been raised by wolves.”
Emma snickers at that, then relaxes back against my chest, her body soft and warm. “A wolf joke. I would think you hate them.”
“We do,” Troy rumbles. “Sebastian is the only one who cracks them.”
She glances from them to me. “So how was it? Living with a pack as kids?”
Since Troy and Sebastian already told her their life stories, as she’d said earlier, I know she’s asking more about me.
“Well, I told you my father was the alpha,” I begin.
“And his father before him,” Troy jumps in.
“And his father before him, and so on, and so on until the end of time,” Sebastian intones and lifts his hands dramatically.
Emma giggles, and I retaliate by throwing a wadded-up napkin at Sebastian’s face. He bats it away and winks at me.
“As I was saying,” I pick up, raising my voice a little to commandeer their attention, “we were the alpha family. So that meant we were always under scrutiny, which…might not have been the best, in retrospect.”
Emma frowns. “How so?”
“It means Carter grew up thinking that leaders never fuck up.” Sebastian leans back in his chair and taps his fingers on the table. “We’ve been working with him for years to let go of his perfectionist tendencies.”
“And loosen up a little,” Troy adds, a smirk curling his lips.
“Would you two clowns shut up?” I growl, though there’s no heat to my words. They’re right, of course, and one of the reasons why we’ve kept our pack small and refused to join any of the larger compounds is that I didn’t want an audience to our life.
“Mm, I get that.” Emma pats my hand. “You were more harshly judged because of your position.”
I release a breath, calmed by her touch. “Yeah. It’s made me want to live more privately.”
“Hence the cabin in the middle of nowhere?” she asks.
Sebastian nods. “That, and we want to raise our kids where they have room to run. And no nosy in-laws who would want to mold them into perfect little alpha heirs just because that’s how things were done in the past.”
I study Emma from the corner of my eye. “Is that okay with you?”
She raises her eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I thought you wanted a big family,” I say, watching her carefully.
“Yeah, but I meant lots of kids.” She shrugs. “Not necessarily a whole pack of relatives with questionable intentions.”
“You’ll still get those,” Sebastian says. “My mom will want to know everything about you.”
Emma’s scent acquires a whiff of nervousness. “She will?”
I hum, soothing her. “Yes, but there’s no rush. Everyone will understand that we need to spend time alone first. And we’ll be with you through it all. We’ll do everything at your pace.”
“Ah, that’s fine.” She relaxes again. “I can’t wait.”
I don’t ask about her family. She told Troy, so I expect she’ll share with Sebastian and me eventually, but the last thing I want to do is pry before she’s ready. She trusts us so easily, which likely means she’s feeling the same bond as us, though less strongly.
I won’t do anything to break that trust, and that includes not sticking my nose into her personal business. Like Troy said, we’ll have all our lives to get to know each other—not just the nine months before a baby arrives if we conceive during this full moon, but after that as well.
I’ll spend a lifetime learning how to make Emma happy.
“Are you done?” Troy rumbles, staring at Sebastian’s bowl. “You’re the world’s slowest eater.”
Sebastian flushes to the tips of his ears, his fair skin turning pink. “I don’t want to choke on my food, Troy.”
Troy looms over him, and Emma twitches in my lap, as if she wants to interfere.
I squeeze her thigh, then murmur in her ear, “Just watch.”
She glances at me curiously, then focuses back on our two mates. Trusting me again to know what my pack needs.
Troy puts his big arm around Sebastian’s shoulders and nuzzles his neck, trailing a line of kisses from his clavicle to his ear. Sebastian shivers but valiantly scoops up another spoonful of noodles, though his hand shakes as he brings the spoon to his mouth.
“You’re not going to force me to—ah!” Sebastian’s protest turns into a moan.
I can’t see what Troy is doing with his other hand under the table, but Sebastian arches his back and drops his spoon with a clatter.
“Keep eating,” Troy commands. “You’ll need your strength, too.”
Emma squirms, her breathing growing faster. She loves this as much as I do. Her lips part, her cheeks flushing with desire, and her scent… Fuck, her scent will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.
I’ll never get enough of her.
“Troy,” Sebastian gasps.
He gives up on his dinner and turns his face toward Troy, then grabs the big guy by the nape and draws him in for a kiss.
It’s easy to forget that Sebastian is just as strong as the rest of us because of his lean frame and sweet manners, but he climbs into Troy’s lap and straddles his thighs, then maneuvers Troy so he has him pinned right where he wants him.
“How. Many. Times…” Sebastian punctuates his words with biting, open-mouthed kisses on Troy’s neck, “Have I told you to stop teasing me at the dinner table?”
He kisses Troy deeply, sucking on his tongue.
Troy closes his eyes and sinks into the kiss, his palms roaming Sebastian’s naked back until he grasps his ass with both hands and rocks his hips up at the same time.
The sound that comes from his chest is downright indecent, sending pure lust shooting through me.
I’ve been hard since I drew Emma into my lap, but these two are fanning the flames, and if Emma’s honeyed scent is anything to go by, she’s just as turned on as I am.
Troy breaks a second later, pushing his chair away from the table.
He stands with Sebastian wrapped around him and starts toward the hallway leading to our room.
At the door, he glances back at us and growls, “Come on.”
Then they disappear, and Emma and I remain seated at the table, both frozen in place.
“Ungh.” Emma lets out a choked sound, then clears her throat and asks, “Do we, uh, do we follow them?”
“Emma!” Sebastian’s call from the other end of the hallway sounds breathy and already half desperate.
“Yeah.” My voice comes out too raspy, too deep, but my skin is already itching with the need to shift, and I won’t last very long in this human shape. “Yeah, we’ll follow them.”