Page 72 of Alphas Never Hide

“Yep.”Jeremynodded vigorously. “Thisis going to beso good.Imean, what could be better than seeing a whole bunch of supes doing supernatural things?I’mgoing to have so much information for myAmazingBookofSuperSupesafter today.”Herubbed his hands together like a greedy villain in an old-school cartoon. “Wehave heaps of people signed up already, but we need to run down toLevi’sand see what kind of bears are at that conference.Icouldn’t talk to him yesterday withParkerhanging out with him.ButIhope they are the shifter kind of bears.It’dbe awesome to have a few out-of-towners taking part too.”

Theystood at the landing by the stairs, waiting for us.Bythe time we reached them, my stomach was churning, and my heart was beating fast.Iadjusted my glasses with a shaky hand.Anyminute now, they’d see our mating marks.

Haydenlooked atAdrian. “Whatabout the mundanes?”

“Gagethinks he can keep them away, or at least unaware.”

Ilifted my eyebrows. “Hecan do that?That’spretty wild.”

Adrianshrugged. “We’renot sure what he can do now that he’s bonded to the magic here, but he’s got a strong connection toWillowLake, and he thinks it is possible.Abit like an extension of theEternalMagic’sglamour.”

“Gladto know someone gets along with theEternalMagic,”Haydenmuttered.Hepushed his hand through his hair.Thegreen strands slid through his fingers.

Jeremygasped.Hiseyes widened, and he pointed atHayden’shead. “Adrian!”

“Iknow.Isaw it.”

Jeremylunged toward me.Hisreaction took me by surprise, soIdidn’t react fast enough to duck.Buthe didn’t hit me.Instead, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a bone-bending hug.

“I’mso excited for you both,” he gushed as he squeezed me tight. “Thisis so amazingly awesome.Anotherfated mate pairing.Andit’s the alpha, too!”

Whenhe let go,Istaggered back and gasped for air.Thenhe did the same thing toHayden.HaydenpattedJeremyon the back awkwardly. “Uh.Thanks?”

Adrianhugged each of us too, although he was much gentler about it.ThankMagicfor that.Ididn’t thinkI’dsurvive a hug likeJeremy’sfrom a wolf shifter.

Whenthe hugging ended,Jeremygrinned at me and waggled his eyebrows. “So, werewolf sex.Prettyawesome, amIright?Thebiting?Theknotting?Noone else really knows, andIfeel bad for them.Theymiss out on so much.Well,IguessMercerknows, but we aren’t at aBFFstage yet, so we haven’t talked about it.Thatfirst time, though, is a bit of a surprise, but in the best way.”

Didthat meanIwas at aBFFlevel?Becausethat was the first timeI’dheard of it.Asfor the rest,Iglanced atHayden.Hisface was curiously blank.Me?Itried to keep my face blank too.Ididn’t think it mattered whether a person bottomed or topped, but not everyone thought the same way.Sexualpositions were about doing what felt good to the people having sex.Itwas no one else’s business.Butother people could be weird about it.Ididn’t want anyone to thinkHaydenwasn’t a powerful alpha because of something intimate that’d happened between us.

“Jer, not everyone wants to talk about sex with strangers,”Adriansaid.Somethingin his tone told me he’d figured out there had been no knotting or biting for us last night.

“Wearen’t strangers,”Jeremyprotested. “Whichreminds me,Ireally need your number.Wehave this group chat and—”Jeremy’swords stopped abruptly.Helooked betweenHaydenand me.Realizationdawned in his eyes. “Oh!Oops.Sorryabout that!Mydad always told my brothers and me not to assume things because it makes an ass out of you and me.”Hisgaze bounced between us again. “Butif you guys are vers or want to change things up,Ihighly recommend?—”

“Jer, stop talking,”Adriansaid, tugging his mate toward the stairs.

“Canwe get breakfast here?”Iasked, eager to change the conversation.

“Thedining room isn’t finished yet, but the kitchen has been fully renovated with all the mod cons,”Jeremysaid, thankfully leaving the sex talk behind. “Weall make and eat breakfast together.Wetried to do lunch and supper as a group, but it was hard to get everyone together, so now we do breakfast.Oh, and we also have a weekly potluck.Jake’sbeen organizing one for ages and it is a bit of a local tradition now.”

“Youcook together?”

Jeremynodded. “Wetried assigning different people to make food on different days, but it didn’t really work out.Mostof these guys can’t cook for shit, so those people are on toast duty and stuff like that.”

“Saysthe guy who wanted everyone to eat one of thosesugary cereals the first time it was his turn to do breakfast,”Adriansaid with a grimace.

“Hey!That’sa rite of passage.Everyoneneeds to eatFrootLoops,CocoaPuffs, orLuckyCharmsfor breakfast at least once.Someonehas to drag you supes into this century.WhenIwas growing up, it was always a special day when we had those for breakfast.Usually, it was porridge or some other equally boring and cheap food.”

“Youhave six siblings,”Adrianpointed out. “Ican’t imagine having that many kids running around on a sugar high every day.I’mwith your parents on this one.”

Personally,Iloved porridge, butIwasn’t about to argue withJeremy.Idoubted anyone could change his mind anyway.Forthe rest of the walk to the kitchen,AdrianandJeremyrated various breakfast foods.Unsurprisingly,Adrianwas all about meat—bacon, sausage, and steaks—whileJeremypreferred sugary junk-food type breakfasts.

Thelarge industrial-looking kitchen was already full of people milling around, opening fridges, getting out pots and pans, and talking about their plans for the day.Haydensqueezed my hand whenIhesitated at the door.I’dmet most of these people already, and they’d all been friendly enough.Butwhat if things changed now?

“Morning, everyone!”Jeremyshouted as he dove into the melee. “Weneed to put on a fabulous spread this morning.Wehave a newly mated couple to celebrate.”

Everyone’shead snapped toward us.

“Forfuck’s sake,Jeremy,”Haydenmuttered.Thenhe cleared his throat. “Yes,Ryleyis my mate.Benice to him.”Hescowled at them as he said that last bit.