Page 90 of Taming the Beasts

“Yours. Of course. But have you thought about just telling him how you feel?”

“I did tell him how I feel. By shoving potpie in his face last night.”

Emma’s eyes grew round. “You didn’t.”

“He was being a complete asshole. I spent all afternoon cleaning and cooking for them and he had the audacity to ignore all of it and open a can of soup for dinner.”

Emma giggled.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny. But I get what you’re doing now. You’re just planning on pushing all his buttons until he snaps. In the good way. Not the werecat way.”

Her having to clarify actually gave me pause for a minute. That was kind of the plan. But if he accidentally got so annoyed that he shifted... I tried to shake away the thought. I was already knee deep in this plan. It was too late to pivot and just be sweet. Besides, I think Titan secretly loved the game we were playing.

I nodded. “I have a feeling that when he finally snaps it will be explosive. In the best way possible.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

Depending on what Bennett’s contact had said though, I might be running out of time for Titan to be on board with this arrangement. He might be able to just walk away soon. The thought made me sadder than I realized it would.

“Are you okay?” Emma asked.

“I’m fine.”

“I think I know you well enough to know that’s not true. What’s going on? Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about your bridesmaid dress? I think the shop closes soon and...”

“It’s not that. I love the dress. I just...” my voice trailed off. “Kebe really got in my head about the cure. About the guys taking it and maybe not wanting to share me anymore. Ace and Huxley seem like they’d want this arrangement either way. But I can’t get a read on the other guys. I tried to talk to Otto about it and he was giving me very mixed signals. And I tried to bring it up to Bennett this morning but we gotinterrupted. I’m scared this is all going to end before it even truly begins.”

“I think you should just talk to them all about it.”

“Even if they do all say they’d still want me, I’m not sure it will make me stop worrying. It’s one thing to think about how you’ll behave if you have a cure. Another thing entirely if you actually take the cure.”

“Now you’re freaking me out,” Emma said.

“I promise you have nothing to worry about. You and Callum have ten years of history. I have five minutes of history with my guys.” Although I’d had crushes on all of them ever since they moved to town. Bennett said the feeling had been mutual. That did add more time to our story. Would that make it harder for them to walk away?

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about either,” Emma said. “But it’s always better to get stuff off your chest.”

Unless you were scared of the answer. “Yeah. I’ll try to bring it up to Bennett again.”

“You’ve got this. And speaking of getting things...I should probably head out. I want to make a quick stop at that decoration store.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No, I’ve got this. We barely need anything because the town square is already completely decked out for fall. I just wanted to start thinking about place settings. We’ll talk about it tomorrow after I speak with Callum about how many guests we actually want.”

“I really can come with you.”

“No, go talk to Bennett. Get it all off your chest.” Emma grabbed all her shopping bags and stood up.

I sighed. “That sounds less fun.” But I stood up anyway. She was right. Letting it fester in my head any longer wasn’t helping anything.

“You’ve got this. And text me when you find out what his contact said about the coin.”

“I will.”

We walked out of the coffee shop. She turned left. And I turned right to head to the bank. All I wanted to do was go home and cook my boyfriends something delicious. But this chat felt long overdue. At least in my head.