Page 113 of Haze

“Oh no.” Thalia draws my attention. She’s sipping her coffee but stops to continue talking. “Lena bites. You don’t wake her up unless you want to risk physical violence. Breakfast isn’t high on the list of things Lena’s willing to wake up for.”

“Not even I wake up Lena for breakfast. She’s more of a brunch-and-mimosas-around-noon girl,” Cade concurs.

My face must say it all because Deacon stops what he’s doing. “You’ve woken Lena up without regretting the decision?”

“I have.” I’m suspicious of what they’re saying.

Deacon takes out another plate and starts putting food on it for her.

“Oooo,” Thalia pipes up. “Were you waking her up with sex? Because I could see Lena wanting to be awake for that. She says you’re sufficiently endowed and highly compatible.”

Cade looks appalled and turns in his chair to face her. Deacon clears his throat. My face heats.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Thalia murmurs. “How is it you can talk about the fact she’s—”

“Because he’s not normally standing in the kitchen when we do it,” Deacon groans.

Apparently, my ears should be burning. I don’t pry. Instead, I run my hand through my beard.

Deacon pulls himself together and finishes plating. No one can seem to bring up a conversation, so I slink up the stairs, taking breakfast to where she slumbers.

True to their advisement, Lena is still asleep. Setting the plates on the hearth in front of the warm fireplace, I stand, watching her for a moment.

She’s taken up residence on my side of the bed. My wolf notes it with pride. Our mate looked for us. Faolan settled where she could smell us.

I realize that if Thalia knew those details, then Lena told her about me. A little flutter of hope fills my chest; maybe Lena is getting more comfortable with the idea of me, the idea of us.

Our mate talks about us to her friends, my wolf preens with the compliment.

“Faolan.” I climb up from the bottom of the bed to rest behind her.

She groans and grumbles, curling herself up tighter into a ball. I pull her and the pile of blankets she’s burrowed in into my arms, spooning her from behind.

She settles in to go back to sleep.

“I’ve brought breakfast, and if you get out of bed, I’ll go get you coffee,” I encourage her.

Lena groans, and it sounds like the murmur she makes could be mistaken for ‘five more minutes.’

“Now, faolan,” I press, pulling off one of the top layers of blankets.

She whines, “We were up late, and now I get to sleep.”

“Not a negotiation. I found breakfast, and I’m fairly certain Deacon didn’t poison mine.” I try to crack a joke.

“I wouldn’t worry about that. My brothers love you more than me.” Lena sighs.

Does she mean that her brothers love me more than they love her? Or that her brothers love me more than she loves me? I mean, the last one implies that she’s consciously aware she has feelings for me.

Chapter 37

Lena

Finn lures me out of bed, stripping away one blanket at a time with praise and kisses to the back of my neck. With the sheet pulled off me, I roll over in his arms. In the low light of my bedroom, I soak him in, not what he looks like, but what this feels like. I’m no longer feeling the burn of my heat, I’m no longer delirious from sedation and pain management, and I’m mostly, almost kinda, working together with my wolf.

Our pups will be so cute. My wolf wags her tail, encouraging me to kiss him.

And, just like that, reality comes crashing down. We only have pups if we can heal. And last I checked, you don’t have a medical degree, so we’re fucked.

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