“Thanks,” I carried the mug and plate to the seat next to him at the table.
“Mm,” was his reply.
After a moment of thought, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. His expression didn’t change but I saw the flush creep up his neck.
Once I started eating, he put his phone down and stretched his muscular arms over his head. “Just didn’t want you to end up hangry,” he groaned through his stretch.
Gabe and Colt couldn’t be more opposites, both in looks and demeanor. While Colt was tall and lean with a dancer or swimmer’s build, Gabe was broad and a few inches shorter like a wrestler. Both had hair down to their collarbone and otherworldly, modelesque facial features. Colt’s hair was darker and Gabe’s was a reddish auburn.
Colt was also the open book while Gabe was a locked down fortress. Falling for Colt had been easy, with his charming wit and smile, and being so openly affectionate toward me. While he did mourn the loss of his pack, he looked toward a new future of shaman and shifter working together, with open arms.
Gabe on the other hand resisted every increment of change in his new life. Humans hunted down his pack to the point where they had to separate. Colt and Gabe stayed together, but their third brother Hunter was captured along with his two pups.
My two wolves had never heard of shaman, but I knew exactly what they were the moment they started sniffing around my old butcher shop for scraps. Sensing nearby shifters was the first training point for a shaman, but I had to earn the wolves trust before revealing that I knew their secret.
Every day with Gabe was a hot and cold game. He kept his feelings guarded behind that painfully handsome face, showing the briefest moments of warmth in gestures like this morning’s breakfast, or the way his body curled around mine at night.
I couldn’t entirely blame him. Wolves were raised in very rigid, old-school traditions. They were protective of their pack families for good reason. It was all that Gabe knew, and what he prided himself on. He was raised not to trust humans and in an instant, his pack was gone and he resorted to scavenging for food.
Even for a wolf shifter, Gabe was proud. He seemed allergic to smiling or admitting being wrong about something. He seemed content to sleep with me, even sharing me with his brother, but the moment any deeper feelings were breached, he pulled back like a hand on a hot stove.
And yet, I stayed hopeful that he would open up to me one day. Maybe I did so foolishly. But every time I got frustrated to the point of wanting to give up on Gabe, he showed me there was more to him.
When I first met him, there was no way he would have approved his brother of marrying a shaman. In his eyes, wolves only needed each other. Not humans. But after spending more time with me, and seeing how happy Hunter was with Mel, he seemed to slowly be coming around.
Slowly being the key word.
“When are you guys heading out?” I asked before a hearty gulp of coffee.
“Whenever Colt’s thoroughly washed and done in the shower,” he smirked. “I’m gonna go nuts if I have to smell you on him all day.”
“Nothing stopped you from joining,” I pointed out. Truthfully, I was a little hurt that Gabe hadn’t joined us in bed. He seemed to be avoiding group dynamics for a few days.
He shrugged in reply. “I don’t feel much like sharing lately.”
My stomach dropped. It wasn’t like he sought me out on his own either. What was he really trying to say?
“Any particular reason why?” I dropped my eyes to my eggs, circling them around my plate with my fork.
Another shrug. “Just a lot on my mind.”
That you won’t ever tell me.
I didn’t even bother asking. I knew it would be a fruitless attempt and just continued eating my food. With he and Colt being groomsmen and me a bridesmaid, it was going to be a long day for all of us.
“There she is!” Mel, in a beautiful lavender silk robe with Bride embroidered in golden letters, wrapped me in a hug. “You’re just in time, Mir. The makeup artist just got here. Miriam, Lara. Lara, Miriam.”
“Hello!” A woman with frizzy redd hair, black-rimmed glasses, and wearing an apron stuffed with makeup brushes waved at me. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” I smiled at her. In my mind’s eye, I saw large, brown eyes, a plush, furry body, and delicate, leathery wings. It seemed Lara was a bat shifter, a flying fox of some kind.
“Miriam, keep that door cracked, would ya?” I turned to see Connor, Mel’s only non-shifter husband to be, peeking around the corner with a grin on his face.
“Excuse you!” Mel laughed, pulling me into her master bedroom. “No peeking before the ceremony!” She slammed the door closed to Connor’s protests and locked it for good measure. “Jesus, he’s the worst of them today. How are your two behaving today, Mir?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” I plopped down on a corner of the bed. “Colt is lovely. Gabe is a stone wall. You know, the usual.”
“So dump his ass and just go steady with Colt,” Mel’s sister and maid of honor, Jeanie May, suggested, putting their youngest sister Riley on the floor so she could crawl around. “You know, like normal people,” she teased.
“It’s not that simple,” I sighed. “I’ve fallen for Gabe too, and I just know he has feelings for me. He does little sweet thoughtful things for me, but getting him to express anything is like pulling teeth. I think it’s just hard with how he was raised.”
“Hunter and Colt were raised in the same way too, you know,” Mel took a seat in the makeup chair while Lara set up her kit. “At some point, you’ve got to put your foot down, Mir. He’s allowed to feel conflicted but that doesn’t give him a pass to make you feel like shit.”
“I know,” I sighed, running my hands through my long, dark hair. “Did you get the same kind of shit from Hunter?”
“No, it was actually Arjun who gave me the most shit,” Mel smirked, closing her eyes as Lara began her work on her face. “They’ve all been pains in my ass for various reasons, but I’ve learned to deal with them all. Sometimes it took patience and compassion, other times I had to stand up and tell then when shit wasn’t acceptable. Such is life when you’re marrying four men,” she sighed.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Jeanie chuckled.
“It’s work but it has its perks.” Mel’s grin grew broader. “Loving so many different personalities and feeling how much they love you back all in their own unique ways. There’s nothing else better in the world.”
“Where do I find men who would be willing to share?” Lara joked.
“I don’t recommend traveling and performing in carnivals run by shady humans,” Mel laughed. “Even if you find good men, you’re bound to find lots of trouble along the way.”
“Don’t feed hungry wolves meat scraps either,” I added. “Then you’ll be in my situation.”
“This wedding seems like a good place to start,” Jeanie scrolled through her phone while keeping an eye on Riley. “The guest list came out to fifty people. Nearly all of them shifters.”
“Any shaman RSVP?” I asked.
“Doesn’t look like it, though not everyone specified.”