“I’m kind of in love with you,” I told the wolf.

He licked my face, and I grinned. “How do we get him back in human form?”

“Come to his house, and we’ll explain it,” Tadhg tugged lightly on my arm. “Just be careful not to go near any of the other guys. Ricco will be possessive.”

I snorted, standing up. Though I tried to take my hand off the wolf’s face, he rose with me, moving so his face remained snuggled up against my palm. His fur was soft, so I didn’t mind. “That’s definitely not going to be a problem. Do you know how many guys I’ve touched in the last five years?”

Silence sounded once more. “You probably shouldn’t,” one of the skyscraper dudes began.

“Zero. I have touched zero guys in the past five years. And I don’t plan on touching anyone today, including my insta-hubby, so let’s move on. To Ricco’s house.” I gestured toward the house.

A snort and a soft chuckle came from the men behind me as Tadhg led me toward Ricco’s place.

“I can’t say this is how I expected today to go,” Tadhg remarked, as we walked.

“Guess we’ve got that in common, then,” I tossed back. “Get explaining.”

“Alright,” Astrid began, before we even reached the back door of the townhouse. “So basically, a werewolf is just a person who shares a body with a wolf. We can’t communicate with our wolves, but they exist on top of us. When we’re in wolf form, the human part of us can’t communicate with the outside world or move in any way. The opposite is true too; when we’re in human form, the wolf can’t communicate with the outside world or move in any way. That is Ricco’s wolf, not the same man you spoke to earlier.” Astrid gestured toward the wolf.

Honestly, that was a relief. I could interact with his wolf, and not need to worry about the hottie he would eventually turn back into. “Cool.”

Astrid continued, “Right. So when a werewolf meets his mate—all werewolves are men, it’s this weird nature thing—the wolf shuts the guy in a box and takes over. It’s called the ‘mate hunt’ and basically, he’s just going to follow you around and snap at anything that gets near you until he’s certain that you aren’t going to reject him. Then, he’ll bite you, and you’ll turn into a werewolf.”

“That’s simplifying it a bit,” Eiry pointed out.

“Eh, it’s her first day. She needs simple.” Astrid waved her off.

“If you want more details, just say so,” Eiry added, as one of the guys reached the sliding glass of the back door. He tugged it open, and gestured all of us inside. I recognized the brown-haired dude as Jason, Tadhg’s boyfriend. Err, mate.

I nodded, telling the women silently to continue.

“When you’re a werewolf, the next stage of the mating process begins. That’s the mate chase, and your wolf will be watching him like a hawk and testing him to determine whether or not he’s a suitable mate. Which he will be, because he’s Ricco.” She tossed a hand toward the wolf. “After that, your wolf will bite him, and then all that’s left is the climax. During that, you’ll be overwhelmed with lust, and fucking like rabbits for a few days until it’s out of your system.”

My eyebrows shot upward. “You had me up until the sex.”

“The sex isn’t required,” one of the guys clarified. I glanced over at him, and dodged his gaze when he tried to make eye contact. Dark hair, a tiny bit of scruff… damn, he was gorgeous too. “The climax lasts around a month if you don’t have sex, you’ll just feel a lot of lust during it. It’ll be painful if you choose not to… find relief together, but you can choose that.”

Well, that wasn’t so bad, I guess.

A small price to pay for a free place to live while I searched for jobs.

“So after the mating thing is over, we can split and call it good?” I checked.

Honestly, I hated that idea. If I was going to get even slightly attached to someone, I didn’t want to walk away. I was tired of being alone, and the instant-husband thing would make up for that, at least slightly.

“Not exactly. Your wolves will constantly run to each other. You can choose to have a friendly mating rather than a sexual one, and if you choose that, you’ll remain companions rather than actual spouses who sleep together,” the same guy from earlier explained.

“Well, then, I’m in.” I flashed the wolf a quick grin. He gave me a wolfish grin back, then licked my arm.

“That’s a kiss,” Astrid added. “When he licks you.”

“Of course it is. He’s just a big ole’ dog, isn’t he?” I crouched in front of him, scratching his head. “How do I draw the hunting part out? To keep him in wolf form longer?”

There was another pause. “Make him believe you don’t want to be a werewolf, I guess,” one of the guys offered.

“I don’t want to be a werewolf,” I informed the wolf, scratching behind his ears.

He licked my face, clearly not buying the words any more than I had.

“How long will he be hunting for?”

“Could be a day, could be a year.” One of the guys shrugged. “No way to know.”

Ah.

“I’ll just have to enjoy it while it lasts, I guess,” I said.

For the first time since we entered the house, I looked around. “Holy shit.”

The place was an utter disaster. It was an open floorplan, so I could see the entire dining area, kitchen, and living room from where we stood just inside the back door. It wasn’t massive, but wasn’t tiny by any definition. After living in a dorm room, it may as well have been a mansion.

But papers littered every inch of the countertops and table. Boxes of cereal and other foods were stacked up against the edges of the kitchen. The couch in the living room was a legitimate clothing mountain.

The floor was covered in more clothes, papers, and who knew what other shit. One corner of the living room had a literal tower of toilet paper, tampons, and other toiletries. The other corner held boxes of what looked like furniture, stacked all the way to the ceiling.

“Shit,” one of the guys muttered.

“Did you know his house looked like this?” Astrid asked, and when I glanced at her, I realized she was looking at all five of the guys with us.

The wolf licked my arm a couple times, and I glanced down at him. He was looking at me with sad puppy-dog eyes, and when he licked my arm again, I realized he was trying to apologize.

“It’s okay,” I told him. “I won’t hold you accountable for the dirty human’s actions.”

The wolf licked me again, seeming happier, and I scratched his head again.

“Ricco’s had a lot going on,” one of the guys explained quickly. “His house didn’t used to look like this. I’ve been outside, dragging him around to do shit, but I didn’t realize…” he grimaced, his gaze sweeping the room. “Damn.”

“I don’t even want to see the upstairs,” someone muttered.

“It’s cool. I’ll deal with the mess.” I gestured toward the house.

“We’ll grab some cleaning shit and help,” one of the guys said.

“No.” My words came out much harsher than I intended, and silence met me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just… I like my personal space. I’d rather clean on my own.”

More silence.

Shit, I’d messed up.

Clearly, this was a tightly-knit group of people. I was instant-mates with one of their buddies, so they probably wanted to do something to help, right?

“You could get my stuff from my dorm,” I offered. “If you want to do something to help. I’ve got to be out soon anyway, and since you said Ricco won’t let me leave…” I shrugged, scrambling to come up with something that would persuade them. “It’s heavy.”

Nods went around the room.

“I can stay and explain things,” Tadhg offered.

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I need some time to process all this first.” I gestured between myself and the wolf I was still scratching. “Maybe you can stay and chat for a bit when you drop off my stuff?”

“I’ve been writing things down over the last few weeks, to help myself remember it all,” Eiry offered. “I can email you everything I have.”

Why did it not surprise me that she’d taken notes about werewolves, of all things?

“That would be great,” I nodded.

“A mate manual? It’s perfect,” Astrid declared. “I’ll add my shit to what Eiry has before we send it over.”

Biting back a snort, I nodded again. “Sounds good.”

“Alright, we’ll get out of your hair. Let me just…” one of the guys crossed the kitchen, tugging the fridge open. It wasn’t Fred or Jason, or Zeder, who had been cooking, but that was all I could say about the skyscraper’s identity.

A bunch of glass casserole pans fell out of the fridge, and the guy swore as he tried to catch them all. Somehow, he managed to catch them.

Fred crossed the kitchen too, helping the other guy stack the pans on the counter.

“We’ll need to go through these,” the guy who wasn’t Fred muttered.

“I’ve got it,” I said helpfully.

TBH, I was drooling at the sight of all that free food.

“Shit, the steaks,” Zeder muttered.

He slipped out of the house, and my eyes followed him as he jogged away.

“We’ll grab your dinner, and then head off to get your stuff,” Jason said, flashing me a guilty grin.

“Are you sure you don’t want any help with this?” Astrid checked. “Because this is… well, it’s a lot.”

“I’ve got it.” I waved her off. “Bringing my shit from the dorms is plenty.”

Tadhg didn’t look convinced.

I bit back a sigh. Honestly, the help did sound good, but I just didn’t want to deal with the chatter. I needed time to breathe, and process everything. “Fine,” I amended. “Tomorrow, you can ask again. But for tonight, I’m fine.”

“Alright, alright.” Tadhg tossed a hand toward me. “We’ll leave you alone. Come on, Kerth.” She gave her man a teasing push toward the door.

He grabbed her by the waist, tickling her and laughing while she shrieked and swore at him.

Eiry flashed me an apologetic grimace. “I’m sorry. If I’d known this was going to happen…” she trailed off. “Well, I would’ve warned you. I wouldn’t change it. Meeting Fred was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” She held up hers and Fred’s intertwined hands.

“Well, just cross your fingers that this wolf-man is just as good for me.” I held up my hand, fingers crossed.

Yeah, I was awkward.

Whatever.

My other hand gripped the wolf’s fur, and he snuggled up to my side while Eiry and Fred slipped out of the house.

“I’m Anton,” the guy who had caught the casseroles offered, holding out a hand. I gave him an awkward wave, figuring I might as well continue along on my awkward roll.

“Sorry, possessive wolf…” I gestured to the wolf, who hadn’t done a damned possessive thing other than licking my arm.

Yeah, I was totally going to use him as an excuse. Sue me.

“Right. Good thinking.” He flashed me an amused grin.

“I’m Daryl,” the other guy I didn’t know added, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Anton’s off to that side of you, and I’m off to the other one. If you need anything, just knock on one of our doors. Or yell; we’d probably hear you.”

My lips quirked up in a tiny smile, and I dipped my head in a nod. I liked Daryl, automatically. He seemed chill, which was a nice change of pace from Tadhg’s wild energy.

“Good to meet you both.”

“I’ll drop off the dinner in a few. Zeder will be grumpy after burning the food, so I’ll keep him away.” Anton winked at me, then he and Daryl headed out the back door. “Just let us know if you need anything,” he repeated, before he shut the sliding door.

And then, I was alone with the wolf.

My wolf, if Tadhg and Eiry and the skyscraper squad were to be believed.

“Whew,” I said, letting out a massive breath of air as I headed over toward the couch. Collapsing on the cushions—I couldn’t even see what color they were thanks to the mountain of clothes covering them—I kicked my feet out onto the lumpy ottoman and stared at the blank TV for a minute. One of my hands gripped the strap of my purse, which rested between my boobs, and the other still held the fur of the wolf who had jumped up on the couch beside me.

Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath.

Things had just… changed.

Yep.

Definitely changed.

Then again, everything was changing, so I guess it wasn’t all that abnormal to me. I’d been pretty sure werewolves existed after seeing those videos Eiry had obsessed over, so I wasn’t exactly surprised to meet them. But it was still all just…weird. And unexpected.

I liked plans, even though I was shitty with following through with them. This definitely hadn’t been part of a plan… but I was actually glad it had happened.

“This will probably sound crazy,” I told the wolf, “But I’m really glad I met you. My life was about to go to shit. I was going to be living in my car, and that thing’s going to crap out any time now. Job hunting… well, it’s not looking great. I really thought my professor could hook me up, but it fell through, and now I’ve got nothing. Nothing, and no one. Yay.”

The wolf licked my arm.

“Apparently, nothing and no one but you. If I can manage to convince myself to believe Astrid and Eiry. But if you ask me, they kind of seem like they’re on drugs.”

The wolf snorted, and my lips curved upward. “Glad to hear that you agree with me.”

My fingers stroked his fur. “I used to have a dog. Chewbacca. She made everything better. But she passed a few months before I graduated high school, and college dorms don’t allow dogs. Not big ones, at least, unless you’ve got a medical reason. Which I don’t, so here I am.”

Ricco set his head down on my leg, and made a sad sound. Something told me it was an apology, and my eyes stung a bit.

I hadn’t really made any friends in college. Most people talk about their college buddies for years after they graduate, if not their whole lives. But I’d spent all my time lost in my music, working my ass off and loving every minute of it. It hadn’t led to any friendships, or parties, but I didn’t really care about those things anyway. Not usually, at least.

Now that I’d graduated, and had nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do… well, it would’ve been nice to have a few buddies to go places with. A few couches to crash on.

I heard a knock at the back door and quickly stood up, drying tears up with the neck of my shirt. Letting go of Ricco’s fur, I grabbed a tipped-over laundry basket and quickly tossed some clothes in it so it looked like I’d been doing something.

“Leidy?” Anton called out. “I have a plate of food for you. Is it okay if I come in?”

“Sure,” I called back.

He stepped into the kitchen, flashing me a small smile. “We were serious. If you need anything—even a snack, or a meal, or help doing the dishes—just stop by my place or Daryl’s.”

“I will. Thanks.”

He nodded, setting the plate on the counter before leaving again.

I let out another massive breath when he was gone.

“Damn,” I mumbled. “I’m not cut out for this level of socialization.”

The wolf snorted again, licking my arm. I scratched his head, and collapsed back down on the couch.

Ricco snuggled up against me, and my arms wrapped around him. I held him against me, fingers burying in his fur. Despite the mess in the house, it didn’t smell bad or anything. The clothes off to my left actually smelled like laundry detergent, and the ones on my right…

I lifted a shirt to my nose, and inhaled deeply.

Then, I dropped the fabric like it was damned lava.

“Your human definitely wore that,” I squeaked at the wolf.

He licked my face and then picked up the shirt between his teeth, lifting it toward me before dropping it on my chest.

With a sigh, I lifted the fabric back to my nose and inhaled again. My eyes fluttered a bit as they closed.

Damn, he smelled good.

Like chocolate, and cinnamon, and… sex.

Okay, to be honest, I’d never had sex. My V-card was firmly in-tact, only because interacting with the male species made me feel panicked and weird.

But Ricco smelled like the way I imagined sex would smell.

I dropped the shirt again, heaving another sigh.

The wolf tossed it onto me again.

I shot him an annoyed glare. “I have clothes on, Ricco.”

He scowled, nipping at my shirt. It was a cropped tank that fell just above my belly button, and I’d paired it with some jean shorts and my favorite combat boots. It was spring, technically, so the boots still worked.

“You don’t like my outfit?” I asked, shooting him an incredulous look.

He licked my belly button in response, eliciting a shriek and a shove against his face. “That tickles,” I complained.

The wolf gave a playful growl, and nipped at my belly.

I groaned. “Fine. Only because you’re annoying.”

He stuck his tongue out and gave me a goofy, wolfy grin.

“Can your human see anything through you?” I checked, assuming the wolf could answer given his many human-like actions.

He shook his head in a no.

Phew.

It was just me and the wolf.

“Cool.” I tugged my shirt over my head, exposing the sheer bra I had on beneath. It was made of this weird netting that for some reason, was about eighteen thousand times more comfortable than any padding I’d ever worn.

The wolf licked the gap between my boobs, and I snorted, pushing his face away again. “You’re weird.”

He grinned at me once again, and I couldn’t help but grin back.

“Your human’s lucky you’re a pain in the ass,” I warned the wolf, still grinning as I grabbed Ricco’s shirt and tugged it over my head. As I expected, it fell down my thighs, the hem hitting below my shorts. It would look like I wasn’t wearing pants at all, so I went ahead and unbuttoned my shorts before stripping them off and tossing them onto the pile of Ricco’s dirty clothes.

I tugged my combat boots off as I headed into the kitchen, and tossed them onto a pile of shoes Ricco already had near the garage door. Curiosity had me peeking into the garage, and my lips curved upward when I saw the old, beat-up truck sitting inside.

There was just something about a shitty vehicle that spoke to my soul.

Maybe it made Ricco seem a little more approachable? Probably not, but I guess we’d see when the wolf decided to bite me and turn me into one of them.

It felt odd to be wearing nothing but my underwear and a shirt in another person’s house, but the place smelled like Ricco and the mess definitely prevented me from feeling self-conscious about it. I sat down on a barstool in front of the island, inhaling the delicious smell of steak.

Wasting no time, I dug into the food. Free food… glorious free food.

My scholarship had paid for the school’s basic meal plan, but honestly, the food there was shitty. I hadn’t eaten anything more than was required to continue living during my four years there, and I’d skipped at least one meal a day most of the time.

So having a massive plate of delicious food, for the first time in years, was damned incredible. That was the reason I’d driven all the way out to Moon Ridge for Eiry’s barbecue, anyway, and it was proving itself to be worth it in just the food alone.

Ricco licked my legs almost constantly while I ate, but I didn’t mind. The wolf was a sweetie, and if I was his instant-wife, he probably liked the way I smelled. I sure liked the way Ricco smelled, so it wasn’t hard to believe that I’d smell just as good to him.

Hopefully.

I cringed at the thought, though.

How weird would it be if a guy wanted to sniff me?

I mean, I’d like it. Hell, I’d love it. But I wouldn’t know how to react, you know? Like, should I cringe away? Or kiss him?

The one time I’d kissed a guy had been in high school, before my parents got all crazy, and it had been so awkward I hated even thinking about it.

But the thought still made me sort of excited.

To have a guy want me… that would be different. In a good way.

But I mean, I couldn’t get too caught up in that idea. There was still a good chance that he might not want me at all. He hadn’t looked at me like I smelled good to him; hell, he’d hardly looked at me at all. So he might not want to be anything more than friends, and that was fine. Just having a built-in best friend sounded like a damned miracle to me.

Whatever happened, Ricco and I seemed to be pretty much trapped together. So that was good; I liked the thought of that. He was just as stuck with me as I was stuck with him, so we would have no choice but to figure shit out. Even if we were just house-mates, I could get used to that. I would have my own room, I assumed, and that would be plenty of space for me.

I devoured the entire plate of food, tossing the thick disposable plate in the trash and then setting the fork and knife off to the side of the overflowing sink.

Turning toward the house, I surveyed the room. There was shit… everywhere.

Yep.

Everywhere.

“Alright.” I blew a puff of hair out of my eyes. Since I bleached my hair to get it to the platinum blonde I loved, there was always a bit of breakage. I didn’t mind that, though, because I loved all the choppy strands that framed my face. “Where to start…” I trailed off, nibbling on my lip.

“If I start with the kitchen, I’ll have to look at the awful living room through the entire time,” I said, processing out loud. I talked to myself a lot; always had, probably always would. It kept me sane. “So, living room it is.”

I’d worry about the upstairs after I had the downstairs dealt with.

Stepping back into the living room, I started sorting the clothes. It was easy to tell the cleans from the dirties, thanks to Ricco’s yummy smell, so I made quick work of the clothing mountain. There was actually only one load’s worth of dirty clothes in the mass of fabric, which reassured me slightly as far as my new roommate’s cleanliness went.

I started the one load, reluctantly leaving out a few t-shirts and a sweatshirt that smelled like Ricco. Doing that made me feel kind of creepy, but he’d turned into a wolf that was hunting me, so I was pretty sure the two things balanced out.

Mostly.

The clean clothes, I folded up and left in piles on the couch. As I folded, I revealed the fabric beneath. It was a nice dark gray that I really liked, and the throw pillows were all in other shades of gray. Ultimately, it was a lot more manly than I preferred, but I didn’t mind the colors. With a couple of black-striped or polka-dotted pillows, it would’ve actually been cute.

When Ricco was a human again and we figured out whether or not we were going to live together, I would change shit up. Until then, I’d deal with the manliness.

After I folded all the clothes, I decided to leave the toiletries and boxed furniture until I cleaned the rest of the townhouse. Furniture-building and organization would just have to wait a bit.

“To the kitchen,” I announced to the wolf, who had followed me absolutely everywhere I went. His fur brushed my legs with every damn step I took, and it was actually pretty nice. Maybe I’d been lonelier than I realized.

Fine, I had realized I was lonely. There just hadn’t been anything to do about it, so I’d tried to ignore it.

But… it was nice not to be lonely anymore.

Really nice.

Cleaning the kitchen took much longer than cleaning the living room had, but I found a Bluetooth speaker on the counter, and hooked my phone up to it. With music playing loudly, I jammed out while I cleaned, and actually found myself enjoying it. It had been years since I did dishes, and there was something therapeutic about it.

Wolf-Ricco looked hungry, so I fed him a few questionably-aged casseroles that I found in the fridge. I didn’t give him anything that was clearly expired, of course, but everything was pretty questionable since there weren’t dates on any of it.

He gobbled down everything I put in front of him, which definitely made my job easier since I wasn’t going to eat the possibly-old stuff anyway. Werewolves had to be tougher than humans when it came to sicknesses, considering how awful his shifting had been. Thinking about the sound of those bones breaking was enough to make me shudder.

“Is it weird to tell a wolf he’s a good boy?” I checked, scratching Wolf-Ricco’s head as I scrubbed down the sides of the sink, my hips and head still moving with the beat of the music I had playing.

He nodded his head, but licked the inside of my wrist as if letting me know he wasn’t offended that I’d asked.

“Not a dog. Got it.” I leaned my face down, and he lifted his up. His cheek rubbed up against mine, and my lips curved up in a smile. “You do like to cuddle though.”

He licked my neck in agreement, and my smile grew.

There was a knock at the front door, which about scared the actual shit out of me. I jumped away from the wolf, swearing and dropping the sponge in the empty sink.

“Leidy?” Astrid called out.

Dammit.

Biting back a sigh, I glanced at the clock as I headed for the door. It had been a few hours; plenty of time for them to eat, stop at my dorm to grab my stuff, and then come back.

I tugged the door open just as the lock on it turned, and my stomach clenched when I found myself face-to-face with Jason, who was holding a key to Ricco’s house.

“How many people have keys to this place?” I asked, as a greeting.

“All of us have keys to each other’s houses,” Jason explained, gesturing to the homes on either side of Ricco’s.

Yeah, that was going to have to change. I could be pretty cool with the werewolf shit, but I drew the line at giving other people open access to my living space. I needed my privacy to feel secure.

“We’ve got your stuff,” Astrid exclaimed, slipping past Jason with two massive duffel bags over her shoulders. All of my breakable equipment was in the hard suitcases, so I knew it would be fine.

“Just leave it at the bottom of the stairs. I haven’t figured out where I’m going to put everything,” I told everyone quickly, not wanting them to go upstairs. While I didn’t care whether or not there was a mess, I didn’t want them walking all over the space I’d probably be living in.

That would be my space.

I guess maybe I was already as territorial as the werewolf they said I was going to have to become.

Whether or not that was a good thing, I didn’t know.

All five guys and both girls carried my shit in, leaving it at the bottom of the stairs as I directed. Anton made a path in-between all the stuff so I could get through. I stood off to the side awkwardly, my hands still soapy and wet from doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen.

“It looks so much better in here,” Tadhg remarked. “If you ever want a job cleaning my place, just let me know.” She winked, telling me she wasn’t serious.

I snorted. “Right. That’s exactly what I want to do with my music degree.”

“As if Astrid would ever hand money to someone to do something she could do herself,” Jason teased. “My girl’s way too cheap for that.”

She grinned. “You know me too well.”

“Hell yeah, I do.” He swatted her on the ass, and I ignored the rising discomfort in my chest.

“Alright, let’s give Leidy some space. Everyone out,” Anton announced, waving them all back toward the front door. “We’ll stop by in the morning to see if there’s anything we can help with. I’ll take care of finding a sub for Ricco at work and making sure his family’s aware of what’s going on.”

I shot Anton a grateful grin before he shut the door.

The lock turned behind them, and I grimaced.

That, on the other hand, did not feel safe.

I picked my sponge back up, weighing the pros and cons of pushing the couch over to the door and locking it that way. Even if I did, the guys could just get in through the garage.

Theoretically, they were supposed to be decent people, but I didn’t know them. I didn’t even really know Tadhg and Eiry. And if there was one thing life had taught me, it was to expect the unexpected from people you were supposed to be able to trust.

I glanced down at the wolf up against my legs. “If your buddies try to come in tonight, will you eat them for me?”

He looked at me with a very serious expression, and nodded twice.

Strangely enough, I believed him.

“Then I guess I’ll survive. Tomorrow, I’ll go buy new locks.”

The wolf shook his head and gestured to my phone, where it rested on the counter.

“What is that going to do as far as the keys go?” I checked.

He gestured to the phone, and then to the door.

“Call the door?”

He scowled, pointing to the phone with his nose before padding over to the door and poking the lock with his nose. Then, he walked over to one side of the house and poked that with his nose, then crossed to the opposite side of the wall and poked that one too.

Walking back to my phone, he emphatically gestured to it with his nose again.

“You want me to call your buddies?” I guessed. “And… key them?” I bit my lip, mind turning. “Oh. You want me to call and ask for their keys.”

He nodded his head, face relaxing when he realized I’d figured out what he was trying to say.

“Wouldn’t that be rude, though? I don’t want to offend them.”

He rolled his eyes. I’d never considered what it might look like when a wolf rolled its eyes, but it made me snort.

“I’ll figure it out tomorrow,” I told him, scratching his head. “Let me finish up in here, and then we’ll tackle the upstairs.”

He licked my arm, and I went back to scrubbing the sink. My music was still playing pretty loudly, which I hoped wouldn’t bother the other guys, but I left it on. The next time I wanted to listen, I’d put on headphones. This time, while everything was packed up, I’d listen out loud.

I finished scrubbing the sink and stove, then dropped the sponge in the sink and rinsed my hands before tackling the microwave. I’d looked around already to determine just how dirty the countertops were, but I’d quickly realized that the papers were the only mess on the counters and table. They were all in stacks, too, though the stacks were pretty damn messy. They seemed to be worksheets and essays and shit from the history classes he taught, and only about a tenth of them looked graded. Which meant dude-Ricco had a hell of a lot of grading to do.

After drying my hands, I went from stack of papers to stack of papers, straightening them. After digging through the drawers, I found a box of paperclips, and used those to keep my neat stacks of papers together.

When everything was straightened and paper clipped, I piled all of the paper stacks on one end of the countertop, rotating between setting them short-wise and long-wise so they’d be easy to pull apart.

With all the papers cleaned up, the kitchen looked pretty damn spotless. I was proud of that, too.

I grabbed my sponge again and wiped the counters and table down though, just to make sure everything was really clean.

When that was done, I looked back at the living room.

The stacked furniture boxes, and toilet paper, and other toiletries… yep, wow, there was a lot.

“Clean, then organize,” I mumbled to myself, scratching Ricco’s head absentmindedly. “Let’s check out the upstairs.”

The wolf licked my arm—shocker—and we headed up the stairs together. I was damned glad Anton had made a path through all of my shit, because I definitely would’ve managed to fall on my ass if I tried to climb over everything. Since I couldn’t leave any of my stuff at my parents’ house—they had sold their house and donated every penny they had to some weird charity that revolved around pecan trees—everything I owned was currently on the floor in Ricco’s house.

That was fine, though. At least it wasn’t in my car. I’d been worried about trying to shove everything in there as well as live with it all that way. Now, there was no need to worry.

At least not about my living situation.

The werewolf thing was something else entirely.

As long as I could keep thinking of Ricco as the massive dog who had a slight obsession with licking me, I could wrap my head around the wolf thing. As soon as I had to talk to hottie-Ricco, we were going to have problems.

But hey, I could pretend for now.

Wolf-Ricco and I headed up the stairs. They were covered in dark carpet that was soft beneath my toes, and like the rest of the house, luckily, it didn’t smell bad. I was starting to think that hottie-Ricco wasn’t actually a dirty dude. He just had a slight hoarding problem when it came to boxed furniture and bathroom shit.

Maybe he was worried about not having anything to wipe his ass with during a pandemic? Hard to say.

Though, the tampons were something else entirely. Considering no one had mentioned a girlfriend or any other woman he might have been living with, I didn’t have an explanation for those.

The upstairs was pretty simple: one bathroom and two bedrooms. I peeked in the bathroom first, and found it surprisingly clean. There was an air freshener that smelled like clean laundry plugged into the wall, and the counters were bare.

When I checked the bathroom cupboards, I found them full of… you guessed it, toilet paper. There was also another unopened box of tampons, as well as a bunch of differently-scented soaps, shampoos, and shower gels. One of them was pink and smelled like flowers, but since I wasn’t questioning hottie-Ricco’s odd hoarding tendencies, I didn’t bother asking the wolf about it.

The top cupboard held a few unopened makeup items, including mascara, eyeliner, and lip gloss. I rarely put more than a smidge of mascara on, so I shot a raised-eyebrow at the wolf.

“Is your human hoarding, or questioning something?”

He snorted, and licked my arm multiple times before licking my thigh.

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” I told him, closing the cupboard and checking the toilet and shower. They both looked cleaner than any I’d seen in my own house growing up, which was refreshing.

“Maybe he was working on getting the place cleaned up,” I mused, stepping across the hall and to the first bedroom. When I walked inside, the smell of hottie-Ricco hit me hard, and I stopped in my tracks.

My eyes closed as I inhaled.

Holy hell, yum.

I kind of wanted to eat this guy.

Was that weird?

Yeah, that was weird.

I should definitely not mention my desire to eat him to the man when he took over for the wolf.

Despite the glorious smell, the bedroom was pretty much empty. There was a mattress in one corner with tangled sheets and blankets on it, and absolutely nothing else in the room. Not a stray sock or a pair of the boxer-briefs I now knew hottie-Ricco liked to wear. No dresser, no desk, no… well, anything else.

“I guess this explains the furniture,” I remarked to the wolf. “Guess your human was redecorating.”

He nodded his head, and I scratched his ears.

There was a door to a walk-in closet standing open too, and I saw that it was also completely empty.

Yeah, he was definitely redecorating. I didn’t know why he’d needed to move all of his clothes to the living room to do so, but figured everyone moved shit differently. Maybe he’d been going through everything to decide what to keep or donate?

Stepping out of the bedroom, I crossed the hall and slipped into the second room. My forehead wrinkled when I found another mattress in there. It was bare, without a single sheet or blanket in sight, and nothing else was in the room either. But there was definitely a second mattress.

So who was he planning to live with?

I glanced at wolf-Ricco. “Your human is kind of an enigma at this point.”

He snorted, shaking his head. His nose poked me in the thigh, and then he trotted over to the mattress and poked it.

“You think the bed’s for me?” I checked.

He nodded his head.

“I guess that’s not entirely impossible to believe,” I mused. “Maybe he knew he was going to meet his mate soon and didn’t want to share a bed with her.”

The wolf scowled, but nodded again.

“You don’t approve of human-Ricco not wanting me to share a bed with him?” I asked the wolf.

He nodded violently.

“You really don’t approve of human-Ricco not wanting me to share a bed with him.”

He nodded again, even more violently.

“Wow. Okay, then. I guess it’s good to know that your human’s not going to try to jump me or hump me or anything.”

The wolf’s scowl deepened.

“It’s fine, buddy. I’d be shitty in a relationship anyway. I’m sure your human and I will be much better off as friends.” I rubbed his head in apology. Though his expression was still grumpy, he did seem to appreciate the head scratches.

“Let’s go deal with my stuff, Ricco’s clothes, and then the furniture,” I decided.

The wolf licked my leg, and we were off.