“Okay?” He arched an eyebrow.
“Okay.”
He grinned at me, wide and bright, for just a moment before it faded slowly. Then, “Do we even need to talk about Jessie?”
“What about her?”
“Just… why, I guess.”
“Why what?”
He scowled at me. “Why is she in your pack?”
I barely restrained the eye roll. “Why, Joe Bennett. You jealous?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“I just don’t see why she needs to be near you. Or in your pack. Or alive.”
I rolled over on top of him, causing him to laugh under me, squirming, and there was just miles of naked skin. “She helped us heal,” I said.
He searched my face, looking for I didn’t know what. “And did you?” he asked.
I kissed him instead of answering, because I didn’t know quite yet how to put into words that I hadn’t healed, not completely, because part of me had been gone.
I wondered at all the things we’d missed. Everything he’d been through when he’d been gone. Maybe one day I’d get to hear everything that had happened to him. To them. I thought maybe it didn’t matter right at this moment. There were bigger things coming for us. We’d have time. After.
Because regardless of what Richard Collins would bring, I wouldn’t let him touch Joe Bennett. Not again. Not ever.
hurt you/our fucking pack
THE TWO packs were spread out before us in the house at the end of the lane. My pack was on the couches, on the sofa. On the floor. Looking like they belonged, casual and easy. Most of them, anyway. Robbie was tense.
Joe’s pack stood off to the side, Carter and Kelly leaning against the wall near the bay windows and Gordo standing at parade rest next to them.
There was a divide. It was visible.
But Joe. Joe stood next to me. Side by side, close enough that we brushed against each other with every breath. The wolves knew. Of course they did. They could smell the previous night on us. I took some strange, savage satisfaction at that. Until I looked Elizabeth in the eye, that is, and flushed horribly, even though she looked nothing but amused.
They were all waiting for us to speak first. Even the humans.
“So,” I said, trying not to be nervous. “We have some things to discuss.”
“Like your lack of showering,” Carter said, sounding like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Seriously, Joe. We get it. Jesus Christ.”
Joe refused to be embarrassed, which was fine, because I was embarrassed for the both of us. “Damn right,” Joe said, sounding smug.
“What the hell,” I muttered.
He winked at me.
“No shit,” Tanner said. “Seriously?”
“Oh boy,” Rico said. “This is probably going to get awkward.”
“Only if we make it awkward,” Chris pointed out like a reasonable adult. Then, “We should make it really awkward.”