Jessie knew she needed to stop calling them that. Labels hurt.Weres, she thought to herself.They are Weres.
And admittedly, there weren’t that many. Just Neil, the female that had rescued them, and another male named Cody.
Three, as Kade hadn’t come into the kitchen yet. But they were good at filling all the available space. Zach leaned on the counter, staying well back from everyone—including her. His eyes, though, tracked everything.
She found herself missing the ability to read the others in the room. It had faded while they drove to Cara’s.
Cody bumped into her on his way to the fridge. “Oh, sorry,” he said. “Little tight in here.”
“It’s okay,” Jessie replied. Cody stood as tall as Kade, but he looked moreGQthanNational Geographic. His muscles were lean across his tall frame, his face more slender.
Kade’s sister, Kitani, must have noticed Jessie scoping him out. She inserted herself between them, although she smiled as she did so.
Even though she wasn’t any taller than Jessie, Kitani wasn’t someone you consciously wanted to mess with. Jessie was pretty sure her feminine figure hid pure muscle. Those may look like substantial breasts, but she’d lay odds they were mostly pecs.
She was also pregnant. In an extreme fashion.
The resemblance to Kade was there in hair the same shades of gold and black, and in the strong brows and jaw, but Kitani’s features were much more refined and feminine. Jessie thought she was beautiful. Just in a strong way.
Kade walked in from the garden. He waved his phone. “They’re sending the Inquisitor to the Bay.”
“For all the good that’ll do,” Neil commented. “Braden will be long gone.”
Jessie’s gut twisted. “He must have another hideout. Maybe that’s where he’s keeping Sarah?”
Kade’s mouth straightened, but he didn’t deny it. He glanced at Zach. “Are you sure you didn’t feel Sarah at the Bay?”
“If she’s there, I didn’t sense her,” Zach said. “What’s an Inquisitor?”
“Telepath, but extremely powerful,” Cara answered. “You don’t want to mess with her.” To Kade, she said, “Sit yourself down.” She waved a set of forceps. “You’ve got half a display window in your arms.”
Jessie’s mind spun. Telepaths. How many Cryptids walked among the human population? And what were they capable of?
Cara and Kade had both mentioned that human history had not been kind when Cryptids had been exposed. In her short period of awareness, she’d met some who were good people. And a few who definitely were not. She shivered.
Cara hummed softly as she dug for glass slivers in Kade’s massive arms. Kitani pushed past Cody and started handing things out of the fridge to Jessie.
As Jessie took a platter from her, Cody loomed over Kitani and bent to stick his nose into the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Then he inhaled, loudly.
Kitani batted him away. “Will you quit?” She rolled her gold eyes and caught Jessie’s expression. “Apparently, pregnant Sabres smell good. Both of my mates spend a lot of time sniffing. Ugh.”
Jessie’s eyes widened. “Mates?” she blurted. Plural? Had she heard that right?
The woman laughed at Jessie’s confusion. “Most Sabres mate in triads.” Kitani gestured to Cody while Jessie struggled to absorb this tidbit. “Beer is in the downstairs fridge.” She pointed. “Fetch.”
“Beer?” he queried.
“Non-alcoholic for me, idiot. Go.”
He raised his dark brows at her, but he went. Cody’s coloring was much darker than Kade’s or Neil’s. The black spots in his hair merely formed deeper shadows.
“They get along?” Jessie asked. “Your mates, I mean?” She couldn’t imagine two human males married to the same woman without war being waged.
“Oh, yeah. They’ve been best friends since they were young. So they don’t try to kill each other.” She hesitated. “Well, not often, anyway.”
Jessie shook her head. “That sounds... high maintenance.”
Across the kitchen from them, Zach watched. And listened, apparently. As Jessie glanced his way, his eyebrows arched, and his eyes widened in a very human expression ofwow.
