Page 49 of Outnumbered

He looked in the rearview mirror as we headed towards the house. “You okay?”

“Yes,” Caleb said. “Thanks for picking us up.”

“Aw, we forgot the cinnamon rolls,” I whined.

“There should be food at the house,” Riddick said. “If not, we’ll order stuff.”

Martin opened the center console and pulled out a granola bar. “Here, as a father, I always keep a snack or two in the car.”

“Yes!” I shouted and tore it open, shoving the entire thing in my mouth. Closing my eyes, I sighed happily as I ate it.

“Apparently teleportation magic makes her hungry,” Branson said with a chuckle.

“Wait, what? She teleported?” Martin asked.

Caleb nodded. “Dad taught her the basics and apparently the sneaky minx has been practicing in secret.”

Something hit the back of the SUV, making it swerve a bit, but Martin quickly got it back under control.

Looking behind us, we found the SUV that had pulled up to Misty’s café following us, a mage out the top shooting spells at us.

I groaned, leaned over the seat, and said, “I’m so over this.” Holding my hand out, I used my magic to grip the SUV’s driver’s side tire and crushed it. For added safety, I crushed the front passenger tire as well. Turning back around, I sat back in my seat and smiled. “There, now they can’t follow us.”

All eyes were on me.

Caleb bent and kissed me deeply, his tongue sweeping across mine and making my heart flutter. He pulled back so he could look at me, his eyes glowing. “That was so hot.”

“I’m in the car,” Martin reminded him. “Wait until you get to the house to maul each other.”

“Spoilsport,” Caleb teased, but as he shifted in his seat and put his arm around my shoulders, there was an obvious bulge in his sweatpants.

Averting my gaze, I hid my smile from him.

Chapter

Fourteen

The guys offered to make breakfast, but I shooed them all out so I could cook the meal for a change. While I appreciated them making me food all the time, I wanted to be a contributing member to our pack as well.

Caleb tried to come in twice, but I kicked him out each time. He pouted, but obeyed, even stuck his bottom lip out the second time. I held strong despite it and didn’t even laugh like I wanted to.

With so many shifters to feed, it required a lot of food. Thankfully, there were ingredients to make pancakes and a flat iron cooktop so I could cook several at once. I put two trays of bacon in the oven, cracked and scrambled two dozen eggs, made hashbrowns by shaping them into five rectangles on the flat iron cooktop, diced up and cooked spinach and bell peppers to mix into the scrambled eggs. I also added a bit of shredded cheese to the scrambled eggs, since I knew Branson liked cheese in his eggs.

Sweating, but smiling profusely as I finished putting all the food on platters, I called out, “Food is ready!”

Caleb, Riddick, Branson, and Triston walked into the kitchen. Their eyes widened at the food, but they silently grabbed a platter of food each, and carried them to the dining table.

“Everything smells delicious,” Branson praised me.

“Thanks,” I said. “Hopefully, it tastes good, too.”

Triston went back into the kitchen and came back with a mimosa in hand, making my eyes widen. He winked. “I thought you might enjoy a drink after saving us earlier and cooking us a feast.”

I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t save us and this is hardly a feast.”

“You did save us. Those four mages were pretty powerful and it would have been a pain to fight them. You protected us,” Riddick argued.

My cheeks burned and I said, “Well, you and Caleb protected us earlier. That’s what pack does, right? We protect each other?”

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