Page 35 of For All My Effort
“Do not open that door, rebel,” Jackson yelled.
I stopped in front of the ornate wood, bouncing on my toes. My mate kissed the top of my head before opening the door, exposing Koda and her own alpha mates.
I watched her mouth open, staring at everything like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her scent was the first thing I noticed—distinctly beta, although drenched in alpha scents. I worked hard to not crinkle my nose at the idea of other alpha odors invading my home. She was taller than me, especially with her boots that had an inch of platform on them. Her hair was dyed, with less than an inch of her natural roots coming in, showing it was done fairly recently.
“Hannah, oh, it’s such a relief to see that you’re okay.” Koda immediately hugged me, squeezing me tightly.
“We’ve been talking on the phone,” I reminded her.
Pulling away, she waved a hand in the air. “That doesn’t count. I need to see you with my own eyes.”
“You going to introduce us, Koda bear?” one of her alphas asked.
I watched Koda blush. “Sorry, I forgot. Hannah, these are my mates, Jenson, Aidan, and Enzo.”
The males were handsome, in a commercially attractive way, but what really put me off were their scents. They lacked personality, smelling like the nest after my mates and I cleaned it, but before we’d rolled around in it.
“Hi. Do you have the stuff?” I asked Koda.
She turned to the blond male who handed her a brown paper bag. “Yep, all right here. Although Addy says we should lay some towels down.”
“I’ll get them for you,” Seb said.
I basically dragged Koda after my mate. We were going to be using the first-floor bathroom, mostly because it was the most unused in the house, but it helped that the guest bathroom was huge.
Zeke and Han followed after us, dragging along chairs we could use from the dining table. Seb came in with a bunch of towels, helping to lay them on the floor, and then over the chairs.
“That should be good enough,” Seb admitted.
“If anything truly gets stained, we’ll just replace it,” Han added.
It was Zeke who leaned close, kissing my cheek and whispering, “Have fun.”
As soon as the door shut, Koda started taking everything out of the bag. “I’ve been watching videos on how to cut hair. The dying part should actually be relatively easy.”
“Which do we do first?”
That question had her pause. “Dye? Maybe you’ll love the color and want to keep some length?”
I nodded. “Good plan.”
There wasn’t much more to set up, so I positioned myself in the chair, straddling it and holding onto the chair back. I wrapped a towel over my shoulders, letting my hair fall on top of it while Koda pulled the coloring stuff out of the box. First was hair bleach.
She squeezed some into a bowl and then started to apply it.
“Thanks for doing this,” I told her. “The place I apparently usually get my hair done wanted me to wait weeks to get in.”
She chuckled. “I know. You’re the one who recommended the place to me. It’s where I got this done. I didn’t even leave the place until I’d booked the next appointment.”
“Smart. They did a wonderful job. And the color is adorable. Most people dye their hair to a natural shade, but I love the big statement color.”
“I was already getting familiar with the stares. Now I just sort of pretend people only talk about me because of my hair.”
I tried to move my head, turning around to look at her, wondering what she was talking about, but she turned my head, so I was facing forward again. “I don’t want to mess it up.”
“It’s just bleach. I don’t think that’s possible.”
She hmphed and I took that as her disagreeing.