Page 11 of The Gamma's Second Chance

“Whatcanyou do then?”

I slide my fork through the pie, scooping the piece onto the tines as steam wafts into the air. My lips purse and I lean closer, blowing on the piping hot dish to cool it down before I take my first bite.

“I can see small, random snippets of things. Either before or as they are happening. Occasionally after they’ve happened. All of us can, but only a handful of true oracles have full visions. I can also manipulate, suppress, or hide auras from other beings,” I say.

I pop the bite into my mouth, chewing as I wait for him to reply, to react to what I said, holding in a moan at the taste of my food. And I swear to the goddess I see the exact moment the lightbulb in his head blinks on.

His tense body relaxes a hair and his eyes lift to my face. “That’s why you’re here,” he says, straightening. “To help Haven with her aura.”

I nod, holding eye contact with him. His wolf is in the forefront of his mind, drawn forward by our discussion of his luna. I keep my movements minimal and my body language unthreatening, and I push my lycan to the back of my mind, even though his wolf draws her forward slightly, so he knows I mean no harm to his luna.

I definitely don’t need him to view me as a threat. He already doesn’t want me here. No need to add fuel to the fire.

“Yes,” I say after I’ve swallowed my food. “I’ll be working with you for the remainder of her pregnancy.”

He nods slowly. “So you’ll be coming to her rehearsal with us today?”

“If that’s what’s on her schedule, then yes.”

He nods again. “Good.” He pushes off from the counter and stalks across the kitchen towards the exit. “I’m going to get cleaned up before we have to leave.”

I follow him and veer off to my left as he goes to the right so I can sit at the table, and that small black box catches my eye again. I pinch my lips together and glance at him over my shoulder before he walks through the doorway. “Who is the lucky female?”

He freezes and catches himself with his hands on the archway, the veins in his forearms bulging and pulsing, and his back muscles tensing and rippling. A tattoo stretches across his shoulder blades and down his spine, one that wasn’t there when they came to the island. The wings span the width of his shoulders, attached to the hilt of a sword that extends down his spine. I tear my eyes away from his muscles and the magnificent tattoo as he turns, not wanting to be caught ogling him.

“What?” he spits out from behind clenched teeth, his eyes narrowing on me.

I point at it with my fork. “The ring on the table. I’m assuming it’s for your… girlfriend? Mate?”

His narrowed gaze shifts from me to the unassuming box on the light brown wood table, and he stares at it. His shoulders rise and fall in incredibly slow, measured breaths, his eyes closing and his hands curling into fists.

Ten seconds pass. Ten long, almost painful, tension-filled seconds, where I don’t know if he’ll erupt in a violent backlash like he did yesterday or if he’ll hold it all in, tucking it away to save until it all builds and explodes from him again.

I hold my breath and back up a step as he strolls to the table and snatches the box into his fist, then he whirls around and speed walks out, leaving my question hanging in the air unanswered.

I let out my held breath and move to the table, excited to relax and eat the rest of my homemade spinach pie, but my excitement is short-lived.

“What the fuck?” Nolan’s voice echoes back to me from near the front door. “What is this shit?” he asks, and I set my plate down and poke my head out of the kitchen to see what he’s talking about.

He stares at the shiny black baby grand piano in his living room, where I placed a vase of fresh-cut yellow and white daisies. “Oh. I picked those up from the little market in the pack’s town last night when I bought the ingredients to make my spinach pie. I thought the place needed a little… brightening up.”

“And you chose to put them on top of my piano?”

“I did. It’s the perfect spot for them. Do you see how the natural light filters in through that window there?” I point to the beams of light shining across the surface of the piano. “It will highlight them beautifully almost all day.”

He crosses his arms. “Hmm.”

“It’s an exquisite instrument, by the way,” I say, nodding at the piano. “Do you play?”

His head turns, a slow swivel from the daisies to me. He stares at me, unblinking and unspeaking. Then he turns on his heel and heads up the stairs to his bedroom. “We’re leaving for the city in one hour, and you’d better be ready,” he says without turning around, his bedroom door shutting before I can respond.

Chapter 4

NOLAN

“I’m taking your truck.”

Wes lifts his eyes from the legal pad next to his laptop as I enter his office in the packhouse. “Excuse me?”

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