Page 50 of Reaper's Pack

“Declan,” I growled, pointing a stiff warning finger at him, “fuck off.”

“You said that already,” the hellhound muttered without missing a beat. “Just put your pride aside and let me try—”

“Why?” I caught him dead center in the chest and shoved, forcing him back a few feet—though that did nothing to wipe his smile away. “Are you somehow an expert in the art of bow tying?”

“Look, you don’t know everything. Just stop being a stubborn dick—”

“Mind your place, Declan.”

“Fuck off, Gunnar. Let me just—”

“Don’t touch me!”

“Stop squirming!”

We wrestled with only a hint of seriousness; no one in this pack had ever come to physical blows with one another, and that wasn’t about to change over a fucking bow tie. In our hellhound forms, we played roughly, jostling about, nipping at each other, and that seemed to translate to this, whatever this was, Declan doing his damnedest to get at my bow tie, me bodychecking him off…

And Knox fully engrossed in his book.

How the tables had bloody turned.

I had Declan in a headlock when a soft throat clearing stilled the entire room. Releasing my packmate, I swiped a hand through my hair, both of us straightening, panting as we faced the doorway.

In which stood Hazel.

Wearing…

Oh fuck, what was she wearing?

A pulse of slack-jawed idiocy quivered through the pack bond, all three of us ogling the reaper like we had never seen a female before. When she stepped into the room, however, the stunned silence turned sharply to lust, so much so that Declan actually staggered a few paces toward her, enraptured.

Like me, Hazel had dressed in black tonight, which was no big change from her usual palate. However, rather than shapeless robes and unflattering shirts, she had donned a gown. A fancy dress to pair with my suit. The garment had no sleeves, her arms and shoulders bare, her collarbones on display for the first time. A heart-shaped neckline curved over her bust, leading the eye down to a snug bodice adorned with glittering gemstones that caught the room’s soft light magnificently. Fabric continued to cling to her delectable figure, over her hips, no doubt perfectly cupping her pert little ass, right down to her thighs. At her knees, the material flared to the floor. The reaper appeared slightly taller than usual, and the faint but firm click of her shoes was different than any we’d heard before.

She had dressed up for tonight.

And… She had dressed me up for tonight too.

I tried to gulp, but my mouth was just too fucking dry.

Cheeks flushed, Hazel looked between the three of us swiftly, clutching a gold strapless purse in both hands. Her white mane had been wrangled into an elegant knot on top of her head, exposing the beautiful lines of her neck, the slope to her shoulders…

Jealousy pounded through me out of nowhere, unexpected and strong, at the thought that Declan had touched her, tasted her, fucked her and I hadn’t. The emotion throbbed through our pack bond before I could stop it, but I shoved the pathetic emotion deep, deep down inside me, even as Declan and Knox’s gazes burned into the side of my face.

They understood the feeling. We were one, after all. But that did nothing to quell the sudden embarrassment, my face on fire, my palms sweaty.

“You look lovely, Hazel,” Declan offered, shattering the terse silence that had stretched on since her arrival. She swiped at her hair, tucking a few stray strands behind her ear, her blush delicate—and intimate, having just received a compliment from a lover.

Jealousy and longing twined together like thorny vines around my heart, my hands curling to fists at my sides.

“Thank you, Declan,” she murmured, her gaze darting to me. “Are you ready? The suit seems to fit well—”

“Yes, yes,” I growled brusquely, stalking across the room and ignoring Declan’s glare in passing. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

The whip-sharp snap of Knox’s book closing made me flinch, but no more than the ripple of upset across Hazel’s lovely features. Our rejection hurt her; we had known that from the first week here, and yet we continued to do it despite our plan to win her over with kindness.

Well. I continued to do it. She and Knox seemed to have found some begrudging mutual acceptance since the spirit encounter.

And Declan…

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