Jesse and I quietly pack our rucksacks over the next half hour while Rafe pitches a fit with the Lieutenants, insisting that he be allowed to transfer to my team or me to his. Jesse grimaces at me, shaking his head to let me know that he doesn’t think that it’s going to work. I just sigh and roll
I blink in surprise and a little bit of wonder, my mouth falling open a bit. What the – what the hell is this? Luca, to his credit, responds much more ably, dropping his arm from my shoulder and putting his hands on his waist, grinning at the three other guys with the easy confidence of a man who
The five of us stand in a small clearing of forest in a semicircle around our Lieutenant who repeats the instructions we were given his morning. I look around as he talks, only half-listening because I already know what our job is. I’ve got a good memory, after all. I look up at the sky above the
I roll my eyes at him, exasperated. “I don’t know what your problem is with me, Wright, but it would be great if you could get over it until we’re through this. I’m not fucking with you – the bark can be used to make a container for the water. So – will you just go find it?” Alan stares at me for
Fortunately or unfortunately for me, my wolf has a lot of ideas about how I can take advantage of a night in the woods with Luca. And every single one of them is incredibly impractical and ridiculous. Just let down our hair and then he will know – and then he will grab us and press up against a tr
“What the hell are you going to do with that?” Luca asks, genuinely interested. “Fill it with rocks,” I murmur. “What?” Graham asks, baffled. But I don’t answer, asking Luca to hold the pocket steady and using another pair of sticks to lift the round rocks that have been heating in the embers, d
Luca and I chat the entire walk home. And though the walk takes us about five hours – the terrains rougher than a flat road, which slows us down – the time passes in what feels like a blink. The three ahead of us are relatively quiet, trudging along the miles and tripping on stones in the darkness
We step inside and I notice with surprise that our group is the only one that made it back this early. “Wow,” I murmur. “I mean, I thought we were slow, but…” “Maybe the other teams didn’t hate each other’s guts as much as ours did,” Luca says with a shrug, walking slowly for his bunk. I follow.