Page 94 of Taming the Beasts

I smiled as Otto launched into several stories about his time with Ray back in college. He even had somephotos. I stared at Ray in the picture of all of them at the beach. He had blue eyes and was tan from the summer sun. “Who’s that?” I asked and pointed to the only other person in the photo I wasn’t dating.

“That’s Patrick. He’s the guy on the dig site that Bennett reached out to too.” He was tan with green eyes. They were both quite handsome. This was taken from years ago, but Ray was too young to die. Just thinking about it made my heart hurt. “I’m sure Patrick is helping look for Ray.”

“Yeah.”

“He’ll turn up,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” he said.

“Have a little faith.”

“Faith? It’s hard to have faith when you’ve been cursed. And when it seems like anyone we’re close to gets hurt by this too.”

“Otto, this isn’t your fault.” I knew he blamed himself for being cursed. But there was no reason to blame himself for that or for this.

“Isn’t it?

“Otto.” I lifted my head. “This isn’t your fault,” I said more firmly.

“I’m so scared that you’re going to get hurt by us too.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

“The only way you could hurt me is by leaving me.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

Yeah. He could accidentally shift and attack me. “But you have control over this.”

“I’d never leave you, Zoey.” His lips brushed against mine. “I love you.”

I smiled. It was everything I’d needed to hear. “I love you too.” I shifted so that I was straddling him. Iknew I couldn’t take away his pain. But I could certainly distract him for one night.

Chapter 20

Monday

Zoey

I was grateful that it was finally Monday and that the guys were going back to work today. The bank was closed on Sundays and the energy in the house hadn’t been great. Even with the distraction of some great football games.

It didn’t matter how optimistic I tried to be. They didn’t believe me. And I wasn’t sure I believed myself either. Especially as more hours ticked by.

But today was a new day and I’d gone all out this morning. I’d made a whole breakfast spread for them. There were chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and plain ones to choose them. Plus heaps of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit. It had taken me some time but I’d finally figured out how to use their fancy coffeemaker too.

“Good morning,” I said in as cheery of a voice as possible as the twins walked into the kitchen.

“This looks amazing,” Huxley said. His words were positive. His tone wasn’t.

And Ace didn’t say anything at all.

When Otto walked into the kitchen he smiled at me. But his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

If even Otto was sad, this was a disaster.

Titan walked into the kitchen. He looked at all the food and then grabbed a box of cereal from the pantry.

I quickly made him a plate, grabbed the milk carton mid-pour over his cereal, and handed him the plate. “For you.”

He raised his eyebrow at me.