My gaze lingered on the wolf, my expression falling a bit. “I’m sorry,” I told him.
“The wolf doesn’t consider his brother gone, really, which is probably why he was telling you what Rocco has planned and doesn’t agree with it. The way Rocco’s brother was lost has soured him toward the concept of mates, I’d imagine, though Rocco hasn’t confided in me.”
He went back up the stairs yet again.
“Hmm.” I stared at the wolf. He licked my arm. “Well, you definitely like me,” I told the wolf.
He stuck his tongue out and gave me a goofy grin, which made me snort.
“He seems to at least have decided that he wants me to live in his house,” I remarked, gesturing toward a box as Dax grabbed it up off the pile and hauled it toward the stairs. It was the second massive dresser, and there was no way Rocco himself would need more than one of them.
“You won’t have a choice, during the chase. I’m not sure why he thinks this is a good idea,” Dax remarked. He was finally sweating, hallelujah. I was starting to worry the asshole had super-strength or was impervious to exercise or some other crazy shit. “Your wolf will force you to stay close enough to him that you can see him at all times.”
My eyebrows lifted in horror. “What if I need to pee?”
He shrugged. “Some wolves are fine with that much separation. Others aren’t.”
Dammit.
Something told me my wolf would be the obnoxiously-difficult kind who wouldn’t even let me walk away from hottie-Rocco long enough to take a piss.
“Well that sucks,” I muttered.
The wolf licked my arm again, as if telling me it would be okay.
With a sigh, I forgave him for lying to me and scratched him behind his ears. “Don’t lie to me again,” I warned him. “Or I’ll make you sleep on the floor, and we both know you’ll want to jump in my bed.”
The wolf huffed in annoyance, but nodded his head before resting it back down on my leg.
At least that was settled.
“Alright, last box,” Dax announced, as he grabbed the final one. It was the second headboard. “You’re not planning to put all this stuff together on your own, are you?” he checked, glancing over his shoulder at me as he walked.
“Uh…” I trailed off, not wanting to admit that I definitely was.
“Do you know how to use an impact driver?” he asked me.
“The better question is, do I know what an impact driver is,” I muttered to the wolf. “And the answer is a big fat ‘no’.”
The wolf snorted.
“I heard that,” Dax said with a grin, as he headed back down the stairs. “I’ll text Elliot and Zed.”
“You don’t need to,” I protested.
“We can get everything done in a couple of hours. It would take you a week on your own without any tools other than what the stores throw in the boxes,” he countered.
I grimaced, still not wanting to agree.
Since I had absolutely nothing on my schedule, it wasn’t like I was in a hurry. But there were always things I could do with my music, and I needed to apply for jobs, and…
Fine, I didn’t want to spend the next week building shit. It would probably end up wobbly or lopsided if I did it myself, anyway.
“You can stay down here while we work upstairs if you want,” Dax added, as if realizing that I mostly just didn’t want to have to socialize. “I understand not wanting to be overwhelmed, but Zed’s pretty mellow. Elliot adapts to the room, so he won’t be a pain either. Jesse and Tea are probably the loudest, especially when they’re together. And they’re always together.”
“I got that feeling,” I agreed, digging my fingers further into wolf-Rocco’s fur as I fought anxiety. The wolf snuggled up closer, and strangely enough, it worked to calm me down a bit. “Alright, you can text them. Or I can just go knock on their doors, I guess. If they’re busy, that’s okay, I don’t want to—”
Dax already had his phone out and was typing on the screen, so I cut myself off.