Page 9 of Bound to the Wolf
Reece hated the idea with every fiber of his being. The last place he wanted to be was at a party that was half populated by witches. But Nico had a hopeful look in his eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” Reece said. He was going to hate every second of it.
Chapter
Four
The first time Delainey set foot on pack territory, it had been in a mad rush to try to rescue Elise—and by extension, her boyfriend—from a werewolf who thought the solution to forbidden relationships between their kinds was execution.
Delainey thought that went alittlefar.
Now she was pulling up to a cottage on the edge of pack territory to go to a housewarming party. What the actual fuck?
It was a small cottage made of simple wood with a stone chimney on the outside that made it look almost like something from a storybook. Gravel roads led up to these small houses. And though Elise had told her there were several cottages on this part of the property, Delainey only spotted Nico’s.
Apparently the werewolves that lived out here liked their privacy. The house was surrounded by woods, which made sense, and it was smaller than she expected. The porch was on the dinky side. If three people tried to mingle, they’d be standing with shoulders brushing. But there was a nice new light fixture beside the door, and the roof was in good shape.
When she got inside, she learned there was only one bedroom. The kitchen and living area were all on an open floorplan that made the house seem larger than its square footage suggested.
How big could the place be? Six hundred square feet? Seven? If only the werewolves listed these places on Zillow, she could sneakily find out. Oh, well.
A small couch, barely more than a loveseat, faced the TV over the fireplace. The kitchen did double-duty as an eating area with benches under the counter and brand new appliances. Delainey hoped Nico could cook because Elise was not exactly gourmet chef material.
According to Elise, Nico had been slowly moving into the cottage over the last week. Elise insisted that she wasnotmoving in with him, but there were little touches of her everywhere. There were fresh flowers in a small vase on the kitchen counter. The place smelled vaguely of sage, and Delainey would have bet a hundred dollars that Elise had done a cleansing ritual before Nico finished moving his stuff over.
And was that… yes, it was! Her favorite blanket from the coven house, which had disappeared three days ago, was lying over the couch like it belonged there.
The little thief!
But Delainey couldn’t blame Elise for spending so much time at this little house or at the bigger pack house up the road. Her parents were still in town and had been dropping in on the coven house more often than not. On day three of their visit, Elise had clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valor and had been staying in the one place her parents couldn’t follow her: werewolf territory.
Honestly, Delainey couldn’t disagree with the decision. If she were in a similar situation… well, she wouldn’t be, because one, her parents weren’t witches from the most influential coven in the area, and two, she would never be foolish enough to fall in love with a werewolf.
She expected the party to be awkward, but inside, the two groups seemed to be mixing all right. Briana and Cole were off in a corner observing everything like they were chaperones at a middle school dance. Briana’s arms were crossed and she’d styled her braids in a crown over her head. Cole was the second tallest man in the room and stood nearly a head taller than Briana. He wore a simple dark top and jeans and looked like he could use a drink.
You and me both, Mr. Alpha.
Aya, Hugh, and Javi were all studying the bookshelf along the back wall of the living area. And Serena was laughing at something Nico said.
The traitor.
Had Serena changed her opinion on this whole relationship fiasco and forgotten to tell Delainey? Because they had both beenveryclear in their objections and had made those objections known through one tiny kidnapping.
Frankly, Nico was lucky that they had decided to kidnap him instead of giving him scabies.
But now Serena was over there laughing at jokes like she was Nico’s best friend. The truce meant they didn’t fight one another. It didn’t mean they had to get along and sing Kumbaya. Frankly, this party was taking things too far.
Serena was dressed up in a fitted dark top with large earrings in her ears. Her hair was freshly dyed, the pink streaks popping against the normal brown. And she was angled toward Nico like they were the best of freaking friends.
Was Serena seeing something that Delainey didn’t?
She took a second glance around the room, trying to look with fresh eyes. Briana was a little somber. She definitely didn’t look like she expected this to be a fun time, but she had put on a brave face. And beside her, Cole looked—well, Delainey wasn’t exactly sure how to describe how he looked. She didn’t know hisvibe. Was he always stone-faced? Was there some sort of nuance that she was missing?
Cole pushed off the wall and went into the kitchen. He retrieved two cans of something from the ice bath in the sink and offered one to Briana, who accepted gratefully. Delainey was probably reading too much into that. They were being polite strangers. That was all this party was: a bunch of polite strangers wishing they were anywhere but here.
Aya was studying something on the bookshelf, while Javi was standing at her shoulder and peppering her with questions. Javi was the shortest of the betas, but that still didn’t make himshort.He was around six feet tall, with close-cropped black hair and copper skin. Anxious energy seemed to hum under his skin, and he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet while he annoyed Aya.
Someone probably needed to play fetch with him to get him to calm down.
