Page 35 of The Return
He squinted at me, then started stripping his clothes. I loved the fact wolves had no sense of modesty. Once he had finished taking them off, he reverently folded them and placed them on the top of the building. “Thank you for this,” he said, his voice breaking. “It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Before I could reply and say how sad that was, Matt had shifted and marched inside, where he lay down on the comfy blankets. As soon as he put his head on his paws, I went back into the house.
Jonas and Kinsey stopped talking, instead turning to look at me. “Everything okay?” Jonas asked.
“Oh, peachy,” I said. “I’m looking forward to meeting the Council.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Corey….”
I gave him a smile. “Who wants pizza?”
Monday couldn’t come soon enough.
JONAS
Corey was upand bouncing around the house at three on Monday morning. I lay in bed, watching as he got up, then zipped from room to room, starting coffee, throwing on some breakfast, and finally, coming back to the bedroom.
“Get up.”
“But I’m tired,” I whined. “Watching you exhausted me.”
He snickered. “If you think that’s bad, just wait.”
That got my attention. “What are you going to do?”
He gave me his most innocent—and obviously fake—smile. “Whatever do you mean?”
This did not bode well. “I need you to talk to me.”
“And I need you to get your ass in gear. Everything is ready, so let’s boogie.”
Then he was gone again. I don’t think I ever dressed so fast. When I got down to the kitchen, I found Kinsey standing at the window as he sipped a cup of coffee and looked out into the backyard.
“It looks good, Corey,” he said. “Matt seems very comfortable.”
“I’m glad,” he replied, as he plated up scrambled eggs and cheese, slid a mound of sausage onto a platter, then placed them on the table. He went to the oven, opened it, and pulled out baking tins with biscuits, which he piled onto another plate and placed in the center of the table, then added butter and jam to the setup.
After he had everything out, he opened the back door and shouted for Matt, who came bouncing in moments later. He shifted, then sat naked at the table. I looked to Corey, who seemed to take this as an ordinary thing. That made me smile, because he’d be seeing a lot of naked shifters during our pack runs.
“Mmm, this is delicious,” Matt said, stuffing a sausage into his mouth.
“It’s eggs and cheese,” Corey teased. “Kinda hard to mess up.”
Matt hummed happily as he ate his breakfast. “Aren’t you eating, Kinsey?”
He shook his head. “I’ll pick up something later.”
“No, you won’t. Sit your ass down and eat.”
I chuckled, especially seeing Kinsey’s eyes narrow. He glanced at me, and I shrugged.
“The mate has spoken,” I said, pointing to an open chair. “Respect the mate.”
It almost seemed that Kinsey was going to argue with me, but he went to the chair and flopped into it. He glared at the offending breakfast plate before picking up a fork and taking the first bite.
“Okay, you can tell me how good it is now,” Corey teased him.
“It’s okay,” Kinsey mumbled around the big mouthful of food he’d just shoveled in. “The biscuits are a little dry.”
