Japanese for moon.
Chapter Seven: Luca
A cold, wet nose is pressing into Luca’s belly, huffing hot air onto his skin, and it tickles.
It’s not the first time there’s been a nose in Luca’s navel in the middle of the night—not even the hundredth—but never has it been…slimy.
Who the fuck is snotting on his happy trail?
There’s a low huff (a sub-woofer-woof, as it were), and it hits him like a Milk Bone to the head—holy shit, the pack has a dog.
Tsuki!
Luca runs a hand over the puppy’s soft head, rubbing her ears before trailing his fingers under her new collar.
She licks his palm, making another slight huffing whine.
It’s the middle of the night, and it feels like he’s only just fallen asleep, but if it’s Luca she wants to wake up at this hour, then Luca will be her man.
It’s all he can do not to singWhen I Was Your Man—hmm hmm hmm.
No one would appreciate it. That’s for sure.
His mates are asleep in a knot of bodies—curled around each other, heads on shoulders, bellies, legs, and—in one particularly cute instance, Rowan, whose entire face is buried in Jay’s neck.
Luca knows there can’t be much air in there, but the young alpha is right where he wants to be. He probably needs the comfort of knowing Jay isn’t angry—that he’s forgiven.
It’s no surprise that they all need the comfort of being together after the near disaster yesterday.
Disasters, plural.
Jay and Nix had rolled in quietly after tracking down the escaped Bonnie and Clyde at the Costas’. They said they’d talked through some things Jay had been worried about, but both had smelled terrible when they got home—so it must have been a rough conversation.
Still, Luca thinks maybe they actually heard each other this time, because Nix had spent all of dinner in his usual spot on Jay’s lap, sharing food and scenting one another.
Luca had thought they were all on the same page after Jay spoke with their therapist, Ruthie, but apparently, no one had been paying the silently chaotic Rowan Foster any notice.
The shock of their new canine pack member aside, seeing Rowan’s wolf so aggressive and close to the surface had been the biggest surprise of the day.
If Luca is being honest, he shouldn’t have been surprised at all.
Ever since he and Rowan had sat shoulder-to-shoulder eavesdropping on The Big Conversation on the landing (a lifetime ago), Rowan had wanted Nix to just move on. It reeked of avoidance and fear—as if Rowan needed Nix to forget his trauma so that he didn’t have to face it, either.
Luca remembers telling him it doesn’t work like that—and just look what happened. Rowan had walked straight into his own minefield of unexpected and unresolved emotions.
For a moment, Luca had been sure they were going to have to call the cleaners to get the blood out and replace the furniture—this for something way less fun than a sexy-time orgy. Turns out, they’re even more blessed than he thought—because Nix somehow helped their baby alpha navigate his shit or they might have had a real problem on their hands.
Rowan is lucky that Jay has an iron will as well as a big heart, or they’d have had a big problem. As Gideon often says, Jay has always been reluctant to hurt them—mentally or physically—and he’d do whatever it took to hold them up.
He wouldn’t have wanted to hold Rowan’s spirit down.
But if Rowan had pushed, Jay would have done it. No doubt about that.
The well-being of their pack depended on him beingableto—even ifhe neverwantedto. Even knowing that alphas who lose challenges suffer seriouspermanentmental consequences.
No one wanted that for Rowan, even if it would have been entirely his own fault.
So when Rowan caved, they all heaved a sigh of relief. It could have been the worst thing to happen to their pack—aside from the death of a mate.
