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My shoulders hunched up when I heard a third knock. I ignored it.

But I was still tense, even after another hour passed with no more knocks. Eventually, the last few nights and lack of sleep caught up with me, and I apologised and told my friends I had to go to bed.

When I went upstairs, I resolutely kept my gaze averted from the view out my hallway window.

—

He tried again when I was leaving for work the next morning.

“Hey, Rafe” I heard as I walked to my car.

Stiffening, I glanced over and saw him sauntering across his front yard to mine, dressed only in a pair of sweats with a cup of coffee in his hand. He shot me his usual cocky grin, but it faded when I scowled and yanked open my car door.

“What the hell?” he asked as I quickly climbed inside before he could reach me.

I could tell he was bewildered by the way I was acting, but that just pissed me off even more. Was he really that goddamn clueless?

Yes. He was. As I turned on the engine and put my car in reverse, I heard him huff in disbelief.

“Guess I’ll just speak to you at work, then,” he said. His voice was muffled through the window, but I could detect the slight hint of a threat in it, and it made me start to sweat.

By the time I got to work, I’d made a plan. Heading straight for my office, I grabbed my laptop and charger and some other supplies, then headed straight back out again.

Three minutes later, I’d set myself up for the day behind a stack of cardboard boxes in the storage room. I was armed with a large coffee and a breakfast sandwich I’d picked up on my way to the office, and I pulled a big stack of Val Kyl-More T-shirts out of a merch box to cushion my ass, seeing as I was going to be sitting on the floor for the next eight hours.

The room smelled like new plastic and old, musty cardboard, but it was quiet, and I highly doubted Ewen would come looking for me in here. I didn’t understand why he was looking for me at all. He hadn’t been able to leave fast enough after nutting on my couch.

Probably just pouting because someone in the world isn’t gagging to suck his dick after he showed them a scrap of attention.

My belly clenched as soon as I thought it. Forcing back the obscene images now trying to fight their way into my brain, I stretched out my legs and settled my laptop on them so I could start work.

After a while, I finally managed to relax for the first time in days. My back kind of hurt from hunching over my laptop on the floor, but I was able to get absorbed in my work.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I heard the door to the storage room open, making me tense and stop typing instantly. I was hidden in the back corner behind a stack of boxes, but I still froze until I realised the voice I could hear was Larkin’s, which made my shoulders unclench just a little.

He was beatboxing and singing something about crab pizza. I listened to him wander into the room and start moving stuff on a shelf, then another set of footsteps approached. I tensed up again when the second person closed the door behind them.

Oh no. If that was—

“Seb!” Larkin gasped coyly, then snickered as a low rumble came from the werewolf. “You’re the one who said we can’t keep doing this at work.”

“Changed my mind,” Seb rasped in his deep voice. “I keep thinking about this morning, sweetheart. The way you were moaning while you sat on my—”

“I’m in here!” I practically shouted the words, voice cracking in my haste to get them out. “Someone’s in here!”

It went quiet for a moment before I heard footsteps rounding the boxes and getting closer. Larkin appeared in front of me a second later, frowning until he saw it was me. His expression cleared, then his eyes widened.

“Oh shit, look!” He pointed at my hair excitedly. “Seb, look! We’re twins! You look good with pink hair, bro.”

“Thanks,” I said awkwardly, darting a look at Seb when he appeared beside Larkin, looking completely calm and unruffled as he adjusted his tie.

He gave me a tiny nod. “Very nice.”

“Thanks,” I repeated, no less awkwardly, and glanced between them. “Uh… sorry for interrupting—”

“It’s cool, bro.” Larkin sat on a cardboard box, compressing it under his ass. “Why are you in here?”

I couldn’t tell them the real reason, so I just shrugged and said, “Needed to concentrate, and it’s quiet and empty in here.”