Chapter 1 #2
He chuckled softly. “You’ll have to wait till next week. I’m out of carrots.” He belched and held a fist to his chest. “There’s steak in the fridge.”
I frowned at the idea of having to cook. “Raw?”
“Yep. You can’t reheat steak and expect it to be edible.”
At this point, eating a chair sounded tasty, but I was too tired and didn’t want to ask Bear to go through the trouble. “I’ll forage later,” I finally said. “Off to the showers.”
“You need it,” he said while smothering a chuckle.
Once upstairs, I headed to the first bathroom and opened the door.
The shower was running on the opposite wall.
“Who is that?” Melody asked.
Lakota glanced up from the sink on the right, his blue hands lathered up with soap and hair dye swirling down the drain. “Occupied.”
“I’ll take a bath, then.” I gestured to the tub next to the shower straight ahead.
“You’re not bathing with my wife in the room.”
Melody giggled. “Ooh. I love it when my husband gets all jealous.”
Lakota shoved me into the hallway, and I groaned on my way to the bathroom in the back. Before reaching it, I paused in my hallway and stared at Cleo’s door.
Huh. Big surprise—she’s watching TV again. At least this one sounds like a movie instead of one of those boring documentaries. That girl needs to get out and have some fun.
Cleo was the only packmate with a television in her room. Krys bought it for her in the early days, and now Tak didn’t want to be a dick by taking it away. He thought having televisions in the bedrooms would foster an environment where packmates were isolating instead of bonding.
When I heard the shower running, I decided I was too tired to go back downstairs. Before these shitheads used all the hot water, I wanted to scrub off the layers of sweat that had accumulated throughout the day.
Entering the bathroom, I noticed men’s clothes bunched up by the wall. I closed the door behind me and swung my eyes up to the steam-coated frosted glass. The barrier didn’t obscure the body entirely.
Krys.
My pulse jumped as I stared at his perfect form. He raised his arms while massaging his head, and the visual couldn’t be more sensual. The slow way he turned to rinse his hair held me spellbound, but spying on him didn’t feel right.
“Knock, knock. I’m coming in,” I announced while easing up to the shower.
“Dammit!”
My heart sank.
“Can’t you tell I’m busy?” he growled.
“You take too long. Mel’s using up the hot water, and you know how I hate cold showers.” I stripped off my grimy shirt and added it to the pile.
“What the hell are you doing?” he called out.
“Either hurry up and finish or I’m coming in there with you. Take your pick. Since when are you shy?”
And I meant it. This bathroom had a spacious shower that could easily fit a small army.
After shucking off my jeans and underwear, I approached the door and waited impatiently. It seemed intrusive to stare, so I turned around and leaned against the shower wall.
“Where have you been all night?” he asked.
I sighed. “Finishing up Fritz’s roof.”
“It’s almost eleven. You were roofing at night?”
If only he knew the whole story, but I wasn’t in the mood to tell it in my usual comical way. “I was almost done anyhow.” I raised my arm and winced at the smell permeating from my pits. “Hurry. I need the shower before the odor is permanently sealed to me.”
Part of me wanted to ask Krys about his day, but that felt like something a couple might talk about, and we were bros. While he rinsed off, I stared at my dick and told it to behave. Not that it had anything to be excited about.
When he opened the shower door, I turned around and drew in a breath. He used the Irish Spring tonight. As I stepped in, our bodies briefly brushed against one another before I shut myself inside.
“Did you lock the door when you came in?” he asked.
What did he say? What door? Came in from where?
My brain spiraled. Being in close proximity to him always made me nervous.
I loved physical affection and wasn’t afraid to show it, but that was the one thing I never got from Krys.
And like a big dope, I relished every encounter as if it meant something.
My feelings for him were constant and likely why I couldn’t get him out of my head.
“Can’t hear you,” I said. “And don’t yell. You’ll wake up Salem.”
When I saw him approach the shower, my heart did a quickstep at the thought he might join me. I wasn’t sure whether to be excited or terrified.
Instead, he dried his hair with the towel. “Did you lock the front door?”
Maybe it was the hours of manual labor in the sun, or perhaps it was the fact that the only person I craved had a fixation on locking windows and doors, but I faced him and snapped, “You should see someone about that compulsive behavior.”
“It’s not compulsion; it’s safety.”
I snorted. Krys always found some excuse. “Lucian has cameras all over. Nobody’s sneaking in except the raccoons.”
“I take that as a no,” he grumbled, his voice barely audible.
“Don’t worry, lover boy. I came in through the back door.” I chuckled deviously when I realized how that sounded. “If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that…”
“Go check it when you’re done. I’m too tired. If someone gets killed because you left it unlocked, that’s on you.”
I turned away and rinsed my hair. “Someday I’ll understand your paranoia, but today is not that day.”
After he closed the door, I used the gel and lathered my entire body.
Part of me wanted to argue that I was more tired than he was, but that wouldn’t be fair.
My limbs trembled like I might collapse at any moment, but Krys worked hard too.
I’d seen how much sweat he put into cutting trees, hauling limbs, and carrying stones.
I wondered what kind of woman attracted him.
A couple of Robyn’s friends were trying their hardest to catch his eye.
I’d spied one of them sneaking out of his bedroom once or twice during Robyn’s sleepovers.
While Krys came across as straight as an arrow, that kiss we shared left me questioning everything.
Calvin had busted three of us in his office when we were snooping around, so making out with Krys seemed like the most opportune moment to not only throw Calvin off but to satisfy my curiosity.
I had whispered in Krys’s ear to play along, and he committed. No straight man kissed like that, and it wasn’t my first rodeo kissing a straight man to get out of a sticky situation. It was fun to play in forbidden waters, but these waters felt warm and familiar.
During the kiss, his skin vibrated as if his wolf might come out, and yet he reacted with total acceptance. I was certain his tongue had darted out once. Some people repressed their true desires, so I wondered if he might want to explore that side of himself someday.
It made me want to ask about his sexuality to clear the air, but Krys wasn’t forthcoming with his emotions, let alone his sex life.
Crossing that line could ruin our friendship, and I treasured that between us.
Who didn’t love a brooding man with a quizzical brow?
I appreciated his dry sense of humor, and we had great banter.
Even if he did like men, I wouldn’t be his type.
I was six two, only an inch over him, but some guys needed to be taller.
Maybe he didn’t go for blonds. Was I too average for his taste?
Krys was lean but ripped with tight muscles.
He wasn’t the type I went for, either, but his heated gaze and confidence gave me goose bumps.
Not to mention, long hair was my catnip. He had the perfect length of luscious brown locks—it covered his pecs and made him look like a rock star.
The bigger issue was our opposite personalities. Plus I was a crossbreed, and that tended to turn people off.
“No, no, Virgil,” I said, admonishing myself while lathering my chest. “We’re in a pack now, and that means following the rules. Secret relationships aren’t allowed.” I scoffed. “They probably want me to settle with a girl and have babies.”
I had always been sexually fluid. My attraction to both genders began early on. I once had a threesome in my younger days, thinking that would help me decide, but it only solidified the truth: Gender made no difference.
A looming thought hung over me like a dark cloud. What if Tak expected me to settle down with a mate? I wasn’t a man who wanted to be tied down. People cheated all the time. In fact, I was the product of an affair.
Leaning against the cold wall, I glanced down at my semihard dick, which was still reminiscing over my brief encounter with Krys earlier. It was tempting to grab Krys’s new bar of sandalwood soap and indulge in a harmless fantasy, but my stomach was growling like a polar bear defending her cubs.
After scrubbing every nook and cranny three times, I emerged squeaky-clean and swung by my bedroom. I put on clean underwear and a green robe before heading to the kitchen, the air filled with the smoky scent of cooked meat.
The light was still on, and no trace of Bear’s candy wrappers was left behind. On the other side of the kitchen island, I spotted a glass of milk and a plate of food on the stove.
I crossed the room and licked my lips at the mouthwatering steak Bear had cooked especially for me. Steam rose from the mashed potatoes, and on a smaller plate beside it was a stack of freshly baked peanut butter cookies.
“You big, wonderful teddy bear. I could kiss you.”