Page 31 of Untamed Instincts

“Who knew feeding a bunch of starving bears was an Olympic sport?” Killian grinned as Ryker walked in with even more bags and booty-bumped the door closed behind him.

The scent of delicious food made Quinton’s stomach rumble fiercely. That happened after healing in his animal form. He always woke up starving.

Arching a brow, Quinton scowled at Killian.

Ryker rolled his eyes, as if unimpressed. “Nice save, bro. I hope your hands are that quick in more important situations.”

Killian snorted. “You wish your hands were this quick.”

“I bet your dates wish they weren’t,” Ryker retorted with a smirk.

Noah stifled a laugh, causing Quinton’s features to soften into a warm smile.

With Killian’s smooth recovery and hearing his mate’s quiet amusement, Quinton appreciated the light moment amid the tension in their lives.

“Um…” Ryker looked around. “Since your kitchen is too small, I guess we can park our butts on the rug and eat.”

Quinton and Noah helped them with the bags, allowing Ryker to set aside the drink carrier. Killian went to work stacking the containers according to the orders. There wasn’t any room to lay them out side-by-side.

“What’s the other bag for?” Noah threw open his lid and grabbed a fry. “Don’t tell me that’s a second round for you.”

Killian winked at Noah. “I’m a big boy.”

An involuntary snarl rolled through Quinton’s chest. His bear was being possessive and territorial since Noah was unclaimed. Plus, it was pissed Killian and Ryker had interrupted them.

Killian picked up his containers and moved to the other side of Ryker, putting more distance—if that was possible in such a small room—between him and Quinton. “I’d move farther away from Noah, but there is no farther in this room,” Killian said.

With the three of them in the living room, the space felt cramped. Although Noah was significantly smaller, Quinton still didn’t see how his mate hadn't gone crazy over the lack of square footage.

When Quinton sat, his knee bumped one of Ryker’s containers, nearly causing an avalanche.

“It’s all I can afford.” Noah munched on another fry, speaking matter-of-factly, as if he wasn’t offended by their remarks. “I couldn’t live another minute under the same roof as Jack. Since him and his buddies were the only shifters I know, I was under the impression all shifters were like him.”

“You have your dipshits in every species,” Killian said while grabbing one of his containers off his stack and flipping the lid open.

Ryker scowled. “None more than fairies. They think since—” He glanced at Noah with a grimace. “Tell me you knew fairies existed.”

Noah held his burger with two hands, his mouth slightly open, but had frozen. “Fairies?”

Quinton gently bumped his mate’s arm with his. He couldn’t get pissed at Ryker since he’d screwed up a few times himself. “Our good friends live here in Midnight Falls. The Frosts. All three of Kalen’s sons are mated to fairies, though they preferred to be called fae. I can introduce you to them if you’d like.”

“One of them is a 4,000-year-old warrior,” Killian interjected. “Big guy, like us. His mate just gave birth to a cute little girl a few months ago.”

“His mate’s a guy.” Ryker grinned. “Let your brain stew on that one for a while.”

“You’re messing with me.” Noah took a sip of his tea. “Guys can make babies, but they can’t give birth to them.”

Picking up one of Noah’s fries, Quinton fed it to his mate. Noah’s face flamed with heat, but he opened and accepted the fry. “Things work differently in our world,” he said to his mate, pleased at the fact Noah was taking all this information in stride. “We have the Ultionem. They’re powerful leaders from every species. When Damon was cursed into a deep sleep by an ancient vampire, the leaders had to combine their blood as they used some spell to pull him out of it.”

“Whether you’re male or female, if you’re a descendent of Prince Christian, or are infused with his blood, you can become pregnant,” Ryker added. “Either way works.”

Quinton remembered Kalen calling him after all of that had gone down. They’d talked on the phone for five hours while his friend basically used Quinton as his therapist, which he didn’t mind.

When it came to the Frosts, he would go above and beyond for them, just as the wolves had done for Quinton and his family.

As they enjoyed Roman’s cooking, they entertained Noah with stories of the insane things they’d been through, a lot of them hilarious now that enough time had passed to be considered funny.

“Did you just say demon?” Noah stared wide-eyed at Ryker, his nearly eaten burger gripped in one hand. The fries had disappeared ten minutes into the stories.

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