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“It does. When I’m home with you and the others, you let me be myself. But I can still, sometimes, be out there in the world, too.” It wasn’t always easy, butsometimesit was better than a constant battle he’d had for the first twenty-two years of his life.

“Gideon helps, too, right?”

“He helps us both.”

“Yeah, he does. Luc, you give good advice.”

“Well, I try. But you make it easy. You’re a good listener.”

“No, you are,” Rowan growls.

“Nooooo,youare,” Luca drawls, and then shrieks with glee when Rowan launches them both to the ground in a tackle.

“You have permission, right?” Rowan growls.

“I do. Lucky me.”

“Good.” Rowan pulls Luca’s T-shirt off over his head and bites into his pec with his human teeth, right over his nipple. It stings in the best way.

There’s an awful ringing sound, and Luca already hates it. “Rowan. Phone.”

“No. No peopling, just fucking now.” Rowan moves over his other nipplethis time, latching on and suckling hard, pulling up as he goes.

“We have to answer. It’s Gideon or Jay. If we don’t answer, they are going to freak out.” Luca manages to reach the vibrating phone on the fourth ring.

“Mmm,” he answers, and it’s more feedback for Rowan than whoever it is on the other end of the line.

“Luca? Leo and I need a pickup. Now. Please.” Jay’s voice is flat and distant.

“What? Rowan. We gotta go. Where are you, Jaybird?” Luca pushes Rowan away, with a regretful stroke to his alpha’s cheek.

He moves quickly after that because his Pack Alpha sounds like he’s had a no-good, very bad day.

“About a mile from the Golf Course. I’ll drop a pin.”

“We’re on our way. Are you and Leo okay?”

It’s silent on the other end for a minute before Jay says, “Tell Rowan to drive safely. Remember to keep to the speed limit.”

He disconnects before he answers the question. “Well, that’s not fucking good. Ro-Baby, we gotta go.”

He opens the door and is on the front stoop before Rowan whistles high and sharp, just like Frankie-mama taught them at Christmas.

“Come on, Rowan! We gotta go. Alpha is sad.”

“Fine, but cover your ass first.” Luca looks down, and he’s standing bare-ass naked on the front porch, in his lilac-colored Ugg boots.

By the time Luca resigns himself to the torture of pants and being blue-balled by Jay’s fucking parents, he finds himself sitting in the front seat of the CR-V. Has he mentioned how much he hates the front? He does.

Jay has dropped the pin for their pickup and they’re only about twenty minutes out, so at least it won’t be for long.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Luca asks when the SUV surges forward and slams to a stop immediately afterward.

“Yes, I fucking do. Just let me do it.”

Luca mouthsokayand prays to the Goddess to let them get there in one piece. He doesn’t want to die in pants.

Surprisingly—and Luca cannot emphasize this enough—theroads have minimal traffic, and Rowan navigates them with a finesse that’s quite attractive. “Sorry I doubted you.”