moved in with Keith he used to come into my room and check on me. I think he couldn’t quite believe that I existed. Or he was worried I had stopped breathing in my sleep. Or, maybe, I don’t know, maybe he was worried I would run away from him. I never asked him. He was always so quiet about it. I had learned from my time in those cages,” I swallowed. My eyes were moistened. It wasn’t easy talking about it even now. Tears threatened to fall, but did not.
“I had learned how to even out my breathing so it seemed like I was sleeping. Keith if he knew, never let on. But it was nice to know he cared enough to check on me through the night,” I whispered.
I told him in the hopes that he might be willing to share with me. It was beginning to seem like we had more in common than we realized. I wanted to know if he had experienced the same thing as me. Did he have the same loving relationship I had with Keith? Instincts told me he didn’t, but that was only conjecture. I was ready to start trying to get to know one another. To give each other a shot.
“Colette,” Hunter started, but someone called his name from inside.
He turned and looked at the people milling around inside, then back at me. I gave him a half shrug, and I hope a smile that conveyed I was fine. I wasn’t fine. I was anything but fine. But I wanted him to see my effort. I watched him as he walked away from me and inside to his pack.
Well this was going to be hard. Hopefully we would work through our awkward phase and start getting to know one another. Until then, I drifted through the crowd to the twins, and spent a good portion of the night with them. They were wonderful. Made me feel at ease. Hunter would appear once and a while and watch me from afar, but he seemed to be pulled away a lot. It surprised me because Enforcers for the most part in my pack were more social creatures. They didn’t have many connections in the pack because they were rarely home for too long. I wondered if Hunter was different because Damian had claimed him as his child. I wanted to ask more about that, but for now I would wait.
Chapter 14 — That’s Called Stereotyping
“He likes you. He’s just new at this wooing thing. Give him a shot.”
Jameson whispered when he caught me “staring” at Hunter. I wasn’t staring at him, per se. Just in that direction. I shifted my weight and scrunched my nose. I turned to Jameson to thank him, but he was already gone. He kept up his quiet flirting. It was a subtler approach than his twin. Billy was loud and adorable in his flirtations. It wasn’t necessarily my style, but I smiled and blushed for the she-wolves who were sure to fall for his boisterous character.
“Hello, gorgeous. You know you’re staring at him again,” Billy said. He was entirely too close, but he never touched me. He was a flirt. I knew it. He knew it. I didn’t mind it. But from the death glares Hunter sent our way, he did.
I pressed my lips together, holding in a laugh.
“You should stop teasing him. You’re just going to piss him off.”
“That’s a good thing. If he is pissed off, you know he likes you,” Billy said.
“You shouldn’t provoke him while he’s like this. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
As much as my warning was from him, his words had warmed me. These were Hunter’s comrades and if they believed he was interested then perhaps I should relax a little.
“Well maybe he will make a move. Otherwise all these males are going to get the idea in their heads that you are free game. You are very attractive darlin’. He is certainly stupid for letting you stand here all alone.” Billy said. He quickly moved to the thick of the group, finding a place among the she-wolves. Most of the women shunned me. Molly’s doing, of course. Her stinking smirking face confirmed it.
Outside there were mostly younger wolves in their own small groups speaking to each other. Hunter was near the back entrance. Not quite inside, not quite outside. I was with there with a couple of males, and a few she-wolves. They were a little standoffish but