28. Runa
Runa
Meeting my parents for breakfast has been the family tradition ever since I can remember. No matter the situations my parents have fought through over the years, they always show up for Soren, Maren, and me for breakfast.
After the night of the full moon, the breakfast table get-together is slightly awkward since we’ve all stayed up all night.
Blade seems to have caught on to the family tradition, or perhaps his family has the same ritual, because he joins me at the table first, freshly showered, hair still wet, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I can tell right away he’s hooked up with someone.
“Morning,” he greets me as he sits across from me, his nose working overtime trying to sniff out who I was with last night, if anyone.
He’s not even subtle about it. But I scrubbed my body and hair in the shower.
No way anyone will smell Ash on me. My parents would stroke out, and before I got a chance to explain, my father would try to stab Ash’s neck with a fork.
“How was your night?” I ask.
“Busy.” One corner of his lips turns up.
Ah. “More than one nest visit?”
“Let’s just say I was busy.”
I mentally go through the females in the pack, trying to figure out who Blade might’ve shacked up with and come up with a few names.
“How about you?” He sips coffee as we wait for breakfast service.
“I kept busy too.”
“Hey.” Maren walks in, freshly showered and scrubbed as well. Too well; her skin is red from the rough sponge she used to scrub off Sven’s scent.
Maren sits next to me and leans in to sniff my shoulder and then hair. “Booo,” she says. “You washed him off.”
“I could say the same for you.”
“You know why I did that.”
I do.
Blade clears his throat. “Pray share, I have a fear of missing out.”
“Honestly,” Maren says, pouring honey into her cup of tea. “You two are obvious.”
Blade wiggles his eyebrow. “We are, are we?”
“Stop that,” I tell him, but I don’t deny her assumption.
If she thinks it was Blade who serviced me last night, then I’m going with it.
Ash mentioned he didn’t want the treaty derailed, and Maren can assume all she wants.
I’m not lying to my sister. I’m just not going to correct her, and I get the impression Blade will go along with whatever for as long as it amuses him.
“You guys are glowing,” Maren says. “I’m happy for you.”
“How was your night?” I ask her.
“Amazing.”
Soren walks in with a croissant. My mouth waters as he bites into it before sitting a chair away from Blade and near where my father will sit at the head of the table. Soren looks around. “Where’s Ash?”
When nobody answers, I nudge my sister.
Maren looks up from the teaspoon she’s been swirling for the past few minutes like a love-struck child. “Did you say something?”
“Soren wants to know where Ash is,” I tell her.
Maren blinks. “Um, in the shower.”
I groan. She ought to at least pretend that she cares.
Since my brother isn’t showered or scrubbed, he might’ve taken advantage of the storm and spent time purging his element into the blizzard.
One time, he told me he’s not allowed to influence the weather because elements shouldn’t disturb natural events, but he plays in the storm the way a boy might play in the sand.
Blade sniffs Soren. “You were outside the whole time?”
“Mmhm.”
“What can you tell me about the storm?” Blade asks.
Soren frowns. “Nothing you can’t sense yourself, I’m sure.”
Blade shrugs. “I block the weather. It’s too tempting.”
“I purge inside it.”
Blade shrugs. “Whatever works.”
“What of the tide?” I ask.
Neither of the elementals answers.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?”
Soren nods. “We evacuated the low grounds.”
“There you are,” my mother says as she comes in, followed by my dad. She hasn’t bothered to shower, and she smells like Dad. Which is probably why she hasn’t showered. I’m happy for her.
Dad takes his seat at the head of the table. She touches his hand.
“Maren, I passed by your room, and nobody was there,” Mother says.
Soren’s eyebrows draw down. “Where’s Ash, then? I need to speak with him.”
Maren opens her mouth to lie, but the door from the kitchen opens.
The kitchen staff rush inside with trays loaded with breakfast goods.
We attack it like starving wolves. Eggs, bacon, sausage, freshly baked bread, pancakes, croissants, breakfast oats.
Everything. I’m stuffing my face when Ash walks in.
He’s wearing dark jeans and a short-sleeve black shirt. After a quick nod in greeting, he plops into the chair opposite my father at the other end of the table, sitting near me.
I dislike our seating arrangement, but my family would think it odd if I suddenly moved away from him. I don’t understand why he couldn’t sit between Soren and Blade. There’s also another spot next to his best friend.
Ash pours himself a cup of coffee and sips. His hair is dry, but his clothes are different from last night, so I presume he showered, and his short hair dries fast.
He reaches for the breadbasket, and I get a whiff of a female scent lingering on his skin. It’s a peculiar scent that I don’t immediately recognize. Is that…? I lean in and sniff again.
It is me. It’s my scent. Not just my regular scent. The scent of my private parts, my heat.
Stunned, I gasp.
Across from me, Blade wiggles his nose. I wait for the moment he recognizes my scent, but he wiggles his nose again, then looks at Maren, who appears puzzled. My mother is chatting with Soren and my dad, so they’re not paying attention. Thank the Moon for that.
Ash piles his plate and sits back down, gaze on me. He licks his lips, bites the lower one, and drags it through his teeth. Ash cleaned up but didn’t shower. This wolfhole came to breakfast with my family wearing the evidence of our coupling on his face.
Since I’m in the room, the scent on him isn’t as obvious as it would be if I weren’t here. But if anyone sits near him, they’ll smell my cum on his mouth, and all hell will break loose.
“So, children,” my mother starts. “How was your fire moon?”
Ash looks me dead in the eye and opens his mouth as if to speak.
He’ll blow the lid. I know he will, or he wouldn’t have worn my cum on his face to the breakfast table.
But he better not do it right now. I can’t deal with our situation now.
My parents aren’t prepared for this level of fucked up.
I haven’t told anyone about my secret crush on Ash, not even Maren. Especially not Maren.
Before others find out, I must deal with the shame of wanting a male I shouldn’t want. Then spending an amazing night with him.
My eyes plead with him. Please, Ash, don’t do this.
In turn, he glares.
I frown. I don’t understand! What is his problem? Why can’t we just be…friends?
“I don’t kiss and tell,” he says.
I release the breath I held and look up from my plate to meet my brother’s stare. He slides the death glare at Maren, who, under the table, grips my hand and holds it for dear life.
“Soren, my dear, how did the fire moon treat you?” Mother asks as she hits a boiled egg with her spoon.
My brother narrows his eyes at me and my sister before he turns to our mother to answer her.
My father brings up the supply ships that didn’t arrive because of the storm, and the conversation switches to business. Ash eats quietly, not saying more than a word or two.
Under her breath, Maren says, “Soren knows.”
“Knows what?”
She blinks. “You know what.”
Not really. We have multiple issues at the table. “Maybe.” She thinks Soren figured out that she’s with the Regulator while I’m over here banging the fiancé she rejected, so we don’t really know what Soren knows now, do we?
“What do you think he’ll do?” Maren asks.
“Corner us and demand you tell him the truth.”
“I can’t.”
She really can’t. Soren is overprotective.
Any male who touches his sister without Soren’s blessing is a dead male.
He has told us this several times. Every male in the Stormcrest pack goes to Soren before they approach either of us.
Soren’s overprotectiveness is part of the reason my sister and I used to sneak out and do naughty things.
However, what I did last night isn’t just naughty, it’s also forbidden. I can get into trouble. Real trouble.
“Has anyone seen Sven?” my mother asks.
“He’s packing up his lab,” Ash says.
Mother sighs. “I’m going to miss you, Maren.”
My sister hugs my mom. “I’ll miss you too.”
Head tilted to one side, Ash drums his fingers on the table. I’m sure it didn’t escape his notice that my mother said she would miss Maren and not me, even though he asked that I accompany my sister to his territory.
We’re all stuck under the same roof while the storm passes over our heads. Hopefully, everyone will make nice with each other, and we can all live happily ever after.
Or at least long enough to see the sun rise the next day.