City of Blood

28

Ramsay is still grinning when they return, clearly having some kind of conversation with Skye while Blair watches the two with love and affection in his eyes. Skye sits at the bar, laying his head back against Ramsay's chest.

"Do you need help with anything?" the chirpy Omega asks, still unable to stop moving even while he's sitting.

"No, everything is prepped for dinner, I just need to cook it," Callum says, his arms twisting around my waist and his chin resting on my shoulder.

Ramsay raises an eyebrow. "Callum... you're cooking?"

"I've gotten better!" he insists. "Right, Lennox?"

"You have," I promise him, unable to keep from laughing at how offended he is regarding his cooking.

Even though he has gotten better, I think Callum tries to act like he wasn't as bad of a cook as he used to be. I'm not saying that I'm an amazing chef by any means, but when he last cooked steak, it was dry enough that it could rival beef jerky. He's great at seasoning food and making it taste good, but the actual cooking part is where he lacks a little bit.

"You'll get to see how much I've improved tonight," Callum grumbles. "Lennox, you're banned from the kitchen tonight."

I give him an uncertain look. "Are you sure? Ramsay doesn't even have to eat food so you don't have to prove shit to him!"

"I'm sure," Callum insists. "Do any of you want anything to drink? Soda, sparkling water, juice? I also have blood bags if you haven't eaten, Ramsay."

"I'm all good on blood, but what kind of juice do you have?" Ramsay asks. "Wait, don't tell me. I guarantee there's cranberry juice because Lennox is weird, and then also apple probably. I'll take apple juice."

I flip him off as I get out glasses and Callum grabs the apple juice from the fridge. Cranberry juice isn't weird to enjoy; it's delicious. I get a glass of Dr. Pepper for Blair and Skye opts for a mix of sparkling water and cranberry juice which grosses Ramsay out a bit. Ramsay doesn't really have room to complain; he drinks blood to survive so how can he criticize cranberry juice? More of the global population drinks cranberry juice than human blood.

The five of us relax in the living room, taking the opportunity to get to know each other. Callum and I share the loveseat while the other three sit on the couch, Blair in between his two mates. Blair makes a point to grab both of his mates' hands, and I see hesitance from Ramsay but he doesn't pull away.

"How did you two meet?" Blair asks Callum and I. "Ramsay said it was the same day you turned eighteen, which is pretty quick for werewolves since we usually have to wait a little bit before finding our mates."

I raise my eyebrows. "You didn't tell them?" I ask Ramsay.

"I figured Callum would enjoy it. I told them you two met at the club and that we snuck in."

Callum's already looking overenthusiastic about "our story" as he calls it. He eagerly tells them about how he was working as security for the club, how he found out we were underage and he found out we were mates and how I vomited all over the table and on him. He will never not enjoy telling that story.

It's not so much embarrassing as it is the fact that I know it'll never not be brought up when people ask how we met. By the end of his recount of how we met, Skye and Blair are both laughing and Ramsay is watching them both with a mix of admiration and humor in his eyes.

He's hesitant about his relationship, that much is obvious based on how he hesitates a bit regarding touch with his mates whereas Skye and Blair have no hesitation with their affection for each other. Ramsay wants to be more a part of them, but he's scared and I'm sure it's his own insecurities plus the added stress of everything that's happened to our family.