Page 57 of The Gamma's Second Chance

I sigh and take a large swig of my beer before I set it on the counter with a soft thud, smacking my lips and raising my chin at him as I cross my arms in front of me. “All right. Let’s hear it.”

Reid’s smile grows. He and Sebastian exchange a glance, and I brace myself for the impact.

Sebastian furrows his brow, but his eyes glitter with humor as he mimics me. “You should be home resting.”

“Not that shirt! It’s Sebastian’s!” Reid says, deepening his voice to a growl.

“Don’t make me carry you home, Daisy!” Sebastian adds, getting louder.

I groan and rub my temples, even though I asked for it. “Yeah. You deserved that pounding I gave you.”

Sebastian has the audacity to appear affronted. “You should be thanking me. You were miserable, and now you’re not.”

I grunt my response and take another large drink of my beer, then glance over my shoulder. It doesn’t take long for my eyes to lock onto Cassandra. She stands with Haven, Taryn, Maya, and Taryn’s friend Blake, a tail-wagging, tutu-wearing Cav at their feet. Savvy grips Cassandra’s finger in her fist, and Cassandra smiles at her as she leans forward and speaks to her.

It’s too loud in Wes and Haven’s house for me to hear what she says, but Savvy’s gray eyes light up, and she giggles, and Cassandra laughs with her. Cav barks his approval and then catches my eye, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and I swearhe glances between Cassandra and me several times, like he’s urging me to join her.

I spring off the stool and stride over to them, unbothered by the laughter ringing from my three friends behind me. I reach the little group just as Taryn asks, “Do you want to hold her?”

Cassandra pinches her lips together and shakes her head, prying her fingers from Savvy’s fierce grip. “No, that’s quite all right,” she says.

I slide my arm around her waist from behind, my hold firm and possessive but casual at the same time, and I draw her further into my protective stance, my fingers teasing her waist and her ribs. She gestures behind us towards the dining room with the hand holding her beer bottle. “Wesley is going to ask who wants to—”

“All right, we’re going to play poker while we wait for Mateo and Mason to finish the burgers,” Wesley says, slamming a deck of cards onto his dining room table, and Cassandra lifts a brow pointedly. “Who’s in?”

Everyone voices their response at once and makes their way to the table, finding seats and grabbing refills on drinks and snacks before getting comfortable. Cassandra’s gaze follows Taryn and Savvy as they make their way to Reid, and Reid scoops Savvy into his arms before taking a seat next to Wesley. Savvy blows a raspberry and then laughs, covering her mouth with her hands as her nose crinkles with delight, and the entire table laughs right along with her, Reid’s eyes beaming with pride.

I chuckle, and Cassandra takes a drink of her beer, her eyes closing as she tilts her chin back to drain the bottle. “I’m going to grab another. Do you want one?” she asks once she’s finished her drink, glancing at me.

“Sure,” I say, kissing below her ear. “I’ll save you a seat.”

She nods, and after I give her a squeeze, I unwind my arm from her waist and let her go as I walk to the table. I sit nextto Haven, ignoring the conversation around me and watching Cassandra for the entire two minutes it takes for her to set her empty bottle on the counter with the other recycling, grab two beers from the fridge, open both, and return to my side.

“Will you be playing too, Cassandra?” Wesley asks from Haven’s right.

Cassandra shakes her head and shrugs one shoulder. “I actually don’t know how to play poker.”

“You can help me, then,” I say, pushing my chair back from the table and patting my thigh. “I need a good luck charm, and you can learn while you watch.”

I yank her down onto my lap before she can respond, my arm once more winding around her waist. She sets my new beer on the table, since I’m still working on my first, and settles herself against my chest as I scoot us closer to the table again. My fingers flex against her hip as she wraps her lips around the top of her beer and takes a swig, holding eye contact with me the entire time, and my dick twitches when she licks a tiny drop off her mouth when she pulls the bottle away.

“That’s not fair.” Reid points at us, and we both whip our heads towards him, all dirty thoughts leaving my mind at the sound of his voice. “Can’t she read minds?”

I chuckle. “She can’t read minds.”

Reid frowns. “She’s an oracle.”

I shake my head and set my old beer next to my new beer, and Cassandra’s shoulders shake as she sips hers in my lap. “That’s not how it works,” I say, smugly, as if I didn’t make similar assumptions when she first arrived here.

“How does it work, then?” Reid asks.

Cassandra clears her throat and leans forward to set her beer next to mine as Wesley deals the cards. “None of us can read minds. We all have a range of abilities—some generic and some unique. Most of us can see glimpses of things or people. Forexample, I saw Nolan leave to go on a morning run a few weeks ago, but it was a flash and then it was gone. When an oracle is marked by their fated mate, they gain access to the full depth of their abilities and are no longer considered an acolyte.”

My throat tightens, and beneath the table, my fingers slide down to her inner thigh, brushing over my name on her leg through the fabric of her dress. She stares down at the table, her eyes closing and her expression unreadable, before she opens them again and paints a smile on her face.

“That’s like Taryn’s healing abilities, then,” Blake says, tucking the white streak in her otherwise black hair behind her ear. “She can draw on Reid’s strength to fuel her when she’s healing someone.”

Cassandra sways her head from side to side. “I suppose it is a little similar, yes.”

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