things you do for our pack. I know you do little things precisely because you don’t want to be noticed, but you should know I notice you and them. You don’t think they’re important but they are. Sure, they aren’t grand gestures. Sure, you don’t fight unless you’ve no other option. I know you think of yourself as useless. You try to avoid attention. So you do things that aren’t bold but they are necessary. That makes you a more vital member of this pack, not a lesser one.”
“Now you’re making me blush.”
“I love it when you blush.”
Green, suspicious eyes were on him. “Oh! You do it on purpose, do you?”
“Maybe a little.”
“That’s terrible!”
“I always wanted to see how far down it goes. And now I know. It’s adorable.” Judd trailed fingertips from his mate’s hot cheek down his slender throat to the top of his chest. He felt reverent, worshipful. There was a godless divinity to this moment.
“I’d rather be sexy than adorable,” Colin grumbled.
“It’s possible to be both, Gingersnap.”
They’d moved past the heavy talk. For which Judd was grateful. He felt a bit of a coward about that.
Wrung dry of his defenses by fantastic sex and emotional conversation, Judd was also forced to admit something to himself. That something was love. Fixed and unmoving. He felt it – hard and fierce, tethering him to this boy. He wanted real, total, romantic love with this too young, too earnest, too perfect being in his arms.
He had no idea what to do about that.
Once again they met with Lexi Blanc at her rented house in Mill Valley – this time it was before a concert. Colin got everyone rigged up with communications and tested and ready to go without once acknowledging his mother. It was liberating.
She, of course, didn’t notice him at all.
The pack wore the outfits that they’d worn the day before – washed, of course. Judd even had socks on.
Risa threw a fit when she learned they’d used an actual washing machine on their polo shirts. “Are you animals? Those are designer!”
Judd arched a brow at her.
Colin tried not to laugh. Kevin and Isaac didn’t even try.
Jojo whisked Colin away for makeup. Colin enjoyed it, both the pampering and how he looked afterwards. He felt less insipid with his lashes and eyebrows darkened.
Judd said, “Don’t even think about it,” when Jojo gestured in his direction.
Colin instantly felt less good.
“I love it on you, Gingersnap. It’s just not for me,” Judd explained. Because he’d noticed Colin’s discomfort. Of course he’d noticed.
Kevin regarded the exchange. “You can do me if you like.”
Jojo waggled interested eyebrows at that. Kevin looked momentarily terrified, then submitted to the minimum of eye liner and mascara. Colin rather enjoyed that his brother’s straightness was a deficit in the celebrity world.
“You look hot,” Isaac reassured Kevin. “The ladies will love it.”
Colin agreed. But then his brother always looked good. Somehow mascara made him seem more masculine, not less. Suddenly, Colin knew his own face to be far too pretty.
Judd’s hand was at his back. “Stop it, Gingersnap.”
From the house they piled into the stretch limo, which crawled its way (it really was a most impractical vehicle for the Bay Area) around Highway One and up the mountain to the amphitheater.
They arrived at around eight in the evening, but the stage was already up and running, lights being tested. There were a massive set and big curtains blocking off a back area. The stone seats were swarming with off-duty cops, who would form the bulk of the local security team.
Lexi immediately went backstage to put on more makeup. Judd and Kevin stuck close to her. Colin activated the ear-buds and wandered around getting the lay of the land. He wanted to figure out the best location for monitoring both the tech and the pack’s positions.
The amphitheater was pretty darn cool. Very Old World, like it belonged at Pompeii or something. It was a big half-circle carved into the mountainside with stone benches all around. The stage was at the bottom, with trees and then this amazing view of the hills behind. All around it were more trees and more mountains; it was just carved there in the middle of parklands. Colin climbed up to the nosebleed section. Below him the stage became a tiny thing far away. He couldn’t imagine paying good money to see a loud concert with tons of other shifters and humans, only to be seated here. People were weird.