Page 20 of Knot Playing Fair 2

NINE

Mia

AN EXTREMELY ABBREVIATEDearthquake woke me from a sound sleep, some considerable time later. “Mmph,” I said brilliantly, hazy grade school memories of learning about the quake that had made the Mississippi River run backward floating into my fuzzy mind.

This earthquake had only been a single, sharp judder, though—which didn’t seem right. Everything felt unnaturally still now.

Or... wait. Notquiteeverything. My pillow was thud-thud-thudding beneath my cheek, like—

Memory filtered in.

Like an alpha who hated being touched, and who’d just woken up with a jolt to find an unconscious omega plastered to his chest.

“Emiel,” I mumbled, feeling like my tongue was still half-asleep. I cleared my throat and clumsily pushed my upper body off him. “Sorry about that. You okay?”

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“Dunno,” Emiel said. “Areyouokay?”

The room was dark. Apparently, we reallyhadslept all day.

I licked my lips, wishing I’d thought to brush my teeth before we both crashed. “Yeah... better, I think.” My stomach growled, loud enough to rival an angry alpha. “Less tired now;more hungry. We need to eat something more substantial than a smoothie.”

“I guess,” Emiel replied, without much enthusiasm.

Princess was gone, I couldn’t help noticing. Also, now that I was properly awake, I could make out a hint of some savory scent wafting into the room—toasty and cheesy. My stomach growled even more insistently.

“I think someone’s cooking,” I told Emiel. “I’ll go scope it out and see if I can bring you something back. Try to get some more rest, okay?”

I scooted out of the bed and switched on the bedside lamp, casting warm, yellow light around the room.

The kitchen was just down the hall, and the scent of food grew stronger as I approached. Luca looked up as I entered, cradling a glass casserole dish in a pair of oven mitts. Princess was sitting in her preferred—albeit forbidden—spot on the kitchen counter, her sleek tail curled neatly over her paws.

“Hey,” I said. “Is that baked mac and cheese? Oh, my god. You’re totally my favorite. Have I mentioned that?”

Luca gave a soft snort of amusement and set the casserole down on a wooden cutting board to cool. “Do I get extra points for putting buttered breadcrumbs on top?”

“Damn straight you do,” I said. “How are you? And... where are the others?”

The clock on the wall said eight-thirty p.m., but I couldn’t hear anyone else moving around the house.

“Zalen and Byron are still at the Hope Project,” Luca said, neatly sidestepping the first question. “I imagine there’s a fair amount of damage control, especially after Emiel flaked out on Friday. He was supposed to be the one looking after things while the others were stuck in the heat nest.”

I winced. “Ah.”

“Speaking of which,” Luca continued, before I could circle back to how he was doing, “your Mexican blocker pill came in the mail.”

I sighed. “Terrific.”

“Yeah, super helpful, right?” Luca sounded as sour as I felt. “Anyway, Zalen stuck it in the freezer, since he wasn’t sure what you’d want to do with it. It’ll keep a bit longer that way, at least.”

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