* * *
Someone pounding on my door woke me up, and I raised my head to look at the clock on the nightstand. Six in the fucking morning? Peppa sighed and cuddled closer to me, her tits pillowing against my chest and making my morning wood stand up and take notice.
The pounding started again, and I muttered a string of obscenities as I reluctantly released Peppa and climbed out of bed. If whoever it was woke up my exhausted mate or my infant pup, on the first night he’d slept more than four hours at a time, I was going to go feral on their ass.
“Peppa! Cason! Open the fucking door!” I heard a man shouting as I neared the front of the house. I recognized Aero’s voice immediately, and my first thought after killing him was that there must have been some kind of a disaster at Timber Treasures.
I hurried the rest of the way to the entrance and unlocked the door before yanking it open. “Calm the fuck down and stop shouting, Aero,” I snapped. “If you wake up Peppa or Cy, I’m gonna break your beak.”
Aero was pacing back and forth in front of the door, but his eyes were glued to the house next to us. Unease crept into my chest, and I almost hoped he said yes to my next question, “Did something happen at the restaurant?”
Aero continued to pace and stare until I stepped in his path. “The restaurant?” I barked.
“What?” Aero’s brow creased as he looked at me with confusion. His normally blue eyes had turned brown with a golden ring around them, telling me that his falcon was incredibly close to the surface. “The restaurant is fine. I need Peppa to let me into her old house.”
What the fuck? “You’re pounding on my door at the ass crack of dawn to ask Peppa for a tour?” I snapped.
“A what?” He seemed like he was barely registering anything I said. “I just need to go inside there.” He tried to walk around me, but I matched his step, blocking the way.
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared hard at Peppa’s swing chef. “Why?”
He threw his arms in the air and yelled, “I don’t know!” When his eyes met mine again, they still looked wild, but they were also filled with desperation. “Please, Cason. I need to get in that house.”
A suspicion was beginning to form in my mind, but I’d made a promise to my alpha. “I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?” Aero snarled, getting in my face. “Get the damn key and open the fucking door. It’s deadbolted, and the windows are all shut up tight.”
He’d tried to break in? I was becoming more certain of the lurking theory in my mind. “Aero.” I grabbed his shoulders and looked directly into his face, making sure he was listening. “You need to talk to Kace, man.”
“But—”
“Peppa and I can’t help you. Go to Kace.”
Aero looked around me at the other house again and something seemed to snap inside him. He pivoted and ran down the steps, shifting before his feet landed on the sidewalk. He soared into the air and disappeared, leaving nothing but his shredded clothes behind.
I sighed and went to grab them off my lawn before going back inside. After tossing them in the trash, I returned to my bedroom and crawled back into bed, hauling my mate into my arms.
“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily.
I gave her a quick rundown of what happened, and when I was done, she was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.
“Do you think she’s…?” Peppa trailed off, leaving her question hanging. I knew what she was asking, though.
“I don’t know. But it’s going to be interesting to watch.”
Epilogue
Peppa
“Try this,” I urged Cason as I lifted a spoon to his sexy mouth.
A soft sigh escaped as he savored the flavor of the new dessert I was testing. He swallowed the bite and leaned back in my office chair, licking his lips. “Damn, baby. That’s amazing,” he groaned.
“Right?” I did a little dance in celebration before picking up the dish and starting for the door to the kitchen, only to find myself hauled back up against a hard chest and something long and thick pressed against my ass.
“You know it turns me the fuck on when you feed me your incredible food,” he breathed in my ear, sending a shiver skittering down my spine. “Don’t you, baby?”
“Um...I seem to remember something about that,” I said, stifling a giggle.