He laughed, burying his face into the crook of her neck. “You smell even better now than you did before. Like the ocean, and cinnamon, and me.” He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. “Mine.”
She nodded. “Yours.”
Entering the living area a little while later, they found Jaime, Dante, Roni, Marcus, Dominic, Grace, Lydia, and Amber. The smell of Nick and Shaya’s combined scents seemed to hit everyone at once, because they were all smiling—even Amber, despite that it was fake.
“Well, well, well,” said Jaime, delighted, as Nick and Shaya perched themselves on the gigantic sofa where everyone other than Roni and Dominic, who had each claimed an armchair, was sitting. “It would appear things are moving along nicely.” Jaime swapped places with Dante so that she was then sitting by Nick, winking at Shaya when he stiffened at her proximity. “How’s my BFF doing?” When Nick gawked at her, Jaime said indulgently, “Not you, sweetie, I was talking to your mate.” Shaya would have been pissed by people continually poking at him if she didn’t know this meant they accepted him.
“Fine, thanks.” Shaya patted Nick’s thigh soothingly.
“I’m glad things are working out for you guys,” said Roni.
“Me too,” said Grace. The others all nodded.
“Thanks. Where’s Mom?” Nick asked Roni. His mother spent a lot of time with Greta, and he couldn’t find it in himself to see that as a good thing.
“She went on a pack run with some of the others. I wanted to go too, but it seemed that Marcus, Dante, and Jaime suddenly found lots of things for me to do.” She threw them a scowl, folding her arms over her chest. She wasn’t stupid; she knew people were trying to keep her from shifting in case she disappeared in her wolf form again. They wouldn’t be able to stop her doing it during the attack tomorrow, though. Nick only hoped his sister came back afterward.
“Imagine if it turned out that Gok Wan’s actually straight as a ruler.” Yeah, that was Dominic—totally random. His eyes still on the TV, he gestured at the show. “The guy would be my hero if that was the case.”
Grace snorted at Dominic. “You don’t need to trick women into getting naked. They’re all too happy to oblige, from what I’ve heard.”
Lydia nodded. “It’s the same with Marcus, only the females are after his heart too because they fall for all that charm.” Marcus winked and flashed her a grateful smile that made her blush.
Dominic frowned, affronted. “I have charm.”
“But it’s a twisted kind of charm, honey,” said Lydia. “If you’d let Marcus teach you a few things, you’d be lethal.”
“I’m not sure if I want to be lethal if it means females will want more than sex.” Dominic shuddered.
“In other words, you’re a slut?” asked Roni.
“I guess you could say I’ve been a bad boy, Roni. If you want to send me to your room and—”
“Shut up, jerk,” said Marcus, rolling his eyes.
Hearing Taryn and Trey’s voices coming along the tunnels, Shaya smiled, eager for her best friend to hear that the mating link was developing. Thinking she might have just picked up another voice, Shaya cocked her head to listen harder. Then, to her surprise and delight, Taryn and Trey walked into the room with Caleb behind them.
Shaya practically jumped from the sofa and darted to the person whom she thought of as a brother. “Caleb!” Wearing a smile as wide as hers, Caleb wrapped his arms tight around her and squeezed. Then he froze at the sound of two low growls. Roni and Nick apparently didn’t like that another male was embracing her. Pulling back, she urged Caleb to follow her to Nick and took her mate’s hand in hers. At her tug, he stood. “Nick, you remember Caleb from Taryn and Trey’s mating ceremony, right?”
Nick’s voice came out dry. “I remember.” He awkwardly shook hands with the tall, brown-eyed wolf with stubble for hair. There was no desire in the guy’s scent or eyes, which meant he didn’t appear to have any interest in Shaya in a sexual sense; therefore, Nick could allow him to live. Still, Nick didn’t like other males hugging his mate, so it was pretty impossible to drop his scowl…even though Shaya was jamming her elbow into his ribs.
As Taryn came close with Kye in her arms, Caleb leaned in to her and said quietly, “I didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone who can look scarier than Trey.”
“Hey, your scents have mixed,” said Taryn, pleased—a total relief for Shaya. “It just proves that dominant/submissive pairs have every chance of fully bonding,” she threw over her shoulder, meeting Amber’s hard gaze.
“They’re not fully bonded yet,” Amber pointed out, “but I’m sure it will happen soon. They suit so well.”
She smiled sweetly, but apparently Caleb wasn’t fooled because he gave Shaya a look that said, “Seriously, what’s up with that?”
Shaya merely smiled and mouthed, “We’ll talk later.” Out loud she said, “Caleb, this is Roni—Nick’s sister—and Amber, the healer of his old pack.”
As Caleb exchanged greetings with the two females, Nick sank back into his seat and looped an arm around Shaya’s waist, pulling her onto his lap. Pettily jealous that her attention was on Caleb, Nick bit her ear. Clearly sensing he missed her focus being mostly on him, she gave him an amused sideways glance. But she didn’t return her full attention to him, and that just showed how well she knew him—it wasn’t at all good to let him have his own way all the time.
“When did you change your hair?” Shaya asked Caleb.
His smile fell, and irritation practically steamed from him. “When my little cousin decided to chop bits of it off while I was sleeping.”
Taryn cocked her head, studying him. “It suits you.”
He snorted. Then, his expression now serious, his eyes danced from Shaya to Nick and Taryn as he spoke. “When I heard what was happening, I had to come. I can help guard the entrances to the caves tomorrow night and make sure Kye’s protected. I need to play a part in this. I couldn’t sit home on my ass when I know something bad is going to go down here.”
Respecting the male for his loyalty to his friends and his offer to help when many submissive wolves would have opted out of the dangerous situation, Nick gave him a nod of thanks. “It’s appreciated.” His estimation of the male had now gone up.