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.

I was sweating balls by the time I finally got all of my shit up to the room that was going to be mine, and was wheezing like I was dying, too. The last thing I wanted to do was walk back down the stairs to grab Ricco’s clothes, so I took a break by hanging my shirts up in the closet. There were already about two hundred hangers packed into that thing, and while I only had enough tops to fit ten percent of those hangers, I did appreciate the thoughtfulness human-Ricco seemed to have put into preparing the space for me.

While I hung shit, my mind went back to the tampons and floral shampoo.

Were those for me too?

When I asked wolf-Ricco, he confirmed my suspicion. And honestly, I was kind of touched.

Human-Ricco might have been grumpy at the party, and he might have had less than zero interest in looking at me or sharing a bed with me, but he had still gotten his house ready for me. He’d made sure I wouldn’t run out of toilet paper, or tampons, or shampoo, or hangers. He’d even gotten me a damned bed.

I was actually starting to think that the whole house-sharing thing could work out nicely for us.

When I finished hanging up clothes, I was still sticky and smelly, but I was no longer actively sweating, so I grudgingly headed back down the stairs.

Carrying Ricco’s clothes up only took three trips. Like me, he didn’t have a whole ton of clothing. I noticed that his closet was equally split between button-down shirts and old t-shirts as I hung things up for him, and realized he probably had to get a bit dressy for his job. Considering I had always been on the messy side of casual, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Then again, we were just going to be friend-mates instead of spouse-mates. So it really didn’t matter.

There wasn’t a dresser to tuck his other clothes into, so I left the folded piles of jeans and joggers on the floor of his closet. He didn’t own any slacks, and as I headed back down the stairs, I couldn’t help but picture the freakin’ gorgeous blond guy in jeans and a button down.

Hot friggin’ damn… maybe I didn’t mind the dressy shirts he had after all.

When I headed back down the stairs, my gaze landed on the boxes of not-built-yet furniture.

And I grimaced, hard-core.

That shit was going to suck to drag up the stairs.

I headed for the toilet paper, and spent the next twenty minutes dragging that crap up instead. Most of it went on the storage shelves in Ricco’s closet, since the bathroom was packed too full.

When that was done, I grudgingly walked over to the pile of furniture. I’d never built a piece of furniture before… which really freakin’ sucked for me.

“It’s better than living in my car,” I muttered to myself, as I leaned over the pile and wrapped my arms around a massive box.

Wolf-Ricco licked my thigh. Whether it was a “condolences” lick or a “I’m glad you’re here” lick, I didn’t know.

I heaved the box up—and let out a screech as I wobbled. That thing was even heavier than it freakin’ looked.

And I dropped it right back down onto the stack.

Swearing under my breath, I leaned over and tried one more time.

Somehow, it was even heavier the second time.

I panted, sagging against the couch.

This sucked.

Not the whole situation—just the damned heavy furniture.

“I’m going to have to go ask one of your buddies for help,” I grumbled to the wolf.

He nodded his head, and something in his gaze told me the bastard had always known I was going to have to do that. I scowled at him, and he whined in apology before licking my leg.

I pushed him away with a grunt, standing up and heading toward the door. The wolf growled, and lunged between me and my way out.

I blinked at him.

Had he growled at me before? I didn’t think so.

He growled again, and poked me in the bare leg with his nose.

It took a moment for me to register why exactly he was poking my thigh.

Astrid had said he would be possessive… and what possessive guy wanted his chick walking around half-naked?

“Ohhh. You want me to put pants on.”

The wolf nodded violently.

I sighed. “Buddy, I’ll put on pants this one time, but the possessiveness is going to have to chill. Most of my actual clothing covers less of my skin than this t-shirt.”

The wolf growled at me again.

“Don’t make me flip you off,” I warned him.

He growled yet again.

“Fine. Keep growling and I’ll restrict your licking privileges. We both know you don’t want that.”

The wolf glared at me for a moment, and then let out a huff and a whine.

Then he licked my thigh.

“I didn’t think so.” I scratched his head, and the two of us headed up the stairs. “I just had an argument with a wolf,” I muttered as I walked. “Think I’m actually losing my mother-freakin’ mind this time.”

The wolf licked my leg again, oh-so-helpfully.

I found a pair of old leggings that had been worn so many times they were no longer tight to my skin, and tugged them on. Glancing at the wolf for permission, I waited for his nod before heading down the stairs again.

And yeah, I was starting to really hate those damned stairs.

Who had decided a house would be better-off cut in half with freakin’ stairs dividing it? Who the hell wanted to walk up and down stairs every day?

I left my shoes where they were and tugged the front door open, glancing both ways. The nights were still a bit cold, since it was springtime, but I ignored the chill in the air and considered my options.

Eiry’s house was two doors to my right—but if I went to her, I’d have to talk to her and Fred.

And they were so sickeningly in-love that they were probably having naked time at this point in the evening. My nose wrinkled at the thought of interrupting that.

Anton had said his house was to my right, between mine and Eiry’s. He was nice, but definitely pretty enthusiastic. I grimaced at the thought of all that enthusiasm, and the chatter that I’d definitely have to survive while we hauled shit up the stairs.

To my left, I knew, was Daryl’s place. He was much quieter than Anton; I couldn’t recall him saying anything up until he introduced himself.

Not having to chat much definitely sounded the best, so I headed to my left, not bothering to shut the door behind me. Hopefully, I’d be back in less than two minutes.

I crossed the grassy yard between our houses, my toes growing icy as the damp grass tickled my feet. When I stepped up onto Daryl’s porch, I rapped my fist against the door three times.

To be honest, I kind of hoped the guy wouldn’t answer.

Of course, the door swung open less than a minute later. A shirtless, sleepy-looking Daryl stood in the doorway.

I took a step back, panic rising in my chest.

What the hell was I supposed to do with a hot, shirtless skyscraper?

“Leidy?” He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

Ricco let out a furious snarl, stepping between me and his buddy.

Daryl’s gaze dipped to the wolf. “Shit. One second.”

The door closed, and the wolf’s snarls cut off. He looked pissed though, as he stepped back beside me.

My heart was still pounding rapidly, awkwardness and stress raging.

Why the hell was I afraid of him? A hot guy was just a person, same as the rest of us. I did not understand my anxiety, but still couldn’t get the shit to leave me alone.

When the door opened again, wolf-Ricco stepped in front of me, his body between mine and Daryl’s. I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to keep me away from the other guy or was responding to my anxiety, but I was glad anyway.

“Hey, Leidy. Sorry about that. Anton’s usually the only one who knocks this late.” His expression was a bit sheepish. “What’s up?”

“Ricco has this massive stack of furniture that needs to be built, and I’m not buff enough to haul it up the stairs myself,” I admitted. “I was hoping you could come help me carry it up, but obviously you were just sleeping, so I can just go…” I bit my lip, awkwardly taking another step back.

“I’m already up, might as well help.” He shot me a quick, small smile.

Ricco growled at him.

I glanced down at the wolf, grimacing. “Sorry, I don’t know what his problem is. He didn’t growl at all until I tried to leave the house without pants on.”

Daryl chuckled, stepping out on the porch and shutting the door behind himself. “No need to apologize. His problem is that he’s a wolf.”

I shot him a confused frown as we started walking back to Ricco’s place, the wolf standing between us at all times and growling at Daryl whenever he got anywhere near me.

“They’re possessive. Well, we’re possessive. In general, werewolves as a whole are. If you tried to hug Jason, Astrid would have to fight the urge to claw your eyes out. The other day, Astrid threw something at Fred, and Eiry snarled at her even though they were all in human form.”

I snorted. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” Daryl wore an expression that was somewhere between a grin and a grimace.

A grin mace, I guess.

“Since Ricco’s hunting you right now, he’ll be really possessive. If you’d knocked on my door without pants on, he’d probably have attacked me, and Ricco’s one of the most laid-back guys in the pack.”

My eyebrows shot upward. “Damn.”

I did like the sound of being mated to one of the most laid-back guys in the pack, though. Laid-back, I could dig.

“Yeah. It’s a shits how if you’re coming from the human world, but it’s just life around here. Eiry and Astrid don’t have any hard feelings toward each other after their possessiveness dies down, and neither do us guys. We expect it; it’s natural.”

“Not for me.” We reached my porch, and I gestured Daryl in first, just so wolf-Ricco didn’t flip out about Daryl seeing my ass when I walked in before him.

I followed Daryl inside, feeling much more comfortable with the guy than I’d expected to.

“Damn. You fixed this place up fast,” Daryl whistled, his gaze sweeping the house.

“Eh, it really wasn’t that dirty to begin with. The dishes were really out of hand, but other than that, most of it was fine. The papers were assignments from his students, I think, and the clothes were mostly clean.”

“I wondered about that. I saw him hauling a couple of rolls of carpet in the other day,” he remarked.

“You think he changed his own carpet?” My eyebrows shot upward. “Why?

“Ricco’s pretty handy. His dad fixes and renovates houses for a living, so Ricco and his brother learned to do almost everything when it comes to that kind of thing. He mentioned that the nesting instincts have been driving him crazy, and it’s not hard to believe that changing the carpet out might have been part of it.”

My nose wrinkled as I closed the door behind us. “Nesting? Like a bird?”

“More like a pregnant lady.” Daryl flashed me a small grin, and we both ignored wolf-Ricco’s growl. I did scratch the poor guy behind his ears though, to make up for ignoring him.

“What?”

“When pregnant ladies are near their due dates, they get the urge to get their house ready for their baby. Werewolves have the same urge, but for their mate. That’s why everyone was pretty surprised to see Ricco’s place in such bad shape.”

“I guess that explains the tampons,” I told the wolf, who snorted and then nodded.

“Yep,” Daryl agreed. “Is this the furniture?” He gestured to the stack of boxes, remaining near the entryway until I nodded and waved him toward it.

“Go ahead. I can go ask Anton for help if it’s too heavy.”

“We’ll see,” Daryl grabbed the first box without a problem. “Which room do you want this in?”

The one on top was a nightstand; from what I’d seen when I checked it out, there were two identical full sets of furniture.

“Either one. Half the stuff will go in Ricco’s, half will go in mine,” I explained.

Daryl shot me a frown as he headed toward the stairs. “Ricco bought two separate sets of furniture?”

“Yep.”I nodded. “From what I’ve gathered, he’s got zero interest in anything to do with all of this.” I gestured to my body.

“That’s weird.” Daryl headed up the stairs. Rather than following him and staring at his ass while Ricco growled at me, I leaned up against the couch, scratching the wolf’s head while I waited for the other guy to return.

He came back down the stairs empty-handed, but still frowning. “He’s been having a rough time, but I wouldn’t have thought he’d go this far.”

I shrugged, eyes on the wolf as Daryl grabbed another, larger box without a problem. “Doesn’t seem like a stretch to think he’d want to just be friends with his mate.”

Daryl shook his head as he started back up the stairs. “You don’t understand,” he told me, then disappeared for a moment. He continued as he came back down. “A werewolf waits for his mate in every way. He physically cannot be with anyone else. There’s not a wolf in this entire town that hopes for friendship. Ricco sure as hell doesn’t. Or at least, he didn’t…” Daryl’s forehead remained wrinkled as he headed back up with the next box. I couldn’t believe the asshole still wasn’t sweating; I panted like mad when I reached the top of the stairs every friggin’ time.

“I’ll see what Anton knows, and tell you,” he said, when he came back down.

“You can just ask the wolf,” I told him with a shrug. “He’s the one who told me the spare bed was for me, so somehow, he must know dude-Ricco’s secrets.”

“The wolf sees through Ricco’s eyes when Ricco’s in human form, just like the man does when the wolf’s in control.” Daryl disappeared back up the stairs as I dropped my shocked gaze back to the wolf.

“You lied to me,” I told him.

He flashed me a feral grin.

“Bastard,” I swore, withdrawing my fingers from his fur and pushing his head away from me while my face burned.

I’d stripped in front of the wolf after he told me the human wasn’t home. That meant hottie-Ricco had seen my tits, since my bra did absolutely nothing to hide them. He’d probably seen my bare ass and the matching sheer panties I’d had on too, which meant the damned human had pretty much seen me naked.

“Dammit, bastard!” I huffed at the wolf, pushing his face away again when he leaned in with an apologetic whine. “What the hell is wrong with you? I let you lick my damned legs so many times, the least that should guarantee me is the freakin’ truth.”

“What did he do?” Daryl checked.

“Told me the human couldn’t see through his eyes,” I huffed. “I stripped in front of him.”

Daryl grimaced. “Can’t say I’m surprised. If Ricco’s decided he doesn’t want anything to do with his mate physically, the wolf was probably hoping that seeing you naked might help.”

“Why would it?” I asked, incredulously.

Daryl ducked up the stairs again, wiping his hands on his sweats when he came back down. “I’m not going to give you all of my thoughts on the subject, to avoid getting attacked by the wolf, but basically, a werewolf’s draw to his mate is pretty much irresistible. You’ll be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, you’ll smell so good to him that he’ll have a hard time stopping himself from licking every damn inch of you, you’ll be everything he never realized he wants.”

He disappeared back up the stairs with another box while I glanced down at the wolf I’d pushed away.

He licked my arm with a grin, as if agreeing with everything Daryl said.

“Besides that, if I were to walk into a room of women and pick out one that I thought Ricco would like, I’d pick you,” the man said bluntly. “You’re small and witty, unique, and chill. Ricco would hate to deal with someone as high-maintenance as Tadhg or Eiry for the long haul, but he needs someone who’s got enough fire to set him straight when he takes a joke too far. Seems like that could be you.” Daryl took yet another piece of furniture up, still not sweating.

My eyebrows lifted. “Thanks, I think.”

“It was a compliment,” Daryl called out behind himself. “As much of a compliment as I can give you without pissing off the wolf.”

I snorted, glancing back at the wolf, whose head was now resting on my lap.

“So what’s he like?” I asked Daryl, as he came back down. “Ricco the guy, I mean.”

Daryl’s expression grew contemplative. “I’m not sure, to be honest.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

Hadn’t he just been talking about the guy like they were friends?

“Ricco recently lost his brother. I won’t give you the details, but in the months since, he’s changed. I’m not comfortable setting you up to expect him to act one way when I’m not sure how much of the change is because of that loss and whether or not it’s permanent,” Daryl explained, grabbing another box.

My gaze lingered on the wolf, my expression falling a bit. “I’m sorry,” I told him.

“The wolf doesn’t consider his brother gone, really, which is probably why he was telling you what Ricco has planned and doesn’t agree with it. The way Ricco’s brother was lost has soured him toward the concept of mates, I’d imagine, though Ricco hasn’t confided in me.”

He went back up the stairs yet again.

“Hmm.” I stared at the wolf. He licked my arm. “Well, you definitely like me,” I told the wolf.

He stuck his tongue out and gave me a goofy grin, which made me snort.

“He seems to at least have decided that he wants me to live in his house,” I remarked, gesturing toward a box as Daryl grabbed it up off the pile and hauled it toward the stairs. It was the second massive dresser, and there was no way Ricco himself would need more than one of them.

“You won’t have a choice, during the chase. I’m not sure why he thinks this is a good idea,” Daryl remarked. He was finally sweating, hallelujah. I was starting to worry the asshole had super-strength or was impervious to exercise or some other crazy shit. “Your wolf will force you to stay close enough to him that you can see him at all times.”

My eyebrows lifted in horror. “What if I need to pee?”

He shrugged. “Some wolves are fine with that much separation. Others aren’t.”

Dammit.

Something told me my wolf would be the obnoxiously-difficult kind who wouldn’t even let me walk away from hottie-Ricco long enough to take a piss.

“Well that sucks,” I muttered.

The wolf licked my arm again, as if telling me it would be okay.

With a sigh, I forgave him for lying to me and scratched him behind his ears. “Don’t lie to me again,” I warned him. “Or I’ll make you sleep on the floor, and we both know you’ll want to jump in my bed.”

The wolf huffed in annoyance, but nodded his head before resting it back down on my leg.

At least that was settled.

“Alright, last box,” Daryl announced, as he grabbed the final one. It was the second headboard. “You’re not planning to put all this stuff together on your own, are you?” he checked, glancing over his shoulder at me as he walked.

“Uh…” I trailed off, not wanting to admit that I definitely was.

“Do you know how to use an impact driver?” he asked me.

“The better question is, do I know what an impact driver is,” I muttered to the wolf. “And the answer is a big fat ‘no’.”

The wolf snorted.

“I heard that,” Daryl said with a grin, as he headed back down the stairs. “I’ll text Anton and Zeder.”

“You don’t need to,” I protested.

“We can get everything done in a couple of hours. It would take you a week on your own without any tools other than what the stores throw in the boxes,” he countered.

I grimaced, still not wanting to agree.

Since I had absolutely nothing on my schedule, it wasn’t like I was in a hurry. But there were always things I could do with my music, and I needed to apply for jobs, and…

Fine, I didn’t want to spend the next week building shit. It would probably end up wobbly or lopsided if I did it myself, anyway.

“You can stay down here while we work upstairs if you want,” Daryl added, as if realizing that I mostly just didn’t want to have to socialize. “I understand not wanting to be overwhelmed, but Zeder’s pretty mellow. Anton adapts to the room, so he won’t be a pain either. Jason and Astrid are probably the loudest, especially when they’re together. And they’re always together.”

“I got that feeling,” I agreed, digging my fingers further into wolf-Ricco’s fur as I fought anxiety. The wolf snuggled up closer, and strangely enough, it worked to calm me down a bit. “Alright, you can text them. Or I can just go knock on their doors, I guess. If they’re busy, that’s okay, I don’t want to—”

Daryl already had his phone out and was typing on the screen, so I cut myself off.

“Don’t worry about inconveniencing us,” he told me, flashing me a small grin. “We’ve got nothing going on, and it’s good to see Ricco with you while he’s trapped in his wolf form. The other girls didn’t really let us around them while their guys were hunting, and we’re curious.”

“Oh.” I bit my lip. “Then you’re welcome, I guess?”

Daryl chuckled. “I’ve got to go grab my tools, but I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Alright.” I didn’t really want him to leave—I was actually starting to like the gorgeous skyscraper, surprisingly enough. Not romantically, obviously, since we’d just met and he was waiting for his mate for—

Wait, he’d said werewolves waited for their mates?

“Are you a virgin?” I blurted out, then groaned, “Shit.”

Daryl laughed, and Ricco snarled, shoving his furry self over most of my body as if he was going to physically prevent me from jumping his friend.

“I wasn’t trying to flirt,” I said quickly. “I just meant—dammit, this is weird.”

“It’s not weird.” He flashed me a grin, much bigger than any he’d given me before. “All werewolves are virgins until we meet our mates. A werewolf’s mate will be his first, and his only. So yes, Ricco’s a virgin.”

My face was on freakin’ fire. “What about the girls? Are they usually supposed to be, like, experienced?”

His grin didn’t budge. “It doesn’t matter to us. Most guys would want to murder any asshole who’s been with his girl, but it doesn’t change anything for a werewolf. If you’ve slept around, it won’t matter to Ricco. Unless you bring your exes around—then he might eat them.”

I snorted. “I haven’t touched any guys, remember?”

“In five years,” Daryl pointed out. “I don’t know how old you are; that doesn’t mean you’ve never touched anyone, ever.”

Ricco snarled even more furiously, and I patted his head in condolence.

A knock at the door distracted both me and Daryl. I tensed as I waited for it to unlock and open, but it didn’t.

Daryl followed my line of sight to the lock. “Are you comfortable with us having keys?” he asked.

The question relaxed me, honestly.

“Not really,” I admitted, as Daryl headed over to the door and undid the lock.

“We’ll have everyone bring them over and leave them under the mat. We handed them out as a convenience thing; not to cause stress.” He tugged the door open.

Anton stepped inside with a grin and a drill-thing that I assumed was Daryl’s impact driver. “Hey, Leidy. Thanks for letting us come help.”

He was thanking me for asking for help?

Damn, what kind of world had I walked into?

“You’re welcome?”

He chuckled, and Daryl stepped past him. As he went, Daryl asked, “Can you tell everyone to drop their keys to this place under the mat sometime tomorrow? Leidy wants some privacy.”

“Sure.” Anton leaned up against the couch, pulling his phone from his pocket.

He was just as gorgeous as the rest of them, but after talking to Daryl for so long, I was a lot less intimidated by him.

“Thanks,” I told them both, shooting Daryl a grateful look as he left.

“No problem,” Anton replied for both of them. “We want you to be comfortable here, since you got dragged into this mess.” His fingers moved over the screen on his phone for another moment, and then he put it back in his pocket. “The furniture is upstairs?” he checked.

I nodded.

“Any rooms you want us to stay out of?”

The question surprised me, but in a good way.

They would respect it if I didn’t want them going into one of the rooms, and that was a big deal. Especially considering that I hadn’t wanted anyone upstairs at all a few hours earlier.

“No. Just don’t touch Ricco’s bed, maybe?”

It was stupid, but I didn’t want them to screw up his scent on the blankets.

“Sure.” Anton didn’t so much as bat an eye at the request, which made me feel a lot better.