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Marlowe’s cheeks blushed the cutest shade of pink. “Cam andNolan were in the room when we wereFaceTiming.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. I flashed Esther my friendliest smile and extended my hand, turning on the charm. “Hi, I’m Elias, Marlowe’s boyfriend.”

I could tell Marlowe was annoyed, bordering on pissed, by me using the boyfriend title. I had effectively claimed the role as her public-facing partner, at least with her friends. She’d just spent the past hour trying to smooth things over with the pack after the vamp attack, so this wasn’t going to go over very well. But her friend had seen my arm around her—what else could I say to explain the intimacy?

Esther gave Marlowe a knowing look and then took my hand. “Nice to meet you, Elias. I’m Marlowe’s friend from grad school. So… these other guys are your friends, too?”

“Yes, I was her father’s attorney and Cam used to work with him, so we kind of took Marlowe under our wing when she came into town.”

A sly smile spread across her face. “Is that right? Well, I’m assuming you’re here to help Marlowe move out, then? Did you run into Mike? How’s the breakup going?”

“Oh, um…” she averted her eyes, looking at the pastries. “I haven’t seen him yet, I asked him to give me some space. Do you recommend any of these? I haven’t tried any of their seasonal flavors yet.”

“Oh yeah, the chestnut scones are really good…”

Watching her talk with her friend made me so happy for my little omega. I knew she’d been disappointed by her difficulties in finding a place for herself outside our pack in Maiingan Hollow. Although that alpha female detective had been an unexpected surprise, and Marlowe seemed genuinely interested in reaching out.

She finally settled on a gingerbread loaf to go with her sugary latte, and I got myself a black coffee.

“Do you want to sit with me?” Esther asked. “I would love to get to know this guy better.” She gestured towards me with her thumb and grinned in an overtly suggestive manner, making Marlowe laugh.

“Sure, I’m sorry I didn’t call to let you know I was in town. We’re only here til Monday, and then we need to go to Chicago…”

The two talked nonstop, and I merely listened, my hand gently resting on Marlowe’s knee. From Esther’s boyfriend and job, to Marlowe dealing with the loss of her father, the topics were wide and varied, the mood never getting too heavy as Esther always found a way to wring a smile back out of her friend.

“Oof, I need to go to the little girl’s room, I’ll be right back,” Marlowe announced, getting up from the table.

“You need to ask for a key!” Esther yelled, and Marlowe pivoted towards the cashier.

Her smile suddenly vanished and she turned towards me with all the calculated precision of a wolf. “What is she hiding from me?”

I nearly spit out my coffee. Did Esther have some shifter in her line, too? “Excuse me?” I asked.

She leaned forward slowly, tilting her head as she inspected me. “Something about the two of you feels… off. She’s barely been gone for three weeks, and not only has she broken up with her fiancé, but she’s quit her job, she’s moving to bumblefuck Wisconsin, and is suddenly best friends with a group of guys who are all suspiciously good-looking. It’s weird. Like,cultishlyweird.”

I gave her a thoughtful frown and shrugged. “I see your point. If she were my friend, I’d be feeling protective of her as well. She’s gone through a lot in the past few months, and these are big decisions to make while still in the throes of grief.”

She pointed her finger in my face. “And that answer seems far too perfect and considerate.”

I snorted a reply. Apparently, this human woman was more perceptive than I was giving her credit for, so I decided to let some of the “nice new boyfriend” veneer slip to comfort her with normalcy. “Esther, I’m a lawyer. Perfect and considerate responses are my specialty.”

Esther withdrew and crossed her arms. “Alright, touché. But my earlier comments still stand. You’re hiding something.”

She was sharp. “Well, we certainly aren’t in a cult, if that’s your main concern. I’ve known my friends since high school. Me and the guys you met are more like brothers than anything else. Maiingan Hollow is a small town, and we all knew her father in various capacities. We got to know Marlowe as we grieved our loss, and then talked her through her breakup. And as for our relationship—I was desperately in love with Marlowe from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, and was fully prepared to pine for her from a distance until she recently told me she wanted to be with me, too.”

Esther still wasn’t quite convinced. “Aren’t you worried you’re just a rebound?”

Ouch, straight to the point.

I looked down at my hands, finding a speck of blood I had missed after the fight with the vampyr. “Of course. I worry constantlythat she’ll think her feelings are just a result of some trauma-based connection. But my feelings for her are real, I know that.”

Her fingers drummed along her forearm, and she looked out the window at the fading daylight. “I’d always had a bad feeling about Mike, you know. I never said anything to Marlowe about it, but I noticed the way he’d look at her like she was a piece of meat sometimes, or the way he’d evaluate every other woman in the room with him like he was constantly shopping around. He creeped me out whenever I was alone with him.”

I leaned forward. “Do I creep you out, too?”

Her eyes turned back towards me. “Not really. But still… I can tell something is off with Marlowe.”

I took a sip of my coffee. “You obviously know her much better than I do, so I don’t know how to relieve your worry. I have a feeling only Marlowe can do that, but as far as I know, she’s been perfectly forthcoming.”