“Well… it happened, but it didn’t really mean much to her.” Harley sighed as he ran a nervous hand through his hair and bit onto his lower lip. “Besides, Ace is tall, he’s charming, he’s more handsome than me and by far the best competition Hope could have Right now, since I’m practically not stronger than he is.”
“Well, you are right on the attractive side.” Fox chuckled as he glanced over to Ace who was still talking to Hope and laughing about something she said. “Plus he’s great at listening. During training as I was inspecting, he learned pretty well pretty fast for an outsider.”
“Are you trying to imply I’m not a good listener?” Harley furrowed his brows towards Fox who chuckled out lowly and nodded his head in agreement.
“You’re only a good listener when it comes to Hope. You always wonder off when I’m talking to you sometimes.” Fox rolled his eyes as Harley frowned at him. “but it’s not her fault she finds him attractive and not you. You’re more of a best friend to her and she’s grown up thinking that. It’s your fault for taking too long to confess to her.”
“Thanks for pointing that out.” Harley rolled his eyes before walking towards the camping site where the catering team were busy frying and cooking their dinner.
Harley glanced up towards the darkened sky, watching as a few shooting stars sped by, almost disappearing the moment they appeared.
The area around them was illuminated by the campfire they contrasted just for light while separate campfires were made for the cooking team, which also made it a little more bright.
Hope and Ace moved from the van hand in hand as she blushed intensively while he whispered into her ear, forcing her to giggle out uncontrollably, grabbing a lot of people’s attention, including Harley who stared at them for a moment with the nagging feeling in his, knowing he could have been something more with her had he confessed earlier.
He clenched his jaw and turned from them glancing towards the forest instead.
Hope’s eyes lingered around until they landed on Harley who was standing by a tree, leaning onto it as he watched the cooks though his body was turned to them, so she knew he had seen them being so lovey-dovey with each other.
A frown made its way to her lips as she glanced down at their connected hands and glanced back at Harley, feeling a lingering guilt in her stomach.
Even though she was uncomfortable with the idea of her and Harley actually falling in love and changing into a romantic couple. The plain idea of acting like a romantic couple with him was hard to think about for her. Since she had seen him as a brother for too long. Yet she felt guilty everytime she spends most of her time with Ace who always wanted to spend time with her.
She eventually snatched her hand from Ace and laced her fingers together, glancing at the ground as the got a confused glance from Ace who glanced down at his empty hands.
“Something wrong?” he asked as he snaked his hand around her shoulder and planted a small kiss on her forehead.
“Um… no.” she shook her head and stepped from Ace, feeling too clogged up as she knew Harley was just too close for her to even be this close to Ace.
It wasn’t as though she had accepted to become Ace’s girlfriend, he just assumed they were and with the things they had done, she couldn’t deny it. She didn’t want to be considered as someone who would take advantage of people, especially men, otherwise she wouldn’t be a proper alpha.
“Is this because of Harley?” he asked as he frowned deeply, staring at her then to Harley who was now glancing to the ground from a distance. “when he’s not around, you’re more free and more flirty. Now that he’s around you’re hardly flirty and you want to avoid me.” He pointed out as he pointed with his eyes to Harley. “is it because you also have feelings for him?” he asked, getting her to finally look up at him in shock.
She shifted her gaze towards Harley who moved from his spot and walked towards the chefs.
“I can’t do this in front of him.” She whispered out shakily as she glanced towards the ground. “He started pretending he never confessed to me after I came from your place that day and he noticed we… did something. I heard him cry behind the door and I felt guilty about it. So I can’t… do this in front of him.” She whispered out as she bit her lower lip.
“but you love me… right?” he asked as he held onto her shoulders and squeezed her shoulders tightly.
“I do.” She smiled as she glanced into his worried eyes. He smiled and chuckled in relief as he nodded slowly.
Harley pressed his lips together as he failed to ignore the two talking behind him. Feeling the tightness in his chest increase as he clenched his fists.
“We found a lurker.” One of he security guards suddenly emerged from the forest, dragging something behind him as he walked towards Harley who shifted his gaze from the chefs to him.
Behind him followed the general, Fox who seemed rather annoyed at he intruder he was staring down at with arms folded to his chest.
“was about to steal one of our food storages.” The guard hissed as he forcedly threw the thief forward.
It was a woman.
She fell forward, landing on her side as the rough sandy path scratched her skin, causing some minor bruising.
Her bright golden hair fell onto her body like a blanket, covering her slightly exposed chest from the torn dress she had on with some small dirt patches here and there.
She flinched at the pain, alerting Harley in an instant when he discovered she was just a woman. He instantly rushed to her, holding onto her shoulders and helping her to her feet.
“You shouldn’t have been so rough!” Harley hissed towards Fox who shot him an annoyed glanced.
“she’s a their either way.” Fox rolled his eyes as Harley finally managed to get her to her feet.
He reached for her hair and parted it to her ears as he wanted to see if she really was okay.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he glanced down to her bruise bleeding knees. “get me a first aid kit.” He snapped his fingers to Fox who growled under his breath before leaving eventually. “it must hurt. You can sit of you feel a lot of pain.” He smiled at her, getting her brows to perk up in awe forcing her cheeks to suddenly warm up.