Roadkill laid a warm hand on his shoulder. “You make it sound as though you have a choice.”

“And youdidsay it would take a real man to make you submit,” Eve added.

He glared at her. “Not helping,” he ground out.

Roadkill’s eyes gleamed. “Oh, hesaidthat, did he?” His raw chuckle made Hashtag’s cock stiffen. “Trust me when I say you’ll be on your knees for me quite often.”

Warmth flooded him, and his mouth suffered from an excess of saliva. The hairs rose on his arms and nape, and his breathing quickened. A pleasurable shiver rolled through him, and his fingers tingled with the need to touch Roadkill.

All it had taken were a few words from Roadkill to make Hashtag want to drop down in front of his friend.

His mate.

Another shiver trickled through him. “Yes, sir,” he murmured.

Roadkill’s hand was gentle on Hashtag’s cheek. “Good boy.”

Eve laughed. “Oh, I can see the three of us havingsomuch fun together.”

And now she said that? Hashtag could see it too.

“AndIcan see we have a lot to talk about,” he said at last.

Saul had nailed it. Hashtag’s life was about to get really interesting.

HASHTAG SATon one of the patio chairs that surrounded the fire pit, a bottle of beer in his hand. Eve was in the kitchen with Dellan and Mrs. Landon, and by the sound of their laughter, everyone was getting along like a house on fire.

Didn’t see this coming.Then he smiled to himself.Neither did Roadkill.

Wow. I can still hear you when you’re out there. This is wild!

Yeah, the sooner he talked with Horvan about that mental lockbox thingy, the better. It was getting very noisy inside his head.

“Okay if I join you?”

He jumped at the sound of Horvan’s deep, quiet voice. “Sure.” He indicated the nearest empty chair. “Funny. I was just thinking about you.”

Horvan sat, nursing his own beer bottle. “So… you and Roadkill. Mates.”

“Yeah. Who would’ve thunk it?”

And it still feels so fucking surreal.

Horvan leaned forward, elbows balanced on his knees, the bottle swinging between them. “And you never felt anykindof pull toward him?”

Hashtag wasn’t sure he knew how to answer that.

Both Roadkill and Eve shared that same intoxicating scent, but it was more than that. He’d always admired Roadkill’s body, slighter than his own bulk. The musky odor that clung to him after they finished a hard workout. The way he smiled.

Was that attraction?Did he have the hots for Roadkill even before he knew what it meant? Now that he was aware what they were to each other, he could think of a thousand different things he’d noticed about Roadkill that he never bothered to catalog about any of the others. The timbre of his voice had vibrated all the way to Hashtag’s core on more than one occasion.

Then he recalled his pangs of jealousy whenever he’d seen Roadkill go off with a woman. Hashtag had always believed it had been because he’d felt the woman should’ve wantedhim.

And now, with the benefit of hindsight?

Maybe he’d been jealous ofher.

He took a swig from his bottle. “Not only is this all new, it’s opened up a whole different dynamic.”