tattoos and slightly longer hair, he looked exactly like Sebastian. He was human.
“Welcome to your new home. Your room’s on the left. Mine and Thad’s is on the right. Stay out of it.” Sebastian said, stalking off to said room and slamming the door behind him.
* * *
“Oh, uh, it’s generally a good idea to let a sleeping Were lie, especially when it’s a Goliath,” Analie said quickly, backing away. “We’ve got these psycho self-preservation insti—”
Christoph jerked, then sat bolt upright and clenched both hands into fists. Analie wasn’t sure how strong a human was, so she set her tea down, slopping a bit of it on the floor, and jumped on Christoph, putting him in a tight headlock. Mouse quickly got up and took a step back, dismayed, and gesturing frantically.
Tempted as the vampire was to step in to keep Analie from hurting Christoph too badly, she was also afraid she might make it worse. Some of the faces she made would have been quite comical under other circumstances. Unlike Analie, she was used to having to temper her strength to deal with humans, and she wasn’t sure Analie had realized that what amounted to a casual gesture to her could easily snap Christoph’s neck now, completely unintentionally.
As Analie expected, Christoph struggled and made snorting noises that would have likely been snarls had he actually had that capability. Other than that, he couldn’t do a damn thing while Analie was clinging to him. It both weirded her out and amused her to no end.
“Jesus Christ!” Christoph screamed. His voice was almost shrill.
“Calm down, you dope!” Analie yelled right back. “You’re okay!”
“What the hell?!”
Analie rolled her eyes. It was greatly frowned upon to falsely use the alpha’s name to establish order, but Mouse was making very worried gestures. Analie liked her quite a bit and didn’t want this to drag out for hours, as it very well could. She’d seen Christoph in a mood.
“Alpha in the house!” Analie bellowed.
Christoph went rigid and tried to cough respectfully. It was thin and garbled, but recognizable. Analie still kept him in a lock.
“Are you going to stop thrashing?” she demanded.
“Sure,” Christoph mumbled, realizing there was no alpha in the house.
“Are you going to sit still and not cause a commotion?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you totally lying to me to get me to let go of you?” Analie asked.
Christoph started thrashing again and managed to throw himself off the couch, dragging Analie with him. She managed to get one knee between his shoulders and twist his arms behind his back.
“Calm down! You haven’t been bitten, you got bashed around less than a high-rank would have done, and you’re not dead! Be thankful, you idiot!”
“To hell with this,” Christoph rasped, trying to throw Analie off. “I am going back to California and I am—”
“No, you’re not. They will tear you apart. Can you imagine what Gavin would do to you?!” Analie found herself newly surprised at how weak Christoph was and eased off with her knee a little. It was very strange to her, physically having the upper hand against him. “And you are not bringing a fight back. What the hell do you think we’d do if that happened?”
“This is insane. This is messed up,” Christoph snapped.
“No kidding! You broke cub-hide, burst into Royce’s room, and then went crazy! No wonder it’s messed up! You messed it up!” Analie glared at the back of his head. “Frankly, I think you deserve this after the great switcheroo you pulled.”
Christoph sagged slightly.
“Can I let you go now, or are you gonna be an idiot still?” Analie asked.
“Lemme up.”
“If you’re lying I am going to body-check you through that wall, squishy be damned.”
Analie stood up and took a step back. Christoph slowly sat up and dragged himself onto the couch.
“I swear to God, for a big bad wolf you sure do whine like a pup,” Analie grumbled, going to the kitchen to find something to mop up the spilled tea.
* * *
While Christoph was being put in his place by a Were ten years younger than him, Ashi shuffled into his new room. He didn’t notice much about the surroundings, only located the closet, stepped inside, shut the door, and curled up into a ball on the floor.
With luck, they’d forget about him and he could eventually sneak away. Right now, though, he just wanted to sleep.
Thad had watched him with curious, seawater eyes—the same unusual color as his older brother. He’d muttered something under his breath, watched Ashi disappear