if you’d like to come with me.”
“A ball, as in poufy dresses and tuxes?”
He wrinkled his nose. “Not your thing?”
If it meant quality time with him, then, “I’m in.”
We settled into chatting about other stuff. Uri joined us, and soon our laughter echoed around the room as Eldrick recounted tales of his youthful exuberance as a Loup in training to be an alpha. For an hour, I was just a daughter getting to know her father. For an hour, life was almost normal.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I stood in my bedroom at the pack house while Grayson and Cora studied every inch of my body.
My naked body.
Yep, I was standing here, starkers, not a fucking stitch on as they examined me like scientists checking out a specimen under a microscope.
Yeah…Not strange in the least.
Cora stepped back, hands on hips. “I don’t see anything unusual. You checked her inner thighs?”
Had he checked my inner thighs. Pffft. More times than I could fucking count. Not that I was complaining…Shit, don’t think about Grayson gripping your thighs and parting your legs. Don’t think about it.
“Nothing,” Grayson said.
I lowered my arms, my heart sinking. Yeah, I was being all mentally flippant about this, but it was a big deal. I needed them to find something. If they hadn’t, then…
“It’s a mark on my soul then.”
“Wait,” Cora said. “Your head. She hurried over and parted my hair. Her fingers began to crawl across my scalp as she checked it. “Grayson, check her pubes.”
I covered my lady bits. “Whoa!”
Cora tutted. “It’s not like he hasn’t been up close and personal with your vajajay before, and it’s not a huge bush anymore, so he won’t get lost in it.”
Grayson made a strange snorting sound.
Wait, was he laughing? And then his fingers were on me, gently exploring. I stilled, ignoring the tingles that his touch evoked and focusing on the enormity of this situation. This had to be done. I had to know.
“Nothing,” Grayson said. He stood, and there was no mistaking the dark edge of desire in his eyes. My stomach flipped, but he walked away, turning his back to give himself a moment to calm down.
Cora made a sound of exasperation. “No. Fuck, no.”
She stepped back, her face set in a mulish expression. “This is bullshit. Elijah has it wrong.”
But the sheen to her eyes told me she didn’t believe that. I set my shoulders. “It’s fine. We can fix this. We’ll figure it out. If there’s no cure on earth, then there might be one in the Underealm.”
She latched on to that thought, nodding eagerly. “Yes. Right, in the meantime, we take it in shifts to watch you sleep.”
“I have rope,” Grayson said. “We can tie you to the bed.”
Cora rolled her eyes. “Yes, and I bet you’d love that, wouldn’t you.”
Despite the direness of the situation, I couldn’t help but snicker.
Grayson gave me a flat look.
I composed myself. “Let’s have a nice dinner. The whole pack. Okay?”
“You think that will help?” Grayson asked. “After we struck out on finding a cure for this curse or any damn flyers about this blood drive?”
My chest felt hollow. Hope of locating Hunter was looking thin. Every flyer had been taken down. There was no way to trace him. Bobby was looking into the logo, trying to find a reference online. A company, an organization…Something. But there was nothing we could do right now. Right now, we needed normal.
I smiled up at him, injecting cheer into the action. “Yes, I think it will help. We don’t give up, and we don’t let shit get us down. We enjoy every moment we have together as a family.” I stepped closer to him. “Trust me, I know how shit things are right now. I know there are too many things that can go wrong. Az and Mal are in the Underealm waiting to head into one of the most dangerous parts of that world. Hunter is missing, and I can’t sleep without freaking us all out. So yeah, I get it, but we have no control over those things. We do, however, have control over how we deal with them.”
“Lasagna and wine.” Cora clapped her hands together. “Garlic bread—cheesy preferably—and a crisp side salad for effect, because I won’t eat that leafy shit.”
God, I loved her.
“I’ll grab Dean and get supplies,” Grayson said.
Dean… My gaze flicked to Cora.
She rolled her eyes. “For God’s sake, woman, put some clothes on.”
“Nothing happened,” she said. “I mean, I wanted it to. It was getting hot and