Chapter Forty

Holt's Ball Hurlers

Seb

"Surprise!"

Holt jumped out of his skin as he and Taylor entered the bowling alley. "Jesus—fuck."

As he clutched at his chest, trying to recover, Larkin peered frantically over to check out his outfit, using my arm to hoist himself higher and see over the wrestlers converging on the boss.

"Oh man, he actually looks good," he grumbled. "Somehow. That thing is burning my retinas."

I chuckled, sweeping my gaze over Holt's outfit. A lime-green, loose fit suit that looked intentionally oversized, with wide lapels and big pockets. His hot pink shirt underneath was slightly sheer, and his usual black eye make-up was artfully smudged.

"Yeah," I agreed. "He's making it work."

Holt still looked a little dazed as he turned toward his boyfriend and stared at him in shock. "You are so sneaky, babe. I did wonder why you really, really wanted to go bowling tonight."

"I hope it's okay that I organised this." Taylor looked anxious. "I just wanted to do something nice for your birthday."

Ignoring everyone around them, Holt cupped his face and drew him into a deep kiss. Until Gabe started wolf-whistling loudly, his custom bowling shirt completely unbuttoned to reveal his bare chest. Biff had at least made the effort to do up a couple of buttons—just one or two, though, so it was still pretty pointless.

Frank and Beans weren't paying any attention, too busy skidding down their lane to hit each other with the pins. They were wearing their own miniature versions of the bowling shirts, but Beans had already managed to rip the sleeve of his, while Frank's was missing two buttons.

Holt finally noticed that everyone was wearing custom bowling shirts and laughed when Dan spun around to proudly present the back, his head tucked under his arm. Val appeared from the bar and smacked Holt heartily on the back, jolting him forward, before pressing a cup of beer into his hand while Kit swooped down from above and managed to get the elastic of a party hat looped under Holt's jaw.

When he saw Taylor putting his own hat on with a sheepish grin, Holt's eyes flared with heat. He started leaning in to murmur something, but a strong feminine voice froze him in place.

"Holt, darling."

His family had been sitting together by the bar, but now his mom was gliding over with his older sister just behind. Both were tall and willowy like Holt, and dressed elegantly—his mom, Camille, was wearing a champagne silk shirt tucked into high-waisted black pants, her black hair cropped into a severe bob. Her skin was a paler shade of grey compared to Holt's. His sister, Amalie, was wearing a tan, wide-leg cami jumpsuit, her hair swept up into a chignon. Both had politely declined changing into their bowling shirts when Larkin and I offered them. Both had also politely declined actually bowling as well.

Fancy folk, as my mom would call them. They looked pretty out of place under the neon lights of the bowling alley, but they were relaxed and smiling.

"Mom." Holt looked surprised to see them, but not unhappy.

"We were so pleased when Taylor called." Camille's perfectly shaped eyebrow rose, signalling that Holt had perhaps not yet told his mother about his new human boyfriend. "You never celebrate your birthday, darling. Your father's sorry he couldn't be here. He's in Paris doing god knows what."

Holt didn't seem surprised or bothered that his dad wasn't here as he dutifully tilted his cheek for his mom's air kiss, then did the same when Amalie stepped forward.

He cleared his throat, wrapping an arm protectively around Taylor. "Well, uh… this is Taylor."

"I hope they're not dicks to Taylor," Larkin murmured to me, sipping his soda. I watched Camille step forward to kiss Taylor's cheek before I turned to Larkin and smiled down at him.

"Holt won't let them be."

He grinned back, darting up to kiss me. "I want to go and give him his bowling shirt." He snickered.

"We'll wait 'til the introductions are done."

"Yeah." Larkin glanced back and shuddered. "A whole frickin' family of empyns, dude. Not sure I want to spend too much time around them. His mom's kinda scary. She's like the villain version of my mom. Like she can see into your soul, but, like… in a way that makes you all nervous instead of calm."

I chuckled, sipping the last of my one beer for the evening. I was driving us back, plus I wanted to be completely clear-headed for later. Once we were at home.

My stomach tightened with a rush of arousal as I looked down at Larkin. He wanted me to fuck him tonight. He wanted to take my knot.

I was getting us out of here the moment it was socially acceptable to leave.

As if he knew where my mind had gone, he grinned slyly and wrapped an arm around my neck, tugging me down for another kiss.

"I can't wait for later," he murmured against my mouth, ignoring Carl and Dan, who walked past us and snickered at our PDA.

"Neither can I," I rasped.

Our conversation earlier, in the car, still felt a bit like a fever dream. Larkin had told me he loved me. Larkin loved me. After pining for him for so long, it didn't quite feel real yet.

I was still worried about being too forward and pushing him into something more serious than he wanted. I'd stopped myself from telling him that I'd already been in love with him long before our ‘arrangement' began. Maybe I would tell him one day, but… not yet. I didn't want to put that pressure on him, or freak him out, or make him feel any kind of guilt for not realising. It wouldn't achieve anything. I could show him how much I loved him.

"Lark!" Taylor called, making him turn around. "Do you have our shirts?"

I handed them to Larkin and we made our way over in time to hear Camille politely say to Holt, "So these are your… wrestlers."

"I can see why you went into this line of business," Amalie muttered, her lips tilting into a demure smile as she caught Crossbody's eye. He was lounging elegantly in some seating by the bar with Corey, both of them sipping tall, clear mixed drinks. Neither had put on their bowling shirts, which wasn't surprising in the least.

He slowly smirked back, eyeing her over the rim of his glass.

"No, Amalie," Holt said in a flat voice, then stared blankly at the shirt Larkin thrust at him. "What's this?"

"Your shirt, bro." As Holt parted his lips, eyeing it warily, Larkin quickly added, "Taylor had them all made especially. He's got one too."

He exhaled and smiled over at Taylor as he took the shirt. "Thanks, babe."

"You don't have to put it on," Taylor said wryly.

"Of course I'm going to put it on." Holt sniffed, holding it up. "It actually matches my suit."

"Which is dope, by the way," Larkin piped up. "You somehow look good in it, bro."

"Thank you, Larkin," Holt said with dry humour. "Well, I guess Taylor and I will go put our shirts on so we can start bowling. Mom, I can introduce you to everyone after if you want. Amalie, please don't hit on any of them."

"Holt, please don't tell me what to do," his sister replied easily, still eyeing up High Lord Crossbody. Then she caught sight of Ludo, who was standing with Kenneth and Brian and sipping a beer, and her eyes flared again.

Larkin must have noticed her interest in another werewolf, because he shuffled closer to me and slipped a possessive arm around my waist, even though he'd already introduced me as his boyfriend—as well as Holt's bodyguard—to Amalie and Camille earlier. I still loved the possessive display. It made me grin down at him and press a kiss to his temple.

"Well, we're gonna go bowl," he told them. "If you change your mind, you can get some shoes from Kelly at the counter."

Amalie chuckled as she glanced down at our bowling shoes. "Sweets, you couldn't pay me to put those on. I'm surprised Holt's willing to."

"Because Taylor organised this for him," Camille said impatiently, giving her daughter a brief frown. "And darling, Holt is right. You absolutely cannot abandon me to spend the evening flirting with the wrestlers."

Amalie sighed. "Alright, Mother dearest. Where's my drink?"

The pair of them walked back over to their seats after Camille gave us a polite smile. Threading his fingers through mine, Larkin led me over to one of the lanes that wasn't already occupied.

"They're kinda weird," he murmured to me. "Which makes sense. They're Holt's family."

As I chuckled, I noticed Susan and Asmo heading toward us, both holding custom bowling bags.

"Okay, boys," Asmo declared with a huge grin as he reached us. "Y'all ready to epically lose? Susie and I are in a league. We bowl every month. We both know how to handle balls, just sayin'."

"Just don't tell anyone we're wearing another team's shirts," Susan added with a grin, pointing at her name stitched on her Holt's Ball Hurlers shirt. "They'll never forgive us."

Larkin laughed, perching on the little stool in front of the lane screen's keyboard. "Noice. I've never bowled before today, but Seb was teaching me earlier. I still suck, but he's pretty good." He peeked over at me with a grin.

"Seb, my man." Asmo came over to clap me on the shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze. "Look, I'm decent, but Susie's game is always flawless. She'll wipe the floor with all of us."

I chuckled. "I'll do my best."

"Let me go get us all drinks before we start," Asmo said cheerfully, pecking Susan on the cheek as he passed her. "Larkin, bro, put me in as ‘ASS.' Obviously."

Larkin snickered, giving him a thumbs up. He'd already inputted me as SEB and himself as LAR. He quickly added SUE and ASS to the screen above, then stood and came over to wrap his arms around my waist and grin up at me.

As he leaned up to give me a firm kiss, I heard Susan sigh and say, "Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute."

Keeping the kiss brief to be polite, we pulled back and Larkin let go to turn and face her with a grin. "Sorry, Susan. No more PDA. Promise."

"Oh, it doesn't bother me." She waved a hand then unzipped her bowling bag, revealing a sparkling black ball. "I love love. So does Asmo. We're both total romantics."

"So you're in a bowling league, huh?" Larkin asked, watching as she expertly hefted her ball.

She grinned over at us, showing off her deadly sharp teeth. "Yep. Few years now. We actually met here, when we were both bowling with our separate groups of friends. Asmo was in the lane next to mine." Her eyes went dreamy. "He almost bowled a perfect game, and I couldn't take my eyes off him."

"Aww, that's cute." Larkin grinned up at me, nodding at the lane screen. "You're up first. Maybe if you bowl a perfect game, I'll come home with you later," he teased.

"I don't need more motivation than that." As I made my way over to the ball return to select a bowling ball, I saw Holt and Taylor walking toward us hand in hand, each holding a cup.

They were both wearing their bowling shirts, though Holt had put his suit jacket back on over the top of his and tucked it into his slacks to try and make it look somewhat chic.

"Hi, folks," Taylor said cheerfully as they stopped in the empty lane next to ours. "Having fun?"

"This was so sweet of you, Taylor." Susan beamed at him. "Holt never lets us celebrate his birthday."

Holt cringed slightly and took a deep gulp of his drink. Taylor looked a little worried, so Holt quickly flashed him a big smile and said, "Well, it's nice to do it for a change. And this is perfect. I haven't been bowling in years."

"Did you go as a kid?" Larkin asked curiously, glancing over at Holt's mother and sister. "Your family doesn't seem like the type to, uh, do stuff like this."

Holt snorted, setting down his drink. "We're not. It was country clubs when I was a kid, with Mom and Dad schmoozing at the bar while Amalie and I were sent to the pool or tennis lessons."

Larkin snorted and sardonically said, "Sounds terrible, dude."

"I never said it was terrible." Holt draped himself elegantly on a plastic chair. "Just boring. I didn't give a shit about tennis. But Amalie still plays."

"So you might be as bad as me at this." Larkin grinned at him as Holt huffed in amusement.

"Probably."

Asmo returned with a tray of drinks and said happy birthday to Holt, so I turned toward the lane. When I got a strike, Larkin blurted out an enthusiastic, "Fuck yeah!"

"Of course Seb is good at this," Holt drawled, sipping his drink.

I chuckled with a shrug. "Just got lucky."

"No way." Larkin shook his head, standing up to have his turn. He grinned at me as he approached. "You're, like, super competent at everything you do. It's ridiculously hot, honestly."

"I feel that," Asmo piped up, pointing at us with his cup as he lounged beside Susan. "Gets me all worked up watching Susie bowl. And wrestle. Baby, you're too good at everything."

Susan flushed with pleasure. "Thanks, sweetie."

"You ever wrestle, Seb?" Asmo asked cheerfully. "You've got the build for it, bro."

I smiled and shook my head. "Nah. Not my thing."

"You'll be wrestling with me later though," Larkin murmured with a salacious grin. He nudged me with his elbow. "Get it? I mean when we fuck. When you take me to pound town."

I chuckled, smoothing a hand over his hair. "I got it."

He was ridiculous sometimes. I loved it. I loved him.