“Oh boy,” Jessie said. “This is going to be hysterical.” She sat back in her chair, eyes alight. “Tanner, would you like to tell Carter who your sort-of mate is?”
He scratched the back of his neck. For reasons I couldn’t understand, Chris’s face was in his hands. “Yeah. Uh. So. It’s no big deal, so when I tell you, you can’t try and make it one.”
That didn’t sound good. “Why would I—”
Chris dropped his hands and sighed. “It’s me.” And then he pulled the collar of his own shirt from his neck. There, on his shoulder, was a matching bite.
“What?”
Jessie cackled as Dominique sighed.
Tanner shrugged. “It’s… platonic? Like, we’re not fucking or anything. But we trust each other. We love each other. And I wanted to have that connection with someone. It’s… being a wolf is great, you know? I probably would have ended up taking the bite at some point if Robbie hadn’t gone crazy and tried to kill me.”
“Too soon,” Robbie muttered.
Tanner snorted. “But ever since I was turned, there was always this little part of me that wanted something more. And being aromantic made that harder.” He glanced at Chris, his expression softening. “There’s no one I trust more. I know he’ll have my back no matter what. And I’ve got his. We’re in tune with each other. It made sense for us.”
“What the hell,” I said faintly. “You’re not… you’re straight!”
Chris rolled his eyes. “Yeah, speaking of. How’s that going for you these days?” He looked pointedly at Gavin.
I sputtered at him nonsensically.
Tanner squinted at me. “Did we break you?”
“He just needs to get acclimated again to how things are now,” Mom said.
“But what happens if you meet someone?” I asked. “Like, a woman or something.”
“Or something,” Chris said wryly. “If we do, we do. But just as long as they know we’re a package deal, then it doesn’t matter. It’s not that I’d put him first every time, but he’ll always be adjacent, no matter what I do.” And then, without artifice, he said, “I love him. And he loves me. That’s the only thing that matters. Who cares about all the rest?”
“But… sex. You have to have sex to get a mate mark.”
Tanner and Chris exchanged a look before turning back to me. “Nah,” Tanner said. “You really don’t. Just as long as the intent is there. Not everything needs to be about sex, Carter. Jeez. Get your head out of the gutter. We’re at the dinner table.”
Gavin laughed beside me.
I glared at him.
“Yeah,” Gordo told me. “I’m right there with you. I don’t know what the hell is going on any more than you do. When they told me what they wanted to do, the first thing I asked was if they were out of their minds.”
“You had sex with Mark and a magic raven tattoo appeared on his throat,” Chris said. “I don’t know that you have any room to talk.”
“Can you please keep your deviancy to yourself?” Rico snapped. “My child is present.”
“Oh please,” Bambi said. “He’s four months old. He doesn’t understand anything. Babies are dumb that way.”
Rico looked offended as he leaned down and kissed his son’s forehead. “Don’t you listen to the big, bad wolves. Or your mean mother. You’
re the smartest child who has ever lived. I promise.”
And it was then that Gavin decided he’d had enough conversation. He reached down and picked up a handful of mashed potatoes, then shoved them in his mouth. He chewed noisily, grunting as bits of potato stuck to his chin and nose. He swallowed, then picked up a slice of meatloaf and tore into it.
He must have felt us all staring at him, because he stopped chewing. “What?” he said through a mouthful of meat.
“Dude,” I told him. “You have a fork. And a spoon.”
He looked down at the cutlery next to his plate before turning back to me. “I don’t like them. Easier. Goes to the same place. My mouth. Don’t call me dude.”