Something was up with him and Kane. The tension had always been there, but lately it was thick as fog.
“I don’t know. We just did regular shit,” Dustin ended, linking his hands behind his head.
“But you let me think this entire time that my dog was murdered.”
“Yeah, well, he wasn’t. He was having a vacation. I even gave him a flea bath. Mostly because he gave my wolf fleas, and it sucked. His bow looks extra stupid, by the way.”
“Heeey,” Rowan drawled with a disapproving grimace. She leaned forward and covered Gray Dog’s ears. “He’s sensitive.”
“False, I called him Smelly Motherfucker the entire time he lived with me. He never got his feelings hurt, and he answers to it now. Come here, Smelly Motherfucker.”
Gray Dog gave Dustin a canine grin and scrabbled over to him. The dog licked under his chin while Dustin baby-talked him. God, Emma had never considered loving animals a sexy quality in a man, but it really was. Gray Dog was getting so worked up and happy his wagging tail was a blur, and he was whining between licks.
Dustin ripped the bow out of his hair and tossed it in Rowan’s lap. “Who’s a handsome tough guy now?” he asked, scratching under his spiked collar. Dustin sniffed him and grimaced. “Why does he smell like douche water?”
Logan was standing on a ladder wrapping the new porch beams in outdoor lights. “I don’t even want to ask how you know what douche water smells like.”
Emma and Winter snickered, Rowan twirled the bow in her hands and grinned proudly, Kane shook his head in annoyance, and Beast downed an entire beer in one long swig and looked like he hated everything. And all was right in her crew.
Her crew. She could really have this. Sure, there were conditions, but they didn’t seem so bad anymore. A bite-mark on Dustin, and they could both be in. They could both be home. She was turning vamp soon anyways, and he’d already told her he wanted to be her feeder. She would be biting him then whenever she needed sustenance so what was a bite-mark in the grand scheme of things? Now they felt like a shoo-in to register for the Blackwings.
“Kane?” Emma asked.
“Yep?”
“Which concrete pad is for me and Dustin?”
“The one right next to this one. I figured you would want to be close to Winter. Beast will be on the end, in the back of the trailer park where he asked to be.”
“It’s closest to the woods,” Beast said gruffly.
“We’re going to be one big, happy family,” Winter said.
“I meant to say it’s farthest away from all of you,” Beast corrected. He gave a wicked smile and a nod like he’d won some contest.
“Do you want me to make you a trophy for biggest asshole in the crew?” Dustin asked, twisting a few napkins together.
“Yeah. I’d love that. I’ll put it right in my front window as a warning for you fuckers to stay off my lawn.”
Dustin handed him what looked suspiciously like a penis he’d fashioned from the napkins. “Congratulations, Beast. We’re all so proud of you and support you in your endeavors.”
Beast yanked it out of his hand and growled a terrifying noise.
“What happened to your face?” Emma asked.
“Not polite,” Beast said, eyes on the woods.
“Why not? People ask me all the time about my hearing aids. I don’t get my panties in a twist.”
Beast cast her an angry glare, then gave his attention back to the woods, offering them all a perfect view of the deep claw marks that marred half of his face. “I fell,” he said sarcastically.
Emma tapped her hearing aid and murmured, “Me, too.” She wouldn’t get anywhere with Beast. He was an enigma set behind sky-high walls a mile thick. And really, right now, she wanted to go see the place that might be home someday. “Come on,” she said, tugging Dustin up out of his chair. “Let’s go see our house.”
“Wait, is this the bat signal?”
“No, you horny werewolf, I actually just want to see where our future house will be.”
“Living with Dustin won’t be as fun as you think,” Logan muttered from up on the ladder.
“Oh, and living with you is going to be a cake-walk? Please,” Dustin muttered as Emma dragged him down the porch stairs. “You’re lucky Winter’s type is ‘lunatic.’”
When Dustin scooped her up in his arms suddenly, Emma squealed and clutched onto his neck. “What are you doing?”
“Walking you across the threshold.”
“Aaaaw!” Her cheeks heated with pleasure, and she hugged him tighter as he did indeed walk over where the door would be.
The concrete was freshly poured but dry to walk on. “Kitchen,” she said, pointing. It would be the same layout as Winter and Logan’s home, and she’d been in there several times just to memorize the layout and fantasize about her own house.
“Living room,” he said, jerking his chin to the right.
“Bedroom—”
“My favorite room,” Dustin said with a naughty glint to his eyes.
Emma giggled as he lowered her to her feet directly in the middle of the concrete. His eyes went serious in a second. “Are you sure, Emma? With me? It’s…”
“It’s what?”
“I don’t know, a risk. And it’s still not a done deal. I have to work out some major shit still to swing this. It’s scary to imagine things that might not come true.”