A few moments later, there was a brusque knock at the door of Aaron’s apartment. Aaron called out that it was unlocked, and the twins and Saint strode in. All three automatically scanned both occupants and the room before relaxing their stances slightly. Marshall was happy to see that the twins took Aaron’s safety seriously. With Saint, he never had to guess. His best friend would, and had, gone to hell and back for him.
“What’s up, Marsh?” Saint asked.
“Nothing. Just need you here as a witness.”
“A witness? What for?”
“Alpha, you called?” Rafe’s deep voice cut across Saint’s questioning, and the tiger shifter threw a filthy look at the panther.
“Yes. I need you to tell me that my mate is lying.”
Rafe’s eyes darted between Aaron and Marshall. Marshall couldn’t help but wink at the man, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Um, sure. What do you think he’s lying about?”
Aaron nodded to the TV, where the screen was frozen on the opening credits of the show they had been watching.
“Oh, you’re watchingRandall’s Quest,“ Blake said excitedly. “What episode are you up to?”
“Season one, episode three. Your Alpha is not a fan,” Marshall said dryly.
“What? Sorry, Marsh. I know he’s your fated mate or some shit, but you can’t mate him,” Saint chimed in.
“Boss, really? Give it another few episodes, or even better, read the books first and then watch it. It makes so much more sense that way,” Rafe agreed.
Marshall watched in amusement as Aaron sputtered and looked at the enforcers like they had gone mad.
“Seriously, you watch this?” he asked.
All three men nodded.
“Told ya,” Marshall crowed.
“Did you put money on it?” Saint asked.
“Dammit, no I didn’t.”
“Maybe you’re sicker than I thought. You’re losing your touch, brother.”
Aaron slumped into the seat next to Marshall and reached for the popcorn. “There’s no getting out of this, is there?”
“Nope,” Marshall replied happily.
“Okay, I’ll watch another episode and download the books tomorrow, but why? Why do you all love this?”
Rafe sat on an armchair next to the couch while Blake and Saint both got comfortable on the floor.
“In the jobs we had, there was a lot of downtime. A lot of hurry up and wait. Add that to the things we’ve seen and had to do, that when you find a show or a book that can take you away from the reality of real life, even if only for an hour, then you grab onto it with both hands.”
The twins nodded their agreement. “He’s right. Sometimes, it’s the only way to keep the nightmares at bay,” Blake said softly. His twin nudged his brother with his foot, and Saint leaned over to fist-bump the panther.
“Preach.”
Marshall dropped a hand onto Saint’s shoulder and squeezed. His best friend rested his head against Marshall’s knee and let himself be petted.
“How many seasons do I have to watch?” Aaron asked with a sigh.
“There are eight books so far, and each book is more or less one season, but they have swapped a few things around to make it work better on tv. There are five seasons and season six is due to drop in about a month’s time,” Blake explained.