Page 36 of Wolf Lost

“It was impressive,” Gavin agreed.

Dez didn’t seem troubled by the amount of food he’d consumed, and Sawyer thought he might have been the only one who’d managed to match Miranda Shane. He held onto Sawyer’s hand, as he had through most of the evening, and smiled his secretive little smile.

Meanwhile, Sawyer hadn’t been so full of energy in months. “They were amazing! Can we visit them in Denver like Willa suggested? I want to see her bossing betas around.”

Gavin chuckled, but Ash cocked his head to one side. “You know, me too. She’s not as loud as her mother, but I can totally see her doing it. She knows what she wants.”

“She doesn’t want Max like her mother wishes she did,” Sawyer added. The matriarch’s wish for her second and her daughter to get together hadn’t been particularly subtle, nor had their disinterest in each other.

Dez scoffed as he finally let go of Sawyer’s hand and headed to the fridge to pull out a bottle. “Probably helped that Max was more interested in Gavin’s ass than his future alpha. Beer, anybody?”

Ash groaned and threw his hands up defensively. “How can you think of putting anything else in your stomach ever again?”

Dez shrugged and tossed Gavin a bottle when he held a hand out for it. “Sawyer?”

Sawyer nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Sure. I’ll have a beer. Do we have any peanut butter?”

“You people are sick,” Ash mumbled, barely audible because he’d buried his face in his hands.

Gavin cocked his head at Sawyer. “You’re still hungry? You had at least as much dinner as Ash.”

Sawyer shrugged. It was a fair observation. He didn’t usually eat nearly as much as any of them, but at the same time, he hadn’t been so blissfully stress-free since he’d arrived in Colorado. Frankly, he hadn’t been so happy in years.

The Shanes weren’t just a forward-thinking pack with an omega for their future pack alpha, they’d promised aid if Bakersfield tried anything. A pack hundreds strong had made overtures of an alliance with them. Not only had Sawyer’s presence not hurt his pack, he might have helped them.

His face flushed with the thought of it. He was an asset, maybe for the first time ever.

“Sawyer?” Gavin asked, voice concerned. He set his beer down on the kitchen counter and crossed to stand in front of Sawyer. “Are you okay?”

Sawyer looked down and found his entire pack looking at him with worry in their eyes. “What, I’m not allowed to be happy?”

“You can be whatever you feel like, you know that. But your heart is going a mile a minute, and you feel warm from here.” Gavin held up his hands like Sawyer was a fire he could warm them on.

Dez set two more bottles of beer on the counter and came over to Sawyer, worry in his eyes. He laid the back of his hand against Sawyer’s forehead, and it was ice cold from the beer.

Or maybe Sawyer was just hot.

Nostrils flaring, Dez took a deep breath. Then he leaned into Sawyer’s personal space and took another. “And you smell off.”

“Off?” Sawyer asked, and his tone was annoying and pouty to his own ears. But he didn’t want to smell “off.” It made him think of spoiled milk, and he definitely did not want to smell like that.

Instead of turning up his nose, Dez leaned in and brushed his against Sawyer’s. His pupils were blown, making his already black eyes seem blacker somehow.

Sawyer wanted to fall into those eyes and stay inside of Desmond Sullivan for the rest of his life. That perfect stubbled jaw and those high cheekbones cut their way into his dreams every night, and he didn’t want to wake up.

“Aw crap,” Ash said, distracting them from each other with a jolt. For a moment, Sawyer had forgotten anyone else was there in the room. The house. The whole universe.

The way Ash was looking at him made his stomach drop. It was that nervous, worried, sympathetic look people gave him when they were worried about his delicate sensibilities or other old-fashioned nonsense—

Sawyer’s eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open. “Oh crap.”

He met Asher’s gaze for a moment before the other man nodded decisively, marched over to grab Gavin by the arm, and started pulling him back toward the front door. “Me and Gavin will check into a hotel. Call us if you need anything. Should we, um, should we take Dez with us? We can take him down if you need us to. Maybe.”

“You’ll take Dez out of here over my dead body,” Sawyer told him, eyes narrowed. He moved between Dez and his brothers, like the thought of himself as a threat was anything but laughable. It was ridiculous, and there was no way he could fight off any alpha, even sweet Asher, but his instincts were ready to scratch the alpha’s eyes out to protect what was his.

Ash swallowed hard, as though aware of Sawyer’s thoughts, and tugged harder on Gavin. “Right. Leaving Dez with you. Take care, guys!”

Gavin allowed himself to be dragged but looked between Ash and Sawyer, confused. “Why are we getting a hotel room?”

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