Page 17 of The Wolves At My Sides

Chapter Thirteen

Irwin

I woke to Marcus’s side of the bed empty and cold. I smiled to myself, despite missing him. He was probably already up with Fen or maybe he went to sleep in the guestroom with him. I got it. I wasn’t exactly big enough to make anyone feel safe. Marcus was, though. I sniffed the air as I stretched out like a starfish on the bed. He wasn’t in the house.

“Marcus?” I called out like an idiot.

If he wasn’t inside, he wasn’t going to hear me.

“Huh?” A sleep Fen called out from down the hall.

“Did Marcus tell you he was leaving?” I called back, swinging my legs out of bed.

“Alpha?”I checked over our mating link.

“Huh?” Fen called out again.

He wasn’t actually awake, or if he had been, he certainly wasn’t a morning person.

I froze in the doorway of our bedroom and closed my eyes and cleared my mind so I could home in on Marcus. He was asleep and somewhere extremely close by was Faran.

“Of course,” I sighed and headed to the kitchen to start the coffee pot, smiling from ear-to-ear.

Faran was the only person alive I’d forgive Marcus for running off to without telling me. My arms felt empty without Faran filling them up. Soon he’d want breakfast and I wasn’t sure how many bottles Shepard found in the freezer when he checked while Marcus and I were still at his office yesterday explaining things to Fen.

I smiled as the thought of his name crossed my mind. Now that I wasn’t worried about where Marcus ran off to, it was hard not to be happy that our third was asleep just down the hall. Once Marcus knew my secret and assured me he wasn’t going to turn tail and run. I was always sort of excited about meeting our third. I spent a lot of time wondering about who he might be and if he was okay.

I watched as the coffee percolated and dripped into the pot.

“At least there’s no need to wonder about him anymore,”my wolf chimed into my thoughts, wagging his tail.

“There’s still plenty to wonder about,”I yawned back at him.“Like how does he take his coffee? Does he take coffee, or should I dig out that tea kettle Felix gave us?”

I reached out for Fen out of instinct. It was so easy to connect with Marcus now. Only, I couldn’t reach Fen that way. We hadn’t exchanged our claiming vows and might not any time soon. So, I’d have to ask him the old fashion way. While I waited for Marcus to bring our baby home, I tiptoed back down the hallway and stood outside of Fen’s door. I strained my ears listening for any signs of waking life.

“Fen?” I whispered.

“Is it time to get up?” He yawned.

“Only if you want to,” I smiled at the sound of his voice. “I put the coffee on. I wasn’t sure how you took yours.”

“Almost any way,” he yawned.

“Do you have a preferred way?” I tried again, leaning my forehead against the door that separated me and my new mate.

“I’m not picky.”

“Is how you take your coffee an international security secret?” I teased.

“What if I said most of the time, I don’t drink coffee?”

“Tea then?”

“Not really.”

“Caffeine at all?” I blinked.

“Not this early in the morning. Maybe around the afternoon drop off,” he chuckled.

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