I asked him as I helped him pull a sheet over the couch.
His freckles seemed to darken at my question, which of course prompted me to ask, “What?”
He spent an extra-long time tucking the sheet under the seat cushions before straightening up and rubbing the back of his neck. “They meant that we smelled like we”-he snatched the coverlet from the coffee table and unfolded it-“like we’d had sex.”
“Oh.” I wrinkled my nose. “So… sweaty?”
A bark of laughter burst out of him.
I tossed the pillow I’d been stuffing in a pillowcase at him. He caught it and finished my half-ass job.
“What did I say now?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.
“What sort of strenuous sex have you been having?” He was still grinning.
I dragged my hand through my hair. “I, um… haven’t.”
“Never?” His grin settled into a faint smile.
I was certain I was beet-red.
He simply said, “Huh,” which was really worse than not saying anything at all. “I didn’t mean to make you feel embarrassed.”
“You didn’t. It’s just a really weird conversation to be having.” I straightened the coverlet he’d tossed over the couch. “On the upside, I don’t know what I’m missing.” I sat down, the T-shirt with the small Watt logo riding up. I tugged on the hem. “I know you said you got used to the mating link, but you know what you’re missing, so it must suck.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’ve had so much on my mind lately between Mom and the pack and work that I haven’t had much time to dwell on it.”
“Apparently men think about sex every seven seconds.”
He snorted. “Is that so?”
I leaned over and flicked his arm.
He shook his head, but his grin increased. “You’re really going to keep that up?”
“Until I leave.”
That zapped the smile right off his face. He sat down next to me, his weight dipping the couch. “You shouldn’t have to leave again. It’s not good for your body.”
“It wouldn’t be good for my mind to stick around. The day Liam’s no longer Alpha-”
“Could be decades from now.”
“-I’ll come back.” I stuck my hands between my knees and squeezed them.
“Ness… “”Let’s not talk about it anymore, okay? I’m really tired.”
Sighing, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, dragged me into his body, and kissed my temple. I closed my eyes, enjoying the proximity of him, the smell of him. Enjoying it too much.
Another reason I needed to leave…
I had feelings that weren’t sisterly at all toward August, and that would just make things weird between us in the coming months.
I ducked out from underneath his arm. “Mind if I turn off the lights?”
“Go right ahead.”
I got up from the couch and walked over to his front door. I touched the little panel and then returned to the couch. Moonlight filtered in through the open window, but even without moonlight, I could see well in the dark. Probably not as sharply as a real wolf, but more sharply than a human. This was how I saw the great lump sprawled on the couch.
“Take the bed, Ness.”
“But it’s your bed.”
“Didn’t we just have this conversation?”
“Fine.” I padded toward the ladder and climbed up to the mezzanine, then crawled over the giant bed and slipped underneath the thick comforter. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard the recording again.
And again. If you make it look like a hunting accident, you can blame the hunter.
I kept my eyes open until the darkness turned a bit brighter.
A bit greener.
A bit bluer.
And I was running.
Next to a big black wolf with smiling silver eyes. You think you can catch that squirrel, baby girl?
I darted after the fluffy rodent that spiraled up the trunk of a pine and snatched it right off the tree. Too easy, Dad.
Snap his neck quick. You don’t want it to suffer.
A second later, the squirrel stopped moving. We feasted on the squirrel, blood and gore dripping from our noses. Well, mostly from mine.
My father was watching on, eyes shining with pride. Suddenly, he whipped his head to the side, ears pricked up, and whirled around, muscles coiled to leap. Ness, run!
We didn’t have time to run.
A bullet whizzed through the inert air and buried itself into his pelt with a pop. He faltered and tumbled, and blood sprayed out of him, covering my face, mixing with the squirrel’s blood.
I whimpered and whimpered, my lament disseminating through the woods like torn dandelion florets.
Suddenly, a heavy weight pinned me to the supple ground, and I flailed, clawing my attacker, trying to get him off me, snarling.
“Ness, wake up! It’s just me.”
My lids flew open. August was straddling me, my wrists cuffed in his hands. A line of blood seeped out of a thin gash right beneath his eye.