HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 137

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Seven

"Wow," Jun muttered around his fork, brows furrowing as he chewed. "Have you been practicing your cooking since you got here?"

I looked up from my phone and stared at him, pausing mid-chew. "What? No, not really. There hasn't been much of an opportunity since my mood has been all over the place, on top of all the other drama and bullshit that's been happening."

"Then... why do these pancakes taste so good?" he asked, cutting off another huge chunk and stuffing his face with gusto, cheeks puffed. He closed his eyes appreciatively and savored his breakfast, which made me smirk. "Mmf... good job, Horst!

"I added a little bit of vanilla extract and donut glaze icing into the batter," I said smugly, and he twitched, brows shooting up. I took another bite of pancake and returned to looking at the text I'd started reading from Nikki, Erika's older sister, which I'd missed when Echo and I had... yeah.

Nikki Robertson: (Wednesday, 12:09 A.M.) 'Hey Horst! ❤😋 I've been trying to get in touch with you for a while now. Our team received the weekly report from Echo's chip implant and something caught my attention. Please respond when you can! 🤗 And give my baby sister and my Gruncle a hug for me! Love you, goat boy🐐!'

I snorted, popping another hearty chunk of pancake into my mouth and held the fork with my teeth, taking a second to respond with, "Hi Nikki, sorry about the lack of response. I heard your text last night but I forgot about it since stuff was happening. What was it that caught your attention? Are Echo's vitals all right? He's actually pretty under the weather today.🤒"

Once I finished texting, I sent it, shifted my phone to one hand and pulled the fork out of my mouth with the other, absently chewing on my breakfast while I backed out of the chat altogether and started scrolling through my other missed texts. I had a lot of them, I noticed, but most of them had been sent to me during my initial disappearance from the VRC. I replied to the ones that needed a reply and skipped the rest until I spotted a missed message from Kyle, sent at 6:15 in the afternoon on Tuesday, the nineteenth.

I was in the Comfort Zone with the guys when he hit me up, I realized, popping another hearty bite of pancake into my mouth while I opened the message.

Smiles: (Tuesday, 6:15 PM.) 'Hey! Just wanted to let you know that Dicky's been a little worried about you? We've been talking and we kinda, sorta wanted to know if it would be okay if he came to spend time with you tomorrow? 😅 If you need space and you aren't feeling up for company, it's perfectly fine, we'll understand, but my husband has been... going through some stuff ever since the attack. As you know, his beard turned totally white.'

I frowned, because underneath it was a text sent more than thirty minutes later.

Smiles: (Tuesday, 6:49 P.M.) 'He's been in a better mood the last few days. He came back to himself a bit when we heard that you and Echo had been kidnapped right in front of your father's eyes, and he's expressed interest in hanging out with you. I also think it would be good for my husband to do something other than smoke like a chimney or hide in mine or Sebastian's room under our laundry pile, so get back to me when you can, okay?'

I stared at the text for a long time, just thinking about it.

"Hey, Jun," I said, finally lifting my eyes from the screen to the beta werewolf's face; his hand paused and he glanced at me, food hovering an inch from his lips. "Would it be okay with you if Richard came to hang out with us today?"

He seemed surprised if the way he drew back and blinked like an owl was any clue. "Dick wants to hang out? With us?"

"Kyle says he does," I admitted, shrugging. "I haven't seen much of him lately... not since the attack on the house happened. He got hurt pretty bad... broken back and ribs, right?"