Page 104 of Cam's Treasure

Kai showed up when I was mixing the pancake batter, and with his help, I finished faster than I would've alone, and he took over stirring the eggs as Cam and Micah arrived, shooing me off so I could freshen up.

When I returned, they'd cleared the dining table and set it for breakfast, and I took the empty chair beside Micah as Cam hopped up to serve everyone, batting my hand off when I tried to help.

Conversation flowed over breakfast as we tried to settle on what we'd do today, words moving seamlessly between the mental link and voice as we ate.

While I'd made many friends over my long lifetime, some human, some who I was still in contact with, I'd never felt so at ease and so able to be myself around anyone else.

My mates didn't expect me to act a certain way, or give me weird looks when I didn't. They didn't mind that I'd basically taken over the house and all the duties it entailed, or how I could be extremely particular about some things. They just accepted me as I was, and I'd never had that before.

"Okay, so hiking it is!" I jolted at Cam's words, giving him a wide-eyed look.

"What?"

Cam snickered. "I thought that would get your attention. Don't worry—I'm not planning to torture you."

I slumped into my chair, shaking my head at the troublemaker. I was not a fan of physically taxing activities—except sex, of course—especially when I was close to the end of my cycle, and Cam knew that very well.

Once we'd cleared up the breakfast mess and Micah helped me load up the dishwasher, we headed to the living room, where Cam, Kai, and Jodi had already taken up most of the couch.

"Jodi, why don't you go lie down on your bed?" I asked, and my faithful companion looked at me, then looked at Cam—whose lap she'd laid her head in as he petted her—and rested her head in his lap once more, ignoring me completely.

Sighing, I settled on the armchair, then pulled Micah to me when he started to lower himself to the ground, settling him in my lap.

"There. That's more comfy than the floor," I murmured, and Micah made a strangled sound before sinking back into my chest.

The click of a camera shutter caught my attention, and I looked up to find Cam grinning widely as he took another picture of us with his phone. "You two look so cute together."

Smiling at him, I wrapped my arms around Micah's waist because I had a feeling he'd try to escape. I liked holding him in my lap, liked the way every breath carried his scent with him.

Once Cam was satisfied with taking pictures of us, he scrolled through his phone for a bit before letting out an excited "Oh!"

I knew Cam well enough by now to know that word had a 50/50 chance of leading into something crazy, so I braced myselfas Kai leaned closer to him, asking him what it was as he tried to peer at Cam's phone.

"I just realized I forgot something important," Cam said, eyes moving between Kai and me. "It's time to officially initiate you into the Mistvale clan."

I remembered him mentioning that a week or so after we met, but then Kai arrived and everything got hectic, and afterward, we'd all forgotten about it.

"I'm scared to ask. Will I have to promise my firstborn or something?" Kai joked, making Cam laugh.

"Well, since your firstborn will also be my firstborn, no," Cam said, apparently not noticing the stunned look on Kai's face as he continued. "The final step will be a welcome party at the packland where you'll get to meet all the clan members, but before that is a very important step."

Knowing Cam, it could be literally anything, so we both waited warily while Micah enjoyed the show. Surely, if it was something really crazy, Micah would've reacted, right?

"Where's your phone?" Cam asked Kai, and he made a face as he tried to remember.

"Uh...in the bedroom, I think?"

We'd gotten Kai a phone when we'd first gone clothes shopping for him, but he'd merely set it aside until Cam had discovered the phone being used as a paperweight and set it up for Kai.

Since Kai didn't really have anyone he needed or wanted to contact and he could talk to us through the mental link whenever he wanted, his phone was usually lying in some corner, forgotten.

"Okay, we'll get it later. But for now..." Cam trailed off dramatically as he started typing on his phone, and a few moments later, mine buzzed in my pocket.

Micah leaned to the side so I could pull it out, and it continued to buzz as I did, making me wonder if Cam had called me. Why he would do that when he was sitting right in front of me was anyone's guess.

But no, it wasn't a call. It was a dozen or so—and rapidly growing—texts, and I realized Cam had added me in a group called The Mistvale Clan.

I scrolled through the messages, brows raising at Cam's introduction text.

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