"I definitely said bandmates."
"Orion." Jamie doesn't break eye contact with me. "Did he say bandmates?"
"He did not say bandmates," Orion confirms, the traitor. "Not at first."
My face is on fire. Full volcanic eruption. I'm going to combust in this tower staircase and they'll find my ashes scattered among Jamie's horrifyingly violent cardigans.
"Cool," Jamie says, rocking on his heels with the energy of a man who has just been handed the best piece of gossip in the entire Pacific Northwest. "Cool cool cool.Mates.Vespyr is apackofmates."
"I'm leaving now."
"Oh my gods, how am I going to keep it to myself?"
"Because Rex will feed you your own eyeballs if you don't and he doesn't even know I'm his scent match?" I offer, because why the fuck not? I need to be myself completely aroundsomeonewhoisn't my literal mate, and these two someones could become my best friends if I play my cards right.
Jamie's eyes widen. "Wait, Rex doesn't know…" He pauses, mouth hanging open. "Bells, are you… you're a fuckingOMEGA?!"
Even Orion is staring openly at me now, stunned into silence.
"Goodbye,Jamie."
"BRING YOUR THREE MATES TO GAME NIGHT!" he shouts after me as I practically throw myself down the spiral staircase, mask case clutched to my chest like a shield.
His delighted cackling follows me all the way to the front door.
The cold fog hits my burning face and I stand there for a second, blinking at the mud and the trees and the mist, heart hammering.
Mates.
I saidmates.
Because that's what they are.
That's what all three of them are, and I said it out loud to someone who isn't them, and the world didn't end.
I said it and it wastrue.
Rex is watching me from the passenger seat. Even through the rain-speckled windshield, I can feel the weight of that single blue eye.
I get in the car and twist to set the mask case carefully in the back seat. I put on my seatbelt and struggle with it for a second because my hands are shaking and it keeps getting jammed.
"You're red," Rex says flatly.
"It's cold."
"It's fifty degrees."
"I run hot."
He stares at me for another beat. I can practically hear the gears turning. Then he exhales through his nose and looks away, but the corner of his mouth is quirking up.
"Almost thought I'd have to rescue you from Jamie and Orion."
"Oh, it was close," I say. "Jamie's a cutie and Orion's majestic as fuck. What? Are you jealous?"
Rex turns his head to glower at me.
But he doesn't deny it.