Page 67 of For What It's Worth
Enzo shook his head, lifting the lid of a pot on the stove. He stirred, decided it was all going well, and then turned to face me, resting his elbows on the opposite side of the island counter. “My mamma would beat me if she ever found out I served anyone frozen food. Especially my mate.”
Aidan interrupted our conversation, kissing me on the cheek. “I missed a call from my mom while I was talking to the distributor. I’m going to take it in the other room.”
“Dinner’s basically done. Just needs a few minutes to cool down,” Enzo said in warning.
“I’ll be quick.”
I wanted to follow Aidan and eaves drop on his conversation with his mom, but I figured he was leaving for my sake. I just wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse.
“Do you talk to your mom a lot?” I asked Enzo. My voice felt extra loud since I’d been whispering, but at least now I didn’t feel bad for disrupting Aidan.
“She calls about once a week.”
“Wow.” I wasn’t sure why, but that felt like a lot.
Enzo chuckled. “The rest of my family has dinner together every Sunday. And I wouldn’t doubt my mamma still calls them once a week.”
“Do you miss them?”
“Yes and no. They’re my familia, but I’ve lived the majority of my life away from them. I guess I got used to it. At least I have a good relationship with my genitori.”
Somehow, Enzo had figured out that I liked hearing his other language. He’d started slipping in Italian words where I’d recognize their English meaning. I mouthed the word for grandparents to myself so I would remember.
“What about you?” I nudged Jenson, more interested in learning about my bonded alpha than worrying about interrupting him.
“My parents? They’re dead,” Jen said, never looking up from his papers.
The blunt words made me flinch, and I regretted bothering my alpha. I focused my attention on wiping up the crumbs from my laptop. I didn’t want the males to think of me as messy. After I spent some time looking around for the trash and refusing to ask where one was, Enzo opened a cabinet near the sink.
My cheeks burned with humiliation, and I silently tossed the crumbs away. Who hid a trash can anyway? With full hands, I wouldn’t be able to open the stupid drawer.
Enzo grabbed me around the waist before I could return to my seat, handing me another breadstick to munch on. “He didn’t mean to upset you, Orsetta.”
“Who upset you?” Jen demanded, interrupting Enzo’s supportive words as he finally looked up from his paperwork to glare at the other alpha.
“You did, fratello. Koda wants to learn about you, and you blew her off.”
“He doesn’t have to talk about his parents if he doesn’t want to,” I whispered. I understood that he might still be hurting from the loss of his parents, no matter how long ago they’d passed away. Even though I hadn’t known, talking about them probably made him defensive, wanting to keep their memory to himself.
Jenson eyes filled with too much emotion to meet.
Instead, I poured all my attention to cupping my hand and catching the new crumbs from my breadstick. Sometimes I forgot I barely knew my alphas. The bond might help solidify my place here on an instinctual level, and we were all attracted to each other, but we were still in the bloom of a new relationship. It felt like longer, considering I’d been hiding my crush on Jenson since I’d bumped into him on the first day and low-key insulted him. I’d been so nervous, but I’d had nothing to lose, so I was confident. Now, I was fighting to keep my alphas.
“I’m sorry, little bear.” Jen ran a hand over his hair, the short strands barely moving. “There isn’t much to tell. They passed away a long time ago, and I don’t think about them much.”
“You weren’t close with your parents?”
“No.” Jen extended his hands out to me, wanting me to join him.
When I tried to move, Enzo’s hands didn’t budge, keeping me pressed against his chest as he growled possessively.
I couldn’t help but laugh even as Jen growled at the alpha for keeping me from him.
Enzo leaned down so his lips pressed against the shell of my ear. His teeth gently bit down, but it was enough to set my body on alert. Alphas were predators by nature and my unwillingness to lose an ear kept me in place, but the fear from having Enzo’s teeth on me didn’t outweigh my desire for his bite—to be claimed by another one of my alphas.
My core clenched at the idea of a knot. I hadn’t had one in days, and the empty feeling inside was a tease with no ending in sight. A whine clawed at my throat with an alpha so close to claiming me if he’d just bite down a little harder. My omega instincts took control, causing me to grind back on Enzo, encouraging him to do more.
Whatever we were talking about was forced out by my arousal. We had the rest of our lives to get to know each other.