“Welcome home!” Melanie said, wrapping me up in her arms and squeezing me so tight, I thought I might pass out.
Once she let me go, I said, “It’s nice to see you.”
“You, too,” she said as I hugged Raven and the others. Tony is always slightly standoffish but didn’t mind when I hugged him a little. Joshua gave me a tight hug, though not the bone crushing kind Mel had given me, and then we all walked inside, Brice insisting he’d get the luggage.
We took a quick tour of the new space, which I absolutely loved, and then sat down in the new super huge living room area. All of the furniture was new and so comfortable. I sank into one of the couches and almost fell asleep snuggled in the soft, gray fabric.
Of course, n
“The guy with the blond hair?” I echoed Melanie’s question, as If I didn’t know what she was talking about. Of course, I did. Well, sort of. I had it narrowed down to two suspects, anyway. It was either Liam Finch or Leo Finch she was somehow seeing in Ben’s head, maybe both. I still had no idea how she knew what it was Ben was thinking about and wanted to go off on a tangent and ask that question first, but I knew neither Melanie nor Raven were going to let it go that I knew who this blond guy was, and they still had no idea.“Yeah. He’s hot,” Melanie said without even looking around to make sure Joshua can’t hear her. “Did you meet him in Paris?”“Sort of,” I said, realizing she’s not going to buy my shenanigans if I tried to pretend that I don’t know who she’s ref
“Eavesdrop much?” I asked as Brice stepped into the room from the adjoining room, where the light was off, and it was impossible for me to see that he was there. I was a little surprised that neither of the wolf shifters I was speaking to had detected him. But then… they might not have realized he was within earshot, or perhaps they did know he was there and figured it didn’t matter if he overheard what we were talking about since they all seem to share each others’ thoughts and experiences anyway.“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” Brice said as he took a seat on another couch near the one I was sitting on. “You’re loud.”I rolled my eyes at him. I knew that wasn’t true. I had been doing my best to make sure that I kept my voice down so that no one would hear us unless they were really tryin
Once again, I found myself staring at Brice, dumbfounded. “What did you say?” I asked him, cocking my head to the side and looking into his eyes. I heard a cheer come up from the living room and hoped that meant that Ben wasn’t overhearing us, not that it seemed to matter with these mindlinked shifters.“Leo Finch. He’s the one you haven’t met yet, right?” Brice asked me, his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans.I nodded. “Yes. I met Liam, but not his brother. Why would I need to meet him? “ I asked. Brice was supposed to be Ben’s friend now. Why would he want me to meet someone who might be able to ruin the relationship I have with Ben? Wouldn’t it be better if I never met Leo at all?“Because then you can show Ben that he has nothing to w
The drive to my parents’ house was long and quiet. Ben and I weren’t upset at one another. It was just so early. I was tired, despite a full-night’s sleep, and it was easier for me to doze off than it was for me to think about talking to him about what Brice had told me.I knew that Ben was aware of the conversation Brice and I had had by the stairs. Not that I thought Brice had told him or that Ben had overheard. It was just clear to me by this point in time that something I said to one wolf shifter was going to be shared among all of them, at least the ones in my pack. And there wasn’t much I could do about any of it.When we arrived at my mom’s apartment, it was really hard to find a parking spot. Even though we’d gotten there early, a lot of people who lived in the complex must’ve been having guests who’d spen
“Honey! You’re here!” My mom gushed as she opened the door. Her arms were wide, and I stepped into them. “How are you?”“Good,” I said as I tried to breathe. She was squeezing me pretty hard. Once she let me go, I asked, “How are you?”“Wonderful!” she said. The scent of the food she was cooking wafted through the apartment. I had to pause a second to breathe it in. Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, sugared yams, and pumpkin pie were all notable in the one deep inhale I pulled in and savored.I would’ve stood there breathing it in longer, but there were more people to greet. I gave Max a hug and then noticed that Grayson wasn’t alone. She had a boy with her, a guy who looked to be slightly older than her with spiky dark hair wearing
“Hi there, Lance,” Max said, his tone precautious as he surveyed the angry man in front of him. I had followed Max to the door, but before it was fully open, I decided to try some magic I had never tried before. I wanted my appearance to look slightly different, but only to whoever was on the other side, which turned out to be a good choice on my part since the guy from the parking lot was standing there looking vicious. I did my best to make my hair look darker, a light brown, to this guy, and to look taller. I also wanted my sweater to change from purple to red, but again, only to his eyes.He wasn’t looking at me, not at first. When Max asked him what was going on, Lance--which was not the name I would’ve picked for a guy who looked like that--was gritting his death. “My boy here?” he asked, looking over Max’s head into the living room. “My damn truc
Lance did not come back to get his son before we left a couple of hours later. I was a little disappointed when I had to switch the sports car back into a truck a few miles outside of the city, when no other vehicles were around. We pulled over and got out, just in case. The last thing I needed was to accidentally attach myself to the vehicle or embed Ben into the engine or something.Once we were back in our proper ride, on our way to Whispering Hollow, Ben reached over and took my hand. “We got lucky back there, you know?”“Why because Lance is a jerk who got what he deserved?” I asked, rubbing my thumb over Ben’s knuckles.“Because he’s a big dude who could’ve tried to do some major damage.”I s
I wanted to go talk to Sam. Even though I was exhausted, my stomach was so full, I felt like I could throw up at any moment, and I had no idea what I might say to him when I found him, I wanted to track him down and get him to talk to me. It had been too long. He hadn’t been here when we returned from France like he was supposed to be. He was meant to greet us at the airport, and even though it had been nice to see Brice, it hadn’t been the same.Now, he was out in the woods somewhere, feeling depressed or angry about the situation with Starla, maybe both, and there was nothing I could do to help him.Or was there? I wouldn’t know until I got a chance to find him.I looked at Ben, an unasked question in my eyes as I studied his face. He gave me a single nod, and for once, I had an inkling as to wha