Free Two Minutes (Seven Series Book 6) by Dannika Dark

began tossing the balls up in the air and catching them in his mouth.
    Jericho wandered in and lit up a cigarette. He sat on the barstool and twirled the silver lighter in a circle, watching Denver with a bored stare. “What’s wrong?”
    “What makes you think something’s wrong?”
    Another crunchy cheese ball bounced off Denver’s nose and rolled beneath the pool table.
    “Because you suck at catching those when you’re pissed off. Something on your mind?” Jericho tucked the bear-claw necklace beneath his shirt and threaded his long hair away from his eyes, cigarette dangling from his mouth. Jericho always looked as if he was going to a gig because of his ripped jeans and tattered shirts. But without his signature leather cuffs, collar, chains, or eyeliner, it was just a regular day.
    Denver licked the orange cheese dust off his fingers, his eyes transfixed on the ceiling. “What do you think of Maizy coming back home to stay?”
    Jericho exhaled a long drag, and a concentrated cloud of smoke trailed to the ceiling.  “I know where you’re going with this. Yeah, I dig. If she were a Shifter, she’d be leaving the pack after her first change. That’s the custom. Only in this case, Maizy doesn’t have to do all that.”
    “Why not?” Denver crunched on a cheese ball and used his teeth to scrape the dusty cheese off his thumb.
    “That rule was put in place a long time ago by the Councils to prevent fighting within the pack. Ideally they want young pups to move directly to another pack, but we all know that most of us like to take a few years off to figure out who we are before settling down. It’s better that way anyhow. They didn’t want Shifters staying in the pack they grew up in because… let’s just say a young girl caught more than one guy’s eye; that kind of competition and jealousy could tear the house apart.”
    “So what makes Maizy so different?”
    “She doesn’t pose a threat because she can’t have kids with one of us, and no one here is going to mate with her anyhow. I mean, she’s a knockout and all, but half of us are mated, Trevor’s gay… I don’t know about William. He’s more of a father figure to her, but they seem to get along.”
    Denver shot him a nasty glare.
    Jericho chuckled. “What? I’m just stating the obvious.”
    Just the suggestion of William pursuing Maizy left Denver unsettled. Suddenly every guy was becoming a threat; maybe it was just that territorial wolf inside him still trying to act as her watchdog.
    Every muscle in Denver’s body locked when Maizy suddenly entered the room. She dragged her feet across the floor, eyes half-closed, her blond hair messy and sexy as hell. He loved the way it didn’t fall straight but had this natural wave to it. Maizy used to have a dark tan, but it didn’t look as if the sun spent much time in England. When she walked past him wearing only a T-shirt, he couldn’t take his eyes off her milky-white legs.
    “Sorry, I didn’t want to go downstairs,” she murmured, going behind the bar and reaching into the fridge. After pulling out a chilled bottle of water, she sucked it down and then pressed the bottle against her neck. A droplet of water hung on her lower lip, but her eyes were closed and she was already heading out of the room again.
    Denver set the bag of snacks to the side, his eyes glazed over, still focused on the hall.
    “Ah, shit. You dirty dog,” Jericho said.
    “What?”
    “You like her.”
    Denver smeared his finger across his sweats and left an orange stain. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Going camping?” Jericho pointed at Denver’s sweats. “’Cause it looks like you pitched a tent.”
    Denver looked down, a full-blown erection pressing against his sweats. A flush of heat stung his cheeks and he cursed under his breath.
    Jericho patted out the butt of his smoke and laughed. “Don’t worry, dickhead. Your secret’s safe with me.”
    Denver hurled the bag at him and it