right time. Would only have caused more dissension.”
“I saw the council leaving. The meeting went well?” Sabina murmured, her voice soothing me, even as I twisted to face her in the doorway. I beckoned her closer and sighed when she meandered around the furniture over to me.
“As badly as we could expect,” I said dryly, leaning down and joining our mouths which was far more pleasurable than that particular topic of conversation.
When she sighed into the simple kiss, I took it a little step further, but stopped when her hands tightened in mine, her tongue thrusting against mine too.
I wanted her.
I always did.
But fuck, now wasn’t the time. Nor the place.
Yes, that was because Ethan was present. Maybe in time, I’d loosen up on that score, and we’d roll into things better, but for now, I couldn’t share anything with them where sex was concerned.
It was something to work on. Something for my beast to have to accept. And it would.
I just needed time.
“I felt your anger.”
Her first words as we separated had me shrugging. “Surprised you didn’t wade into the fight.”
“Saw no need to. They were angry, and nothing you said, and nothing I did, was going to change that. They can see the writing on the wall, and they’re waiting for the axe to fall.”
“Mixed metaphors,” Austin chimed in, strolling into the room like he owned the place. “Nice.”
Sabina snickered, and even though Austin’s levity sometimes grated, I liked that he always had a way to make her smile.
Sometimes, I couldn’t do that. I just wasn’t that lighthearted. I knew Ethan was more capable than me because he wasn’t as serious, as bogged down with duty, but Austin was the one who could make her laugh, and I loved to hear her laugh.
Fuck, I loved it as much as I loved her.
I squeezed her hands as she turned around to face her other mates but used me as a prop. I’d once worried that I wasn’t good enough for her, and maybe I wasn’t. But with Austin and Ethan, I knew that all three of us were exactly what she needed.
It wasn’t about us lacking some important thing that made us less, too weak to anchor her, but how the three of us came together as a unit. That was what grounded her. What strengthened her. And for that reason, we were vital.
“Guess what I just found out,” she murmured.
“What?” I asked warily, not knowing what her answer might be. At the moment, those words could beckon anything, and we had enough to deal with.
“It’s Austin and Ethan’s birthday next week! You weren’t going to tell me, were you?” she chided.
“They hate their birthdays,” I responded dryly. “I’m not that big of a fan of them myself.”
She heaved a sigh. “Spoilsports, all of you. Well, birthdays mean a lot to me. As do saint days.”
“Saint days?” Austin clicked his tongue as he leaned against the armrest of the sofa opposite Ethan. “Even more suffering.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m going to write down all the days in Eli’s calendar so they’re set in stone, and we’re going to celebrate each and every one. Do you hear me?”
“Bossy,” Ethan muttered, and she chuckled at that.
“I’m coming into my own.”
Well, there was no denying that.
She most certainly was, and every step forward she took was a step forward for us and the pack.
Considering how muddled things were at that moment?
I was beyond grateful for small mercies.
Fifteen
Ethan
My nose crinkled when I saw the dining table.
I hated most of this house, with its uncomfortable furniture, the antiques that made it feel like a museum, and the formality of it, which gave it more of an air of a corporate office than a home.
Still, we’d barely lived here five minutes. I didn’t think it was time to go to Ikea and bring out the big guns.
So, facing a dining table that would satisfy a royal, my nose crinkled further as I saw the massive birthday cake, and then the silver that lined the mahogany surface, along with the cloches and different platters that were covered with fruits and different foods that were displayed to perfection.
Austin heaved a long-suffering sigh at my side, which Sabina heard and laughed at.
“You’d think I was poisoning you.”
“We hate birthdays,” I muttered, as I’d been muttering all day.
Austin had too, and he’d woken up with a birthday BJ and a long slow fuck that, according to him, made him realize that power ballads weren’t talking bullshit.
I knew