Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Hailey
My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest as I wandered around my new home, the key clenched so tightly in my hand I was sure it would make indentations in my palm.
It was even more beautiful than I remembered.
All the beams were exposed hardwood and polished to a shine.
The floor was also wood, and it had years of scuff marks that told me this had once been a cherished family home.
The windows were huge and both let in light and became the subtle frame for the forest view around us.
It felt like home. The two men with me felt like home, and that scared me more than anything.
The power of my mate bond with Eric was terrifying, but there was something I could poke at with my finger, a reason for the emotions that rode me.
Louis, though, was a surprise. He felt like warm hugs during a thunderstorm and peace.
There was no external reason why I should feel so attached to a person who was basically a stranger a few weeks ago.
Life was complicated, but not this. This was my home—four walls and a roof that I could call my own. I’d never be cold, go hungry to pay the rent, or always be wary every time I heard footsteps outside my door.
“Right through those trees is the pack house.” Louis came up behind me and pointed to the crest of a hill, towering pines looking tiny in the distance. “If you ever need help, you can go there. Anytime, day or night.”
The only thing I didn’t like about my new home was that Louis wouldn’t be there. “Thank you.”
He shook his head. “It’s just the way of the weres. Pack sticks together.”
I swallowed hard. “No, not for that. Well, not just for that. Thank you for letting Eric and me stay at your apartment all this time, and letting me sleep beside you when I couldn’t stand the thought of sleeping alone, and just... being you, I guess. I’ll miss you.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me tightly against his side. “You’ll see me all the time. We work together.”
“It won’t be the same,” I said in a small voice, and he hummed his agreement.
“No, it won’t.” Did he sound as sad about that as I felt?
“Do you want to move in?” The words tumbled from my lips before I even had the opportunity to think it over, or more likely overthink it. I should have asked Eric, since this was his home too. I didn’t take it back though.
Louis looked down at me. “I don’t think that would be a good idea right now.
” Disappointment had me stiffening beneath his arm.
He turned me so I was in front of him and lifted my chin with his thumb.
“It isn’t a good idea because I want to court you in the way of weres.
I want to be more than your housemate, Hailey.
So much more. You and Eric both. I want us to be a pack, and that means I want to do it right.
” He cleared his throat. “Hailey Swoon, would you like to go on a date with me? You and Eric. Let me prove that I can be a good provider for the pack I want to build with you.”
I blinked up at him. He wanted to date me, or something more serious? He wanted me too? “Yes,” I answered immediately and then swallowed. “I mean, I’d have to talk it over with Eric…”
“Eric says yes too,” Eric called from the doorway, and I looked over my shoulder at him, wide-eyed and a little shocked. Eric chuckled, leaning on the archway that connected the living room to the kitchen. “I’ve been waiting for Louie to work up the courage.”
Louis’s cheeks went a little pink. “It wasn’t courage. It just wasn’t the right time. I wanted you both to be able to find distance from me if it wasn’t something you wanted as well. I didn’t want you to accept out of misplaced gratitude or so things weren’t awkward or whatever.”
Of course he didn’t. He was a nurturer, I could see it in how he interacted with his team, his pack, and with us. “There’s nothing but enthusiastic agreement from both of us.” I hesitated. “About Syke…”
Shrugging, Louis dragged me into a hug. “Syke is basically pack anyway. My beast considers him someone to care for, despite the fact that he doesn’t have the hardware to create pack bonds. Whatever happens between you and our wayward demon is okay with me.”
Leaning into the warmth of his chest, I just let it be.
If growing up the way I had taught me anything, it was that I couldn’t really rely on anyone other than myself, but also that I couldn’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble today, otherwise I’d go certifiably insane.
While I’d managed to work through the first lesson and was better at giving up control to the point where I could even trust Eric and Louis with my safety, a disregard for consequences was definitely something my therapist would need to work through.
You know, if I had a therapist.
Someone knocked on the front door, and I looked up at Louis. He lifted his nose to the air and smiled. “Smells like Guilettas. Syke has arrived.” Guilettas was the Italian restaurant in Central Valley—an institution that required lining up out front for an hour just to get a table.
My mouth watered, and my stomach rumbled. I walked through the halls to the front door. Opening it, I found Syke shrouded in the evening shadows with a box of food and a large bottle of wine in his arms. “Good evening, bond mates. I’m home.”
Louis scoffed behind me, and Eric rolled his eyes as I stepped back to let him in.
I found that I kind of liked him calling it home too, but I wasn’t going to let him get ahead of himself just yet.
Just because we were lying to an actual formerly mythical being didn’t mean he got everything without working for it.
He leaned down and kissed my cheek. His lips were cool, but his breath was warm, and it was such a dichotomy, like the demon himself.
Syke looked around the foyer. “Nice place. You picked well.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the house, Eric, or my general life choices, but I’d take the kudos either way.
He walked toward the kitchen, though how he knew where it was without ever being here was a little suspicious.
He was unfairly attractive, inhumanly so, which tracked because he was literally created in hell to lure unsuspecting mortals to their doom, and I was beginning to understand my ancestors.
I would probably follow that muscular ass and broad shoulders right to damnation too.
Syke looked over his shoulder and smirked, and I forgot he could read my mind.
Fuck. Instead of being embarrassed, I thought about how he gripped my thigh, fucking Eric into me like he was an extension of himself.
The smirk dropped, and his eyes hooded, and I knew he was picking up the visual loud and clear.
Louis leaned closer to my ear. “You shouldn’t poke the demon unless you want to end up on the table and become tonight’s feast.”
I shuddered at his words, and given Louis’s groan, my delight at the idea was pretty clear to every creature in the room.
Eric came over, scooping me up into his arms and breathing heavily.
“Carbs first, then I will fuck you into oblivion before you end up in an unintentional orgy that I’m not sure you’re ready for. ”
I screwed up my nose, wanting to argue, but deep down, I knew he was right. My body was ready, heck, my ovaries were swiping war paint on my uterus and screaming, “Put me in, Coach!” but my mind and heart needed a little time to catch up to my errant libido.
I let Eric carry me to the table that still sat in the middle of the dining room, left there by the previous owners. He placed me in a chair at the head of the table and gently nipped my shoulder.
Louis appeared with plates, and Syke set the dishes in the middle of the table. It was so effortlessly domestic, I felt like I was in some idyllic americana painting from the 1950s.
Eventually, everyone sat down, and Louis heaped food on my plate for me, waiting until I took my first bite before he loaded his. They talked about work, and Eric told us about cases he’d worked on. It was perfect.
I looked at the empty chairs at the end of the table. Almost perfect.