Page 107 of The Heat of Us

I waved my hand. That was the easy part. “Don’t worry, guys. I got this,” I said confidently.

Everyone’s phones pinged simultaneously.

“What the…”

“You cannot be serious.”

“What the fuck.”

I grinned and pointed around the room. “Ben. Remy. Aleks. Hazel. Pack BRAH!”

I was a complete and utter genius.

Ben was fuming. “I have never hated anything more in my fucking life.”

I grinned impudently. “Why, brah?”

He carefully laid down the spatula. His hand twitched like it was itching to grab something sharp. “I will end you,” Ben told me calmly. “Aleks, don’t resuscitate him.”

“Wasn’t gonna,” Aleks called out.

Hazel was tapping away at her phone. I looked down at my own and gasped. “Why did you leave?”

Aleks had his phone out too. “Oh, are we allowed to leave it?”

This was getting out of hand. Hazel’s phone chirped with the notification that she had been re-added. “There,” I informed her brightly. “I corrected your mistake.”

Hazel looked like she was about to cry and laugh at the same time.

Ben’s phone was lying on the kitchen counter and he stared at it like it was radioactive. “We’re really doing this, are we?”

“Have you got a better name in mind?”

“Literally anything would be better than this,” Ben lashed at me.

“Yet, I don’t see you making suggestions?” I fired back.

Aleks stood up, giving Hazel apologetic kisses as he did so. “I need to get to work.” He levelled us with a flat stare. “Maybe you can decide who the top dog is because this bickering thing you’re doing is really getting on my nerves.”

He was annoyingly correct.

We still hadn’t established who was prime yet and it was grating on both our alphas. Neither of us were willing to back down.

Ben stopped Aleks on his way out. “I made this for you to eat on your break, since you’re missing dinner,” he said, pressing a tupperware container into his hands.

“Oh, thanks, man.”

Pffttt. What a suck-up, bribing pack members with dinners to go.

Hazel slid over on the couch and kicked my shin.

“What! I didn’t say anything,” I complained, rubbing my leg.

“I can read you like a book, Remington Blake.”

Dinner was tense. It didn’t help that I was seated on the opposite side of the table to Ben so we had nothing to do except stare murderously at each other.

“You guys are making it very difficult for me to enjoy my noodles,” Hazel grumbled.

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