Page 69 of How to Hack a Hellhound
I eventually managed to extricate myself from his million questions with the promise to chat more later, and I made my way out onto the front porch to get a little fresh air. I wasn’t upset, exactly, but it wasn’t nice remembering what Emmett had done.
When I got outside, I saw Seb at the railing, two crows hopping in front of him.
“Hey, Seb,” I said.
He startled, and one of the crows cawed at me. I put my hands up in a gesture of not meaning any harm, because the crow seemed a little pissed.
Seb just laughed. “It’s ok, guys, he’s a friend,” he said to the birds. Then he motioned me over and grabbed my hand, putting something in it. It felt like a peanut. “Give that to them,” he ordered.
I placed the peanut on the porch railing, and one of them hopped over suspiciously and took it, then hopped back over in front of Seb.
“I thought birds were Corbin’s thing,” I joked.
Seb looked at me. “Oh, cool, does he like crows? I love them. They’re totally cool. They’re super smart, and they’ll rememberfriends and enemies. You’re not technically allowed to have them as pets, because you can basically teach them to steal from people.”
I laughed. “Now that’s my kind of bird,” I joked.
Seb reached out and actually pet one on the neck, and it tilted its head down for a scratch. Ok, then—maybe he wasn’t human. Shapeshifter? I didn’t think it would be polite to ask, so we made some small talk before I made my way back inside.
I was going to find Aiden and check in on him when I saw Josh standing off to the side. He still pinged my radar. Something was up with him, but I wasn’t close enough to him to pry. Still, maybe I’d ask Toby.
Aiden and Liam didn’t seem to be in sight, and I wandered through the house. I thought I heard voices on the back porch, and I walked over. It wasn’t that I was being sneaky or anything, because I was sure Liam knew exactly where I was at every moment. Aiden was in the middle of a bit of a rant, though.
“—it’s only natural to expect that. And I’ll befine,” Aiden was insisting.
“It’s not happening,” Liam answered.
“You think I don’t know it’s weird? I’m a grown man, for goodness sake. I know it’s weird. And I’ll get over it, and I’ll be able to live on my own justfine. You guys won’t be far, and it’s not like I’m not protected, so it’s really okay. It’s natural that you guys will want your own space,” he insisted.
What the fuck? Did Aiden think we were moving out?
“Aiden, enough.” Uh oh, my sexy stalker sounded like he was getting aggravated. “We are not goinganywhere.Nothing is changing. You’ll come climb into bed whenever you want, and we’ll cuddle and get up in the morning and bond over Quinton’s foul morning mood. And I’ll continue to enjoy your pastries. End of story.”
I could hear Aiden huff out a breath. “I would be ok. I don’t want you guys to feel responsible for me. I could always adopt Fluffy for company.”
“Fluffy?” Liam asked, and his voice sounded weird.
“Yeah.” Aiden chuckled self-consciously. “I don’t know the guard dog’s name, so I just call him Fluffy.”
“Fluffy.” Liam was making some kind of strangled noise—I couldn’t tell if he was trying not to choke or trying not to laugh.
I didn’t know what was up, but I stepped outside, pointing a finger at Aiden. “Listen, asshole, you are not goinganywhere. How dare you think of leaving us!”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t leave you. You guys would just move into Liam’s house. I’m sure you guys want privacy.”
“Why would we want privacy?” I demanded.
Aiden tilted his head back in exasperation, and Liam just muttered, “Fluffy,” and made that strangled choking-laugh sound again.
“Stop making fun of my nickname for the guard dog! He’s super sweet! And he is fluffy!” Aiden demanded, pointing his finger at Liam. Then he looked over to me, adding, “And you guys are going to want to have sex and stuff. Hello.”
“Um, yeah, we already have sex. Lots of sex,” I told Aiden. “What, you think we can’t be creative? Who has sex in the middle of the night, anyway? If Liam wakes me up from a dead sleep for sex, he’s more likely to get his dick punched than he is to get it into any one of my holes.”
Aiden snorted at me, and I looked over to see Liam smiling like I was just the cutest little feral cat he’d ever met. I rolled my eyes at him.
“Q…” Aiden started.
I cut him off. “We aren’t going anywhere, and neither are you. We have plenty of time for sex and wedohave a whole other house if we need privacy. And you go for those nice long walksin the woods, or hell, you can use the other house if you want to get away from us. Or you can kick us out for an afternoon or something if you’re sick of us, but we are not moving out. We’re family, and we’re staying.”
