The Housemates

More Secrets

Chapter Twelve

More Secrets

To help keep herself distracted, Elli worked on the living room for the next week. Noah helped out, probably to keep his mind off of Richard, and Desmond assisted whenever he didn’t have a date. Addy had taken up some extra shifts at work, Kate had a paper due, and Richard had a huge test to study for so they were hardly seen.

After the visit to Faith’s grave and pizza at the house, Addy’s friends hadn’t returned. Addy had moped about the house for a few days after the trip. Well, she’d moped about the house when she was in it, which was a few hours plus sleep at most. Remembering the death of her friend’s mother seemed to put her in a reasonably sad mood. Still, Elli kept dwelling on it. Something about it was really bothering her.

Desmond and Elli worked on the last wall of the living room while Noah was out buying supplies for the next room. They stepped back and grinned at each other as the final coat of paint was completed. The living room still had a lot of work to go, but the walls were done. They high-fived and plopped down onto the couch to admire their work from the last two or so weeks. The walls were no longer the creepy, dingy, ugly wood. Now they were a warm, inviting shade of beige.

“It looks great,” he said as they studied it.

“It really does.”

“So...you’ve been really invested in this remodel. Does that mean you’re sticking around?”

She sighed. “I mated.”

“You what? With who?” he demanded. He was oddly excited about this.

“Addy’s friend Jasper.”

“The nerdy one?”

“You’ve met him?”

“Yeah. He and her other friend stopped by here early one morning when I was…getting back.”

“You have a lot of sex,” she observed.

He shrugged. “You don’t.”

“Yeah, well, I won’t now that I’ve found my mate and he’s extremely human. It’s lovely.”

“Ask him out,” he bluntly suggested.

“No. He’s fragile and just no. I’ll live without him.”

“You and Noah are children of an Alpha. You have to carry that gene on, so even if both of you get really screwed over in the mate department, one of you has to end up with their mate. You have to make puppies. The gods won’t let that gene die out.”

“Why the hell do you know that?” she wondered, because it was something she didn’t think she had ever heard before, yet it did sound familiar.

“I’ve known a few werewolves in my lifetime, Elli. We’ve been over that. So I know it only gives you a 50/50 shot at being with your mate, but one of you has to pass the gene on so one of you gets a happy ending.”

She wanted to think it would be Noah, but he very well couldn’t ‘make puppies’ with Richard, so that meant that she would be reproducing. Unless, of course, neither of them ended up with their mates and Noah drunkenly impregnated some poor soul. Just as possible, hopefully not the route the gods would choose.

Desmond frowned, eyes on her neck. “It scarred.”

Her fingers reached up and found the bite marks. “Yeah, I know. Vampires are one of few creatures who can leave a scar on a werewolf. Our species are completely incompatible.”

“...but I healed you...” he pointed out, confused.

“There are some things that not even magic can heal.”