Page 97 of Haze

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I’m up, and my hair is brushed out. I have vague memories from last night of the monster inside me coming out, and even more vague, Finn washing blood off my skin. I’d wished for so long not to be submissive. But this isn’t what I wanted or envisioned. Though, it sort of feels like how Cade described his connection with The Leviathan a long time ago.

I’m not as clean as I want to be, but Dinah and Ezra have texted forty times, telling me to come downstairs as soon as possible. There better be coffee.

Finn follows me down the stairs dutifully on my heels, almost closer than my shadow.

As I slide my butt onto a barstool, a cup of coffee is placed in front of me.

“Alright, so Mom and Dad should be up in like four minutes. Mom will be looking for coffee,” Ezra says, looking me squarely in my eyes.

“And I care about your parents why?” I raise my eyebrows at him.

I’m perfectly content with the hot beverage and not having an awkward confrontation with my aunt and uncle.

“Well, if you truly don’t want to know, maybe you should go and hide? Because I am fully committed to getting the answers today,” Dinah cautions me, shaking the spatula in her hand in my direction.

Finn abandons his post behind me and takes the spatula from her.

“Good morning.” Cade rounds the hallway to the kitchen.

A chorus of good mornings answer, but Cade makes it a point to walk the long way around the island to me. He leans against the counter and turns my chin to face him.

The Leviathan floods his eyes, and it’s not my wolf that rises but the squirmy hot lava again.

Cade nods with some sort of understanding that I don’t have. He kisses the top of my head as he circles back around the island to the kitchen.

“The Leviathan says that she can fix herself over time, if you work together. But The Pricolici can fix her all at once,” Cade informs me, turning his head to look over his shoulder while pouring a hot cup of coffee.

What? Does everyone know? Fix her how? The wheels of my brain start to turn. The lava has to be my wolf. I shifted, but I felt her. She was fine last night.

The pot runs empty, and Cade goes to start another.

Ezra smacks his hand. “No. I need her caffeine deprived.”

“Hiii.” A groggy Thalia walks around the corner to the kitchen and whines.

“Draga mea, I said I’d bring you your coffee,” Cade scolds lightly but brings her the cup he poured.

I’ve always seen him as loving toward her. He goes the extra mile with everything he does. Today though, I see it differently. Every touch is a dedicated reassurance before he gives her a lingering kiss and slowly departs back to the business side of the island.

I want that. Why do I have to be broken?

“Good morning!” Uncle Elliot sings as he enters the kitchen.

No one should be that chipper having just woken up.

Aunt Alora rounds the corner while making a beeline for the coffee pot. But her whole body bristles seeing it empty.

“So, Mom.” Ezra flashes a smirk. “Have you met the near-perfect genetic match for my sister? Oh, Dad’s pissed.” Ezra laughs as he looks around the counter.

“Ezra John,” Aunt Alora scolds like Ezra isn’t a grown man in his early thirties.

“Don’t bother, Mom, I’m in. Not getting me out that easily.” Ezra smiles at her before hopping off the counter he was sitting on and then, with one hand somehow, vaults effortlessly over the top of the island to sit by my side.

Aunt Alora and Uncle Elliot are wearing matching looks, but they’re not of shock. Rather, they’re expressions of admonishing anger toward Ezra.

They’ve always been the perfect example of a mated pair, the kind of couple who talks everything through. People of the pack turn to them with problems in their matings and how to better communicate.

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