Page 16 of The Alpha Option
“Yes.” Blue said it with an absolutely straight face.
It was the fact he didn’t say anything else and just sat there staring at them that made his words seem far too ominous and real.
Jace sighed. “Stop it, Blue.”
Blue straightened then winked at Cassidy. “But see, now that I did that, when I dothis, you’ll know to trust me. It is an awful lot like the Mafia, and there is the potential for death, but it wouldn’t be yours, so you don’t need to worry about that part.”
“Blue.” Sharper this time from Jace. A strange crack of power hit the room along with the scent that lingers after a lightning strike.
The other man sprawled lazily on the couch beside Stephanie, stretching out with his arms along the backrest. “Too bad your spooky voice doesn’t work on me, cuz.”
“You’re not helping.”
“And you’re overanalyzing,” Blue insisted. “They’re going to understand.”
“And you know this how? Because you’ve got some magical sixth sense—” Jace started and then cut off suddenly. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay. You do have some magical sixth sense to tell you these things. I’m sorry.”
“No offense taken,” Blue said cheerfully. “Do you want to start, or shall I?”
“You already started,” Jace muttered.
Stephanie’s gaze had been bouncing back and forth between the two men. “It’s amazing how entertaining you two are considering you haven’t said a single thing I can comprehend.”
“Does this information you need to tell us have to do with Timberwolf Lodge? Because if yes, I’d really like to know sooner than later. Like in the next century,” Cassidy offered.
“It only has to do with the lodge on one level. Maybe two.” Jace frowned. “Okay, it’s totally tangled together with the lodge. So, here’s the thing. Our auntie, who gave you the lodge…” He shook his head. “No. Wrong place to start.”
He glanced over at his cousin as if asking for help.
Blue shot to his feet and paced behind the couch. “See? I knew it. Even people at the top of the food chain can eventually learn.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get on with it.”
“This will be much easier with a demonstration. Consider me your live-actionwhat we’re dealing with herestarting point, and Jace will fill in the gaps after that.” He unbuttoned his shirt, slipped it from his shoulders, and hung it over the back of the couch.
When he proceeded to undo his button and fly and drop his pants, Cassidy decided she wasn’t about to stop him. After all, what was another naked man in her house? Albeit in the living room this time instead of the kitchen.
Stephanie leaned back on the couch and peeked behind the backrest. “Want me to find some music? To help set the mood?”
By this time, Blue was naked. “Nope. This’ll only take a minute.”
Too bad Cassidy couldn’t blame it on a sugar coma. But it was no hallucination. One minute Blue stood there, a prime example of manhood, and the next, a large wolf rounded the corner of the couch and sat on the floor by the coffee table. Head tilted to the side with the same cocky expression Blue had worn seconds earlier.
“Oh. Okay.” Cassidy pinched her wrist and then glanced at Jace in the chair next to her. She wasn’t totally clueless but seeing someone new do this same outlandish trick had sent a shot of adrenaline streaking through her. “You can get furry.”
Stephanie’s jaw hung open. “Seriously? Okay, let me do the math here. If you two are cousins, and it was your auntie who owned TimberwolfLodge, then this place is, like, totally your ‘family’ home.”
She put air quotes around the wordfamily.
Blue panted, smiling directly at Jace.
“I hate you,” Jace told him. “You’re going to be impossible to live with.”
The wolf yipped and grinned even harder.
Jace turned to Cassidy. “Not the reaction I expected. You know about shifters?”
She now better understood hisit’s complicatedcomment. “I do, but more in a rhetorical sense. Head knowledge and not actual how-it-all-works knowledge. You’ve still got some explaining to do, especially when it comes to you and your cousin Del and whatever big scary things seem to be hanging over all our heads.”
