Chapter 6
six
FINN
I made it one day.
A whole fucking day.
With Emmy’s scent in my lungs and not a single word from her, I barely managed to sleep. Getting anything done was a pipe dream.
Connor and Ethan showed up on my porch the second morning, banging on the door loudly enough to make me drag my ass off the couch.
The cushions smelled like her too.
I threw the door open and glared at them.
Ethan winced, waving a hand in front of his nose. “You reek of a woman.”
“Not a woman. My mate.” I growled the words without thinking.
“Have you ever heard of a shower?” he drawled. He was acting like his normal self, but there were circles under his eyes and none of us had seen a real smile from him in months, which was out of character for him. Something was wrong with the bastard. He just refused to talk about it.
Connor clapped Ethan on the shoulder. “The man has clearly been abandoned. Go easy on him.”
“Emmy didn’t abandon me. We’re doing the platonic thing.”
“The platonic couples I know still live together.” Ethan tried to step past me, into the house.
I blocked him with my entire body.
…maybe I was feeling a little possessive of Emmy’s scent.
Connor stepped back, leaning against my porch railing. “Platonic couples aren’t usually this worked up about being away from each other.”
“Have you talked to her since the climax ended?” Ethan checked.
“No.”
“Because…” he trailed off.
“Because she’s a fucking ray of sunshine, and we agreed to meet up for drinks when our wolves can’t handle the separation anymore,” I admitted grudgingly.
“This is your wolf handling it?” Connor gestured to me.
“Fuck off.”
Ethan snorted. “If you’re not meeting up with your mate, you’re coming to work with us. We’ve got two dozen graduating seniors here who couldn’t figure out how to get along with their wolves if their lives depended on it.”
“I don’t have the patience right now,” I said bluntly.
“We’ll give you the assholes,” Connor said.
I would’ve turned them down, even though we all knew the argument would turn into a fist fight before me or Ethan surrendered.
But if I got in a fight with them, I’d smell like those fuckers. I wasn’t going to risk that when there was a chance Emmy would show up at my place.
I sighed angrily.
And went with them.
My packmates worked together to keep me from going home until long after the sun set and exhaustion caught up to me.
We hadn’t slept much over the past few days.
I was getting hard all over again just thinking about it. My erection didn’t compare to the itch I had to make sure my mate was fed and safe, though.
And away from any other men.
I’d already checked to see if she texted me too many times.
She hadn’t.
How many days would she last before her wolf made her reach out? They were already strangely at peace with each other, so I wasn’t hopeful that it would be soon.
I checked my phone again anyway as I walked home with Connor and Ethan. Wyatt was basically honeymooning, and Graham and Nico were spending their evenings with their mates.
I shouldn’t have thought they were lucky for that, but I did.
Ethan ripped my phone out of my hand. “What are you waiting for?”
I shouldn’t have given him the code last year.
When I tried to steal the device back, Connor knocked my hand away.
Ethan whistled. “You haven’t texted your mate since before the climax? And she’s never texted you?”
“Everything’s up in the air,” I gritted out.
“You obviously want to hear from her,” Connor said. “Just text her.”
“I don’t know what to say. She’s fine with being friends with benefits.”
“That was what you wanted.” Ethan’s thumbs flew across the screen. I lunged for the phone, and he handed it over.
I read the message he’d sent once.
Twice.
A third time.
Me
Hey, how are you doing?
It was surprisingly neutral.
“That’s what you want to know, right?” Ethan drawled. “Whether or not she’s planning to come back sometime soon.”
Emmy texted back immediately.
All three of us crowded around the phone.
I wanted to shove them away, but the messages had my full focus.
Emmy
Good! Just got home from my Pilates class! You?
My cock throbbed with the mental image of her in a workout class.
In leggings and a sports bra.
Fuck. I’d probably kill to see that.
“You have to reply,” Ethan pointed out, gesturing to the screen.
“What am I supposed to say?”
“That sounds hot.”
I snarled at Ethan.
The last thing I wanted was that charming fucker feeling anything that resembled attraction toward my mate. He was the kind of guy she would actually want to be with.
Connor stole the phone, spinning out of my reach with it so he could answer for me.
He’d already sent the message by the time I got it back.
Me
Just finished up with work
We all waited, tense, when the bubble that showed she was typing popped up on the screen.
Emmy
Oh wow, you work late
A harsh breath escaped me. “She doesn’t like that.”
“Tell her you usually don’t,” Ethan said.
I didn’t, so that wasn’t a lie.
Another message came through while I was furiously typing my response.
My fingers went still.
My cock throbbed a couple more times.
Emmy
Did you find my thong by chance? The dark pink one? I need it to go with what I’m wearing to a thing the university is putting on tomorrow night
“She has five pink thongs,” I said without thinking. And immediately regretted sharing it.
Those fuckers didn’t need to know about my mate’s underwear. Hopefully she wouldn’t be offended that I’d told them.
On second thought, it seemed fairly difficult to offend Emmy.
Ethan whistled. “She wants you to come over. She probably just doesn’t want to seem desperate, since you kicked her out as soon as the climax was over.”
“I did not. I offered her breakfast. When she turned me down, I offered coffee,” I growled back.
Both of the other guys looked surprised.
“You did?” Ethan asked.
“Yes. I’m not the worst mate on the planet. I was going to feed her.”
“We didn’t think you were.” Connor smacked me on the arm. “Did you find the thong?”
“Of course he found the thong. He’s got a nose.” Ethan took the phone and replied. I didn’t bother stopping him this time.
Me
Yeah. Want me to bring it over?
“Smooth.” Connor nodded his approval.
Emmy
You can just overnight it to me. It’s a long drive!
I blinked.
My friends did, too.
Maybe she wasn’t trying to get me to come over after all.
Ethan replied again.
Me
It wouldn’t get there in time. Moon Ridge’s mail system is shit
Emmy
I can come pick it up, then!
I took the phone back. That, I knew how to respond to.
Me
No, I don’t want you driving out here this late
I can bring it over in the morning
Emmy
Are you sure?
Me
Yeah
“Tell her you’ll make breakfast,” Ethan threw in. “You’re a decent cook.”
Me:
I can make breakfast too
Emmy:
At my place?
Me
Yeah. I’ll bring the ingredients. What do you want?
Emmy
If pancakes are an acceptable kind of cake to you, I vote for them
“What does that mean?” Connor asked.
“I fucked up and told her I didn’t like cake the first night we met,” I grumbled.
“Well, clear the air.” Ethan gestured toward the phone.
My next reply was reluctant.
Me:
I like all cake, actually. I shouldn’t have said otherwise. I was kind of reeling.
Emmy
PHEW!!
I was really questioning your tastebuds!
Ethan and I snorted.
“How did you get paired up with a girl who uses this many exclamation points?” Connor wondered.
“I don’t fucking know.”
Emmy
10 AM?
I didn’t want to wait that long to see her.
I reluctantly started answering, but Ethan stole my phone back and replied for me.
Me
8?
Emmy
You might have to wake me up, but okay. Just keep knocking if I don’t hear you right away!
Me
Alright. See you then!
She hearted my message.
We all stared at the heart.
“Do you think that means something?” Connor asked.
At least I wasn’t the only one without any idea how women’s minds worked.
“I don’t know.” We both looked at Ethan.
He shrugged. “She used a lot of exclamation points, so probably not.”
Emmy didn’t believe in using neutral colors, so yeah, I could see her using hearts for pretty much anything. Especially when I thought about how much pink she’d been wearing when she showed up at my door.
“No, it doesn’t mean anything,” I said.
Ethan eyed me. “Do you want it to?”
“No.” The answer was immediate. I let out a breath and corrected myself. “Honestly, I don’t know. She’s definitely not Jo.”
“Isn’t her whole house yellow?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah. And pink. And purple. And green. And—”
“Let me guess, blue?”
“It’s a rainbow,” I confirmed.
Connor lifted an eyebrow. “That’s weird.”
“It’s adorable,” I growled.
Ethan grinned. “You like her.”
“I barely know her.”
“You know how you feel around her. She’s a ray of fucking sunshine,” Connor pointed out.
“I’m quoting Jade. And even if I liked her, I wouldn’t jump into a new mate bond head first.”
“No one mentioned jumping,” Ethan said. “Making a plan to see her every day while you live separately wouldn’t be considered jumping in. Getting to know her wouldn’t either. Neither would meeting her friends, inviting her to spend time with the pack, or having a few sleepovers every week.”
I grimaced.
He wasn’t completely wrong.
I hadn’t planned on ever taking another mate, but fate intervened, and now there was no separating me and Emmy.
I was hers.
She was mine.
Even if we were never together in any official capacity, that was never going to change.