My tiger had been agitated as I’d turned on my heel and headed to my house instead. Even though I was finally home and in my own bed, he hadn’t settled during the night. If anything, he’d been more wound up after the few hours of sleep I’d managed to get. After showering and yanking on some clothes, my plan was to drop in to update Kace—mostly because I wanted to meet his mate and give them my support—before letting my tiger out for a run. With everything that had been going on with my dad, I hadn’t had the opportunity when I’d been in New York. I figured my beast was antsy because he’d been cooped up for too long. Anxious to give him what he needed, I jogged up Kace’s steps and knocked on his door.
I waited until he called out for me to enter, and then I pushed open the door to step into his house. Kace had a pretty blonde tucked into his side, and his possessive hold made me grin. Since I was looking at his mate, that earned me a growl from my alpha. I pressed my lips together, dropped my gaze to the floor, and tilted my head to expose my neck in a gesture of submission.
“Welcome home, Tane,” Kace finally grunted. “Glad you’re back.”
My lips curved up in a smirk as I lifted my head again, but I didn’t aim it in Larissa’s direction. I didn’t mind doing shit to get a rise out of my alpha, but I wasn’t going to piss all over his mating bond to do it. “I guess what they say about the power of the mating in the beginning is true.”
My chuckle was a little bit forced because I wanted what he’d found. Larissa shouldn’t have caught on to what I was feeling, but when Kace glanced down at her, she wiggled her eyebrows with a conspiratorial smile. He chuckled and shrugged, before turning back to me.
“Tane, this is my mate, Larissa,” Kace introduced us. “Larissa, Tane, my third.”
“I’m happy for you both,” I replied. The sexual tension between the two mates was so damn thick that I swore I could smell it. “I’ll leave you to…whatever I interrupted.” My smirk was more genuine this time, and Kace rolled his eyes.
“Everything good in New York?”
I nodded and filled him in on shit he already knew, just in case his mate hadn’t been looped in yet. “Yeah, my dad fell and broke his hip. He shattered it so badly, they needed to do surgery to reset it immediately, which was probably for the best anyway. If his shifter healing had already kicked in, the bone might have healed wrong. Even though my sisters were there, I wanted to be at the hospital. He came through it like a champ.”
“Happy to hear it. Now get the fuck out of here so I can be alone with my mate.” His demand was pretty much what I’d expected once I’d caught a whiff of an unmistakable scent on Larissa, so I laughed and spun around. Striding out of his house, I shut the door behind me and stalked down the steps.
I was heading toward the motorcycle parked in my driveway when I spotted the door to Zeke’s house opening. “Hey, man! Glad to see you’re back,” he called.
I changed direction and jogged across the street to greet my friend. “It’s damn good to be back.”
“C’mon, you weren’t gone that long,” Zeke chuckled.
“Long enough for everything to change around here,” I pointed out with a grin as I slapped him on the back. “When I left, all three of us were unattached, and now you and Kace have mates.” I shook my head and laughed. “Hell, not just mates either. Babies, too.”
Zeke grinned back at me, looking happier than I’d ever seen him. “You heard about that already?”
I cocked my head to the side, taking in his reaction. “Holy shit, man. Allegra’s pregnant, too?”
“Too? Who else is pregnant?” His gaze darted over my shoulder, and his grin widened. “Larissa’s pregnant?”
I tapped the side of my nose. “Smelled like it to me.”
Zeke waved toward his house. “Come inside. You can meet Allegra. She’s going to be thrilled to find out one of her best friends is pregnant the same time as she is.”
“One of her best friends?” I asked as I followed him inside, wondering how many of them she had before a luscious scent hit my nostrils and any thought beyond finding the source wiped from my brain. I barely heard Zeke reply, “Yeah, she’s got two of them. Just like Kace, you, and me. Calliope’s here too, so you’ll get to meet her. She’s staying with us until her college classes start back up next week.”
If Calliope was who I thought she was, he was wrong—she’d be staying with me. And not just until next week. She’d be with me for the rest of her life. I didn’t share that with Zeke since I wasn’t sure I could get any words past my throat. Instead, I stalked behind him as he walked through his living room and into the kitchen. The scent grew stronger as we neared the door, sending flames of desire coursing through my blood. When he pushed it open, throaty feminine laughter wrapped around me, and I felt it all the way to my dick. I was rock-hard as we neared the two blondes sitting at the kitchen table. The one with the gray tint making her hair an ashy color carried the smell of Zeke and his baby all over her. Thank fuck, because the little firecracker with a hint of red in her hair was meant to be mine. All fucking mine.