Unwanted Appeal (Hidden Wolves Book 3) by Kaje Harper

Author:Kaje Harper [Harper, Kaje]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

A good breakfast went a long way to righting the wrongs of the world. And Aaron had one of the best under his belt, thanks to Simon showing up early and shooing Zach out of the kitchen. After Paul had checked Jason’s healing, that knife still at the wolf’s throat, Simon had cooked.

Aaron loved Zach, too much for comfort sometimes, but he was going to have to apprentice him to Simon for a while if they wanted to eat decently on Zach’s cooking nights. Zach had been fully healed for two months now, and they were still having takeout most of his turns. Aaron scraped a bite of Simon’s ham-and-green-pepper frittata off his plate and sighed with pleasure.

Around the room, the other men cradled their own plates, digging into the food. He’d sent Mark home to his pregnant wife at two. Richard had stayed, and he, Lucas, and Zach had all hung out with Aaron through the early hours, while Cord lay curled up obediently in a corner of the room, and Jason dozed on his mat. The pack vigilance was probably overkill, but having strangers inside his house gave Aaron a very edgy feeling, and he’d been glad of the company. Zach had claimed he couldn’t sleep and had let Aaron beat him solidly at Scrabble. Three times.

Throughout the night, Jason had repeatedly woken, silent and stoic. They’d fed him most of the hamburger from the freezer. He’d stopped oozing blood eventually, although he’d snored through his swollen muzzle whenever he’d managed to sleep. Once Paul arrived and pronounced him strong enough, he’d shifted back to human obediently, but so far he hadn’t said another word. He sat with his tall body hunched over, the covers tucked around him, his stomach apparently too full of meat to want eggs. Even these. His loss.

Aaron chased the last bits of frittata around his plate, keeping his eyes on his fork. He heard Zach say something softly to Simon, heard Jason move restlessly and take a short painful breath. Everyone was pretending it was just a casual Sunday morning, but he could taste the tension building. Even Simon had stopped cracking jokes. When Aaron opened his bond to Zach a fraction wider, he could feel anxiety and compassion and nerves and that restless, itchy need that said Zach was really on edge, possibly even thinking about booze. Aaron centered himself and opened the bond completely, to let Zach feel his calmness in return.

Zach had spent some time, careful and solicitous, taking care of Jason once he was back to human. He’d helped him get clean and loaned him some of Aaron’s loosest clothes to ease on over his broken bones. Zach volunteering to get close to Jason, rather than let Paul do it, had grated on Aaron, but had probably been safer. For everyone, given Simon’s jumpiness. Aaron had taken it as a good test of his own resolution not to be a possessive ass, and had managed not to hover.

Jason was now washed, hair combed, and dressed.

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