The receptionist—a petite woman with electric blue hair and every piercing imaginable looked up with a smile. “Hi there, welcome to Nautilus. How can I—” She faltered halfway through her sentence, eyes going wide as she realized who Eva was. “Oh, shit.”

Eva laughed. “They know we’re coming.”

Bennett looked up then, and it was like our gazes had snap-to-grid turned on the way they locked in place. He grinned, pulled off his glove, and turned without hesitation to reach behind him where a box of six huge cupcakes sat. Vanilla cake, swirled white frosting, just like I’d imagined him to be at the party. He picked one up and bit into it, never looking away.

“Holy shit,” Eva said, like she was inside my mind.

“What do I do?” I asked, breathless.

“Go talk to him, obviously.”

Handing her my sunglasses, I took a breath.

I was incredibly aware of myself as I walked, and the fact that Bennett was looking at me. Not only Bennett. Avery watched me, too. And Luke, who was sitting in a chair in the corner I hadn’t noticed before. I stopped just before I bumped into him—hopefully I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

This close, his warm vanilla cake and frosting scent wafted around me and holy god, it was just as good as the other night. “Hi.”

He smiled and licked what remained of the frosting from his fingers. “Want a cupcake?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. My mind was still a wasteland of blankness and anxiety. All I knew was that I was here, and they were all here, and I didn’t know what to do now. We never got this far, usually. The packs and I. They would have figured out the truth by now and I would have sent them on their way or they would have rescinded their application.

Bennett tugged on a new glove and leaned forward. “I’m glad you came. I have to finish this, and it won’t take long. Would you be okay waiting in our office while Avery and I finish so we can all talk to you?”

It wasn’t a dismissal. Nothing about the way he was looking at me was anything less than focused. But there was still a man lying face down on the tattoo bench, and I didn’t think he would be pleased if his session was interrupted because I showed up.

“Okay.”

“Rylan,” Bennett called.

A blonde head popped out from one of the doors, and I recognized him too. Boyishly handsome face with a smile that would knock the lights out of photographer’s cameras.

“Can you take Esme to the office?” Bennett picked up the tattoo machine with one hand, and with the other, he touched me lightly on the arm. “Don’t go anywhere.”