"All of them."
The two alphas load them carefully into the cart, rearranging the existing groceries to make room.
There's a lump in my throat all of a sudden, and I add the immediate gathering of shakes for Rex to my mental inventory of things I'm learning about these alphas.
Phoenix and Raf are good alphas.
Genuinely good alphas.
And I think Rex might be, too, buried somewhere beneath all the self-loathing and rage.
We check out. Phoenix pays before Raf or I can argue about it. He's already swiped his card by the time Raf pulls out his wallet, and the look Phoenix gives him is so smug that Raf threatens to key his car.
The drive home is loud. Raf rides shotgun and controls the aux cord, which is half fucking glorious, half torture that has Phoenix and me begging him to turn it off. His music taste is an unhinged grab bag.
We haul the bags upstairs. Phoenix and Raf unload while I organize, because left to their own devices, these two would shove canned goods in with the frozen stuff and call it a day.
And I have the evidence for it.
Eggs on the second shelf. Vegetables in the crisper. Cheeses in the dairy drawer—yes,bothcheeses, Raf, and Phoenix, did you add four more? Spices lined up on the counter because the cabinet above the stove is full of protein powder. Cleaning supplies under the sink.
Rex's shakes go on the middle shelf of the fridge, front and center, where he can't miss them.
I tear off one of the skull Post-its.
Pause.
Tap the bat-wing pen against my lip.
Then I write.
Found these at TJ's. Phoenix says they're hard to get so don't drink them all at once. — Bells
I stick it to the fridge at Rex's eye level just in case he doesn't go in there. I wouldn't blame him, either, considering the nearly empty state of it before we filled it with proper groceries.
I have to stand on my toes.
Rex eye level ishigh.
Phoenix watches me from the kitchen island, chin in his hand, expression soft in a way that makes me want to hurl a broccoli at his head so he stops looking at me like that.
"What?" I mutter.
He shakes his head, smiling. "Nothing."
It's not nothing.
But I let him have it.
CHAPTER 6
REX
"Rex? Are you in there?"
Nash's voice filters through the bedroom door, muffled and hesitant. Always hesitant now. Like he's approaching a wounded animal instead of his own twin brother.
I don't answer.